USGS Rangeland Exotic Plant Monitoring System

The introduction of exotic plant species into the western United States has caused substantial changes to rangeland disturbance regimes and ecosystem structure and function. For example, exotic annual grass (EAG) invasion in western rangelands has increased wildfire frequency, which greatly reduces rangeland ecosystem diversity and leads to single-species dominance in many areas. Rangeland monocultures do not provide optimal carbon sequestration and other environmental processes necessary to sustain historically normal ecosystem structure, including the ecological diversity needed to support sagebrush obligates like Greater Sagegrouse, pygmy rabbit, and pronghorn. These obligates, as well as others, require contiguous, large mosaics [...]