کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
4393090 1618261 2013 8 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Seedbank responses to spring and fall prescribed fire in mountain big sagebrush ecosystems of differing ecological condition at Lava Beds National Monument, California
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه علوم زمین و سیارات فرآیندهای سطح زمین
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Seedbank responses to spring and fall prescribed fire in mountain big sagebrush ecosystems of differing ecological condition at Lava Beds National Monument, California
چکیده انگلیسی


• Fire regimes in sagebrush ecosystems have been greatly altered.
• We quantified seedbank germination response to spring and fall prescribed fire.
• Fewer exotics germinated immediately following fire, but increased one year later.
• Seedbanks were largely populated with annual species from respective sites.

Land use change in the American West has altered sagebrush dominated ecosystems, facilitating exotic grass invasion, increased woody species, altered fire regimes, and native species losses. Restoring fire regimes may be integral to the restoration of sagebrush ecosystems. However, little is known about how the timing of prescribed fire differentially impacts the soil seedbank. Further, sites of different ecological condition may variably respond to fire. To address these uncertainties, we quantified germination of invasive cheatgrass and plant functional groups (native dicots, exotic dicots, native bunchgrasses, and native shrubs) following spring and fall prescribed burns in three mountain big sagebrush communities at Lava Beds National Monument, California. At cheatgrass and native-dominated sites, there were fewer cheatgrass seedlings (91% and 86%, respectively) immediately following spring fire than in unburned controls, but this reduction did not persist one year later. Fall burns did not significantly impact cheatgrass or exotic dicot germination. At a native dominated site, native dicots increased one year following spring (1620%) and fall burns (67%), suggesting adaptation to a natural fire regime. This research shows that the prefire condition of an ecosystem greatly influences the postfire germination response, and that fire-adapted ecosystems can benefit from the natural disturbance regime.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Journal of Arid Environments - Volume 96, September 2013, Pages 1–8
نویسندگان
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