A 20-year set of cover data on sagebrush semi-desert plant communities responding to wildfire and livestock grazing near Mills in central Utah provided an opportunity to compare the assumptions and adaptability of classical and state-and-transition models for describing secondary succession. Cover data were organized and analyzed by plant species, growth forms, and other ground cover classes. Graphical analysis, ordination (employing semi-strong hybrid multi-dimensional scaling), regression, and analysis-of-variance were used to determine whether the patterns observed were best described as community change (tightly linked species) or individualistic change (each species acting independently). Distinct differences in total plant cover, [...]
