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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A Desert In Disguise: The Resilience Of The Nebraska Sandhills, Jeff Hartman
A Desert In Disguise: The Resilience Of The Nebraska Sandhills, Jeff Hartman
School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The Nebraska Sandhills are the largest sand dune system in the Western Hemisphere, and are unique because they remain relatively undisturbed from row crop agriculture. Research in the past two decades demonstrated that the Sandhills are dynamic on millennial timescales, switching between stabilized, vegetated states to non-vegetated, mobilized states. The Sandhills are currently stabilized, but understanding how ecological processes are altered as sand dunes transition from stabilized to mobilized states, provides insight into the thresholds, stability, and resilience of this grassland ecosystem. My research investigated the impacts of vegetation disturbances on ecological processes and the sand dune surface stability. For …
Grazing Intensity Effects On Northern Plains Mixed-Grass Prairie, Wendi M. Rogers, Donald R. Kirby, Paul E. Nyren, Bob D. Patton, Edward S. Dekeyser
Grazing Intensity Effects On Northern Plains Mixed-Grass Prairie, Wendi M. Rogers, Donald R. Kirby, Paul E. Nyren, Bob D. Patton, Edward S. Dekeyser
The Prairie Naturalist
We evaluated the effects of long-term (1988 to 2000) grazing on northern mixed-grass prairie at tI.e Central Grasslands Research Extension Center in south-central North Dakota. We did not detect a difference in herbaceous basal cover between grazing intensities following 12 consecutive years of season-long moderate (50% removal of annual above-ground standing crop) and heavy (80% removal of annual above-ground standing crop) grazing. However, both moderate and heavy grazing intensities reduced above-ground herbaceous standing crop, total root biomass, and soil organic carbon. Moderate grazing intensity maintained a greater amount of deep (10 to 20 cm) and total root biomass relative to …