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Grass-Shrub Spatial Associations Over Precipitation And Grazing Gradients In The Great Basin, Usa, Maike F. Holthuijzen
Grass-Shrub Spatial Associations Over Precipitation And Grazing Gradients In The Great Basin, Usa, Maike F. Holthuijzen
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
As environmental stress increases, positive plant interactions dominate, resulting in clumped, plant-plant spatial patterns. Positive plant-plant interactions have received more attention in recent years due to their importance to the structure and function of arid ecosystems. Certain plants (nurses), provide benefits that help neighboring plants grow or survive.
I investigated spatial associations between Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis) and three native grasses (Poa secunda, Elymus elymoides, and Pseudoroegnaria spicata) across a rainfall gradient in the Great Basin, USA. We also explored the effect of grazing on grass-shrub spatial patterns. I hypothesized that positive …