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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 …


Fifteen Years Of Plant Community Dynamics During A Northwest Ohio Oak Savanna Restoration, Scott R. Abella, John F. Jaeger, Lawrence G. Brewer Jan 2004

Fifteen Years Of Plant Community Dynamics During A Northwest Ohio Oak Savanna Restoration, Scott R. Abella, John F. Jaeger, Lawrence G. Brewer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Midwest oak savanna communities are noted for their unusual plant assemblages, but these communities have been reduced by more than 98% because of changing land uses and conversion to closed-canopy forests. We initiated an ongoing 15-year experiment in 1988 to restore a 40-ha black oak (Quercus velutina) savanna by applying burn treatments that historically maintained this vegetation type. Groundlayer composition changed significantly for both the burn treatment and the control, with the burn treatment exhibiting slight increases in herbs such as wild lupine (Lupinus perennis) and hairy puccoon (Lithospermum caroliniense), both of which are species requiring greater insolation. Burn treatments …


Tree Thinning And Prescribed Burning Effects On Ground Flora In Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forests: A Review, Scott R. Abella Jan 2004

Tree Thinning And Prescribed Burning Effects On Ground Flora In Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forests: A Review, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Ground flora is an important response variable to monitor after tree thinning and prescribed burning treatments designed to restore Arizona ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa P.& C. Lawson) forests. This paper reviews published literature on the effects of thinning and burning on ground flora in Arizona ponderosa pine forests in five main categories of research: ground flora biomass, species diversity, plant community composition, population processes, and individual species ecology. Research published to date suggests that thinning and burning generally increase ground flora biomass, whereas other categories of research such as community composition and population processes have been little studied in Arizona …