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Filters: Tags: sagebrush steppe (X) > partyWithName: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase (X)

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Proliferation of cheatgrass and other exotic annual grasses such as medusahead and ventenata are a major environmental concern and operational problem for roadsides in Idaho. These annual grasses are highly flammable and they shorten fire-return intervals. Flammable vegetation is particularly hazardous in roadsides because of proximity to a ready source of ignition, and fires that start on roadsides can spread into adjacent public lands and urban communities with sprawling home development, causing extensive and expensive damage and degradation to wildlife habitat, rangelands, private or public property, utilities, etc. Thus, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has a strong interest in preventing roadside...
Data includes head smut infection level (caused by the fungal pathogen, Ustilago bullata) on cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and cheatgrass cover for plots measured annually during the first four years after the 2015 Soda wildfire. Additional landscape and weather covariates that are hypothesized to influence infection and host density are included.
Invasive-plant treatments often target a single or few species, but many landscapes are diversely invaded. Exotic annual grasses (EAGs) increase wildfires and degrade native perennial plant communities in cold-desert rangelands, and herbicides are thus sprayed to inhibit EAG germination and establishment. We asked how EAG-target and nontarget species responded to an herbicide mixture sprayed over a large, topographically diverse landscape after wildfire. We focused on how whole-community and natural EAG-pathogen treatment responses varied over years and physical properties of sites. We monitored plant cover and diversity in 41 pairs of plots located inside or outside areas (486 ha total) treated with a combined...
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Data includes cover and presence (within microsites and 13 m radius plots) of three exotic annual grass, Bromus tectorum, Taeniatherum caput-medusae, and Ventenata dubia and presence (within microsites) of four perennial bunchgrass species (Agropyron cristatum, Pseudoroegneria spicata, Poa secunda, Elymus elymoides) within the first five years after the 2015 Soda wildfire. Additional landscape and weather covariates hypothesized to influence landscape resistance to invasion are included.
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Selective herbicide application is a common restoration strategy to control exotic invaders that interfere with native plant recovery after wildfire. Whether spraying with preemergent or bioherbicides releases native plants from competition with exotics (“spray-and-release” strategy) and can make communities resistant to re-invasion by exotic annual grasses (e.g., cheatgrass, medusahead), without risks to non-target native plants or secondary invasion, is a major question for land managers of semiarid plant communities. We applied chemical herbicides (imazapic, rimsulfuron) and weed-suppressive bacteria (Pseudomonas fluorescens strains MB906 and D7) to three different sagebrush-steppe communities after fire. We...
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These rasters represent plant cover during each of the first five growing seasons after fire in the area burned in the 2015 Soda wildfire. Specifically included cover layers are annual herbaceous, perennial herbaceous, shrub, exotic annual grass, and bareground. Training data for each year was collected via grid-point intercept monitoring between April and August. Empirical Bayesian Kriging Regression (EBK regression) was then used to interpolate field training data and create continuous maps of cover. Accuracy for rasters was assessed via independent test data sets collected on the same landscape.
Top-down and bottom-up factors affecting invasive populations are rarely considered simultaneously, yet their interactive responses to disturbances and management interventions can be essential to understanding invasion patterns. We evaluated post-fire responses of the exotic perennial forb Chondrilla juncea (rush skeletonweed) and its biocontrol agents to landscape factors and a post-fire combined herbicide (imazapic) and bacteria (Pseudomonas fluorescens strain MB906) treatment that targeted invasive annual grasses in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Biocontrol agents released against C. juncea in previous decades included Cystiphora schmidti (gall midge), Aceria chondrillae (gall mite), and Puccinia chondrillina...
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The project was conducted to study the effects of land management options. It was conducted across a regional network of sites in sagebrush communities. Using this regional network of sites allowed us to understand the thresholds between healthy and unhealthy sagebrush communities over a broad range of conditions across the Great Basin. Sites were located in sagebrush communities threatened by cheatgrass invasion, and we studied the effects of four land management options: control (no management action), prescribed fire, mechanical thinning of sagebrush by mowing, and herbicide application (to thin old, unproductive sagebrush plants and encourage growth of young sagebrush and native understory grasses). An additional...


    map background search result map search result map Pre- and Post-Treatment Fuels and Vegetation Data from the Great Basin, 2006-2018 (ver. 2.0, September 2020) Post-fire Chondrilla juncea and biocontrol at Boise River Wildlife Management Area 2018-2019 Head smut infections on cheatgrass cover in the first four years after the 2015 Soda Wildfire Post-fire vegetation cover, plant species diversity, and Ustilago bullata infection rates at Boise River Wildlife Management Area 2018-2019 Presence and cover of exotic annual and perennial grass species during five years post-fire on the Soda Wildfire Pre and post treatment (2016-2021) vegetation cover for three southwest Idaho sites treated with pre-emergent herbicides after fire Modelled functional group vegetation cover from 2016 to 2020 on the Soda Wildfire Plant cover and density and sagebrush growth in Idaho roadsides treated with herbicides and bioherbicides Post-fire Chondrilla juncea and biocontrol at Boise River Wildlife Management Area 2018-2019 Post-fire vegetation cover, plant species diversity, and Ustilago bullata infection rates at Boise River Wildlife Management Area 2018-2019 Head smut infections on cheatgrass cover in the first four years after the 2015 Soda Wildfire Presence and cover of exotic annual and perennial grass species during five years post-fire on the Soda Wildfire Modelled functional group vegetation cover from 2016 to 2020 on the Soda Wildfire Plant cover and density and sagebrush growth in Idaho roadsides treated with herbicides and bioherbicides Pre and post treatment (2016-2021) vegetation cover for three southwest Idaho sites treated with pre-emergent herbicides after fire Pre- and Post-Treatment Fuels and Vegetation Data from the Great Basin, 2006-2018 (ver. 2.0, September 2020)