Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Monitoring Temporal Change In Riparian Vegetation Of Great Basin National Park, E. A. Beever, D. A. Pyke, J. C. Chambers, F. Landau, S. D. Smith, K. Murray

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Disturbance in riparian areas of semiarid ecosystems involves complex interactions of pulsed hydrologic flows, herbivory, fire, climatic effects, and anthropogenic influences. We resampled riparian vegetation within ten 10-m × 100-m plots that were initially sampled in 1992 in 4 watersheds of the Snake Range, east central Nevada. Our finding of significantly lower coverage of grasses, forbs, and shrubs within plots in 2001 compared with 1992 was not consistent with the management decision to remove livestock grazing from the watersheds in 1999. Change over time in cover of life-forms or bare ground was not predicted by scat counts within plots in …