Weed Science Commons^™

Relationships Of Exotic Plant Invasions With Biological Soil Crust, Desert Pavement, And Soil Carbon In The Eastern Mojave Desert, Adria Decorte

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In a matter of 50 years, exotic annual plants have become widespread in the Mojave Desert, contributing to drastic landscape changes such as those caused by recent fires. Invasions by exotics threaten native Mojave Desert plant communities by altering community functions (e.g. fire regimes) and by reducing plant diversity. Because it is not practical, or even possible, to eradicate these exotics, developing effective prevention techniques is the key to controlling these invasions.

This thesis used a greenhouse experiment, a field experiment, and a correlational field study to examine the affect soil surface types have on the establishment of three exotic …

Research Poster: Physiological Responses Of Two Invasive Annual Grasses, Cheatgrass And Red Brome, In The Great Basin, L. Hernandez, R. Nowak, L. Salto

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Trying To Beat The Brome: Understanding Establishment Thresholds And Choosing Competitive Native Species At Parashant National Monument, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Desert fires fueled by exotic grasses like the omnipresent red brome (Bromus rubens) can be intense and cause widespread mortality of native vegetation. Native desert scrub communities such as those dominated by blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) do not readily reestablish after fire (Abella 2009) and may even become more abundant in the post-burn landscape initiating a fire cycle that occurs at a greater frequency than the recovery time of the long-lived desert perennial community.

Native Species Interactions With Red Brome: Suggestions For Burn-Area Revegetation, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

In deserts, native perennial plants often actually facilitate the establishment of exotic annual grasses. One of our focal areas of research is to identify native species for use in revegetation projects that reduce the establishment of exotic annual grasses, or at least do not strongly facilitate exotic species establishment. An initial research effort involving a competition experiment of red brome with native species and a correlational field study of brome distribution among native perennial plants is in press with the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management.