Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Early Post-Fire Plant Establishment On A Mojave Desert Burn, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel, Christina L. Lund, Jessica E. Spencer Jan 2009

Early Post-Fire Plant Establishment On A Mojave Desert Burn, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel, Christina L. Lund, Jessica E. Spencer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Fire has become more extensive in recent decades in southwestern United States arid lands. Burned areas pose management challenges and opportunities, and increasing our understanding of post-fire plant colonization may assist management decision-making. We examined plant communities, soils, and soil seed banks two years after the 2005 Loop Fire, located in a creosote-blackbrush community in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in southern Nevada’s Mojave Desert. Based on a spring sampling of 20, 0.01-ha plots, live + dead cover of the exotic annual Bromus rubens averaged nine times lower on the burn than on a paired unburned area. Perennial species …


Progress In Strategic Research Areas, Scott R. Abella Jan 2009

Progress In Strategic Research Areas, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Three years ago through conversations with resource managers, assessing the status of knowledge of the scientific literature, and our own interests, we set forth several strategic research areas that we believed would be timely for advancing Mojave Desert conservation and management.


Plant Community Response To Fire: A Chronosequence Study, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel Apr 2008

Plant Community Response To Fire: A Chronosequence Study, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Fires are becoming more prevalent events across the landscape in the southwestern US. Over the next several decades the already arid southwest is predicted to become warmer and drier, with longer summers, and an increase of “extreme” weather events such as lightening inducing thunderstorms. While the “hotter and drier” forecast may indicate less abundant plant life, and thus less available biomass for fuel, exotic invasive plant species are becoming more dominant across the landscape with increases in human travel and commerce. Exotic species (particularly many of the invasive grasses) are adding fuel for the fires to burn when the annuals …


Vegetation Analysis: A Graphical Analysis Of Plant Succession In Desert Communities Affected By Fire, Jeff Lantow Oct 1998

Vegetation Analysis: A Graphical Analysis Of Plant Succession In Desert Communities Affected By Fire, Jeff Lantow

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Mojave Desert is affected by fire every year. With each fire comes the removal of old growth and, in its place, new growth – consisting primarily of those species which thrive in disturbed areas. The focus of my research is to look at plant communities that have been disturbed by fire, and examine the successional pathway of these disturbed environments. The seven environments I analyzed were burned within the last twenty years and are found in the Coleogyne ramosissima ecotone throughout the Spring Mountain range near Las Vegas, Nevada. The data was collected with randomly chosen circle plots in …