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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Quantifying Legacy Effects Of Managed Disturbance On Sagebrush Steppe Resilience And Diversity, Julie Ripplinger
Quantifying Legacy Effects Of Managed Disturbance On Sagebrush Steppe Resilience And Diversity, Julie Ripplinger
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Land-use legacies can affect landscapes for decades to millennia. A long history of shrub management exists in the sagebrush steppe of the Intermountain West where shrub-removal treatments, a type of managed disturbance, have been implemented for over 50 years to reduce sagebrush cover. The assumption behind managed disturbances is that they will increase forage for domestic livestock and improve wildlife habitat. However, the long-term effects of managed disturbance on plant community composition and diversity are not well understood. We investigated the legacy effects of three common types of managed disturbance (chemical, fire, and mechanical treatments) on plant community diversity and …
Drivers Of Plant Population Dynamics In Three Arid To Subhumid Ecosystems, Luke J. Zachmann
Drivers Of Plant Population Dynamics In Three Arid To Subhumid Ecosystems, Luke J. Zachmann
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Understanding the relative importance of density-dependent and density-independent factors in driving population dynamics is one of the oldest challenges in ecology, and may play a critical role in predicting the effects of climate change on populations. We used long-term observational data to describe patterns in plant population regulation for 57 forb and grass species from three different ecosystems (arid desert grassland, semiarid sagebrush steppe, and subhumid mixed-grass prairie). Using a hierarchical partitioning approach, we (i) quantified the relative influence of conspecific density, heterospecific composition, and climate on temporal variation in population growth rates, and (ii) asked how the relative importance …