Seeding is a vital tool to facilitate recovery of degraded ecosystems, but low seedling recruitment rates limit the utility of this practice in a range of ecosystems across the globe. Plant functional traits impact individual fitness through effects on growth, reproduction and survival. Consequently, seed and seedling trait variation among...
Successful ecosystem restoration requires an understanding of the ecological processes directing succession. One of the challenges in the semi-arid grasslands of western United States is replacement of native species by invasive annual grasses. Solutions to this problem require identifying and manipulating ecological processes that direct succession to favor desired vegetation....
Biological plant invasions are diminishing the ecological integrity and function of ecosystems worldwide. A primary example of this is in the Great Basin of the United States, where invasive annual grasses, like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae L. Nevski), are dominating many sagebrush-steppe ecosystems. In these invaded...
Little is known about how cultivation legacies affect the outcome of rehabilitation seedings in the Great Basin, even though both
frequently co-occur on the same lands. Similarly, there is little known about how these legacies affect native species re-establishment
into these seedings. We examined these legacy effects by comparing areas...
Because invasive annual grasses can strongly influence soil resource availability and disturbance regimes to favor their own
persistence, there is a great need to understand the interrelationships among invasive plant abundance, resource availability, and
desirable species prominence. These interrelationships were studied in two salt desert sites where the local abundance...
Throughout the western United States, the invasive annual grass, medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae L. Nevski), is rapidly invading grasslands once dominated by native perennial grasses, such as bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) A). It is also invading grasslands dominated by less undesirable invasive annual grasses, especially cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.). Understanding...
Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.) is a member of the knapweed
(Centaurea L.) complex. It is poor forage for all livestock and causes
“chewing disease,” a nervous disorder, in horses. Yellow starthistle infests
millions of acres in California and the Pacific Northwest. Infestations range
from scattered plants to dense stands...
Producers facing infestations of invasive annual grasses regularly voice the need for practical revegetation strategies that can be applied across broad landscapes. Our objective was to determine the potential for scaling up the single-entry approach for revegetating medusahead-infested rangeland to broader, more heterogeneous landscape-scale revegetation of winter annual grass–infested rangeland....
Advancing our ability to use invasive plants for producing commodities is central to the agricultural industry. Our objective was
to evaluate Russian knapweed (Acroptilon repens [L.] DC.) as a winter feed supplement for ruminant livestock. In Experiment
1, we utilized three ruminally cannulated steers in a completely randomized design to...
Plant invasion and restoration outcomes
are largely driven by the timing and magnitude of seed
dispersal, and by the performance of dispersed species
in an environment. Because seed dispersal controls
recruitment of newly arriving species and facilitates
safe site occupation, assembly will differ depending
on seed dispersal processes and variable...
Full Text:
on seedlings during
invasion and restoration of shrub-steppe
Schantz, M. C., Sheley, R. L., & James