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Susan McIlroy

The loss of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) on sites disturbed by fire has motivated restoration seeding and planting efforts. However, the resulting sagebrush establishment is often lower than desired, especially in dry areas. Sagebrush establishment may be increased by addressing factors such as seed source and condition or management of the plant community. We assessed initial establishment of seeded sagebrush and four populations of small outplants (from different geographies, climates, and cytotypes) and small sagebrush outplants in an early seral community where mowing, herbicide, and seeding of other native plants had been experimentally applied. No emergence of seeded sagebrush was detected. Mowing...
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The dataset includes several measurements collected for two complementary phases of a Sandberg bluegrass restoration project. In the first phase of the project, percentage of vegetation and soil surface cover (e.g. soil, rock) were measured within each of 20 treatment plots (described in the following section) using the Line Point Intercept (LPI) method (Herrick et al. 2005) from 2019-2021. Sandberg bluegrass density was also measured by counting individual plants within 0.5 x 0.5 meter quadrats systematically placed along the transects. Herbaceous biomass was destructively harvested within 0.5 x 0.5 m quadrats that were also systematically placed (at different meter marks than density quadrats) along the transects....
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The Fuels Guide and Database for Big Sagebrush Ecological Sites was developed as part of the Joint Fire Sciences Program project "Quantifying and predicting fuels and the effects of reduction treatments along successional and invasion gradients in sagebrush habitats" (Shinneman and others, 2015). The research was carried out by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center and Boise State University researchers, in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Idaho Army National Guard. Most of the research for the project focused on the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (hereafter the NCA) in southern Idaho. Sagebrush shrublands in...
Abstract (from ScienceDirect): Altered climate and changing fire regimes are synergistically impacting forest communities globally, resulting in deviations from historical norms and creation of novel successional dynamics. These changes are particularly important when considering the stability of a keystone species such as quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), which contributes critical ecosystem services across its broad North American range. As a relatively drought intolerant species, projected changes of altered precipitation timing, amount, and type (e.g. snow or rain) may influence aspen response to fire, especially in moisture-limited and winter precipitation-dominated portions of its range. Aspen is...
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The dataset includes several variables sampled across burned and unburned sagebrush communities located in a ~30 square kilometer portion of the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion in eastern Washington, USA. The study area is characterized by landforms interspersed at fine-scales, representative of the channeled scabland topography of the region (Baker 2009), including: “mounds,” which are dome-like micro-topographic features, typically 1-2 m in height and ~2 m to 25 m in mean diameter, with relatively deep, well-drained loess soils; and surrounding “flats,” with rocky, thin-soils over basaltic bedrock. Unburned mounds are typically dominated by big sagebrush (A. tridentata) and flats by scabland sagebrush (A. rigida) communities....
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