Skip to main content
Advanced Search

Filters: Contacts: Peter Weisberg (X)

8 results (9ms)   

Filters
Date Range
Extensions
Types
Contacts
Categories
Tag Types
Tag Schemes
View Results as: JSON ATOM CSV
thumbnail
FY2016This project will develop a strategic approach for conservation of wet meadows and riparian ecosystems and the species they support that focuses on threats caused by natural and anthropogenic disturbance. It uses information on (1) the factors that affect wet meadow and riparian ecosystem resilience to both natural and human-caused disturbances at the scale of the watershed and meadow or riparian ecosystem, and (2) the distributions and population abundances of at risk species to determine focal areas for management. Maps of the relative resilience of watersheds and wet meadows are overlaid with data on at risk species and the predominant threats to facilitate this process. Decision matrices are developed...
Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) has widely invaded the Great Basin, U.S.A. The sporadic natural phenomenon of complete stand failure (‘die- off’) of this invader may present opportunities to restore native plants. A recent die-off in Nevada was precision-planted with seeds of the native grasses Poa secunda (Sandberg bluegrass) and Elymus elymoides (bottlebrush squirreltail), of both local and nonlocal origin, to ask: 1) Can native species be restored in recent B. tectorum die-offs? And 2) Do local and nonlocal seeds differ in performance? Additionally, we asked how litter removal and water addition affected responses. Although emergence and growth of native seeds was lower in die-off than control plots early in year...
thumbnail
FY2013Cheatgrass die-offs are unexplained instances of stand failure observed in areas of Nevada and Utah, where cheatgrass fails to grow even though it has been a dominant component of plant communities in the past. The goals of this project are to:1) provide information on the size and extent of historic (1985 - 2012) die-offs in the Winnemucca area using satellite imagery, and 2) determine if die-offs are restoration opportunities by planting and monitoring local and commercially available native grasses in die-off areas.Support is requested to fund monitoring of the restoration project through a second growing season and to develop predictive spatial models of die-off from analysis of satellite imagery and GIS...
The phenomenon of cheatgrass die-off is a common and naturally- occurring stand failure that can eliminate the presence of this annual grass for a year or more, affecting tens to hundreds of thousands of acres in some years. We designed a study to determine if the temporary lack of cheatgrass caused by die-offs is a restoration opportunity. We seeded native perennial species at three die-offs in the Winnemucca, Nevada area. Native grass establishment in die-offs was almost three times higher in the first season at all sites, relative to adjacent areas without die-off. In the second season, establishment was five times higher in the die-off at two sites, and plants were notably larger in the die-off at the third...
Content Changing aspen distribution in response to climate change and fire is a major focus of biodiversity conservation, yet little is known about the potential response of aspen to these two driving forces along topoclimatic gradients. Objective This study is set to evaluate how aspen distribution might shift in response to different climate-fire scenarios in a semi-arid montane landscape, and quantify the influence of fire regime along topoclimatic gradients. Methods We used a novel integration of a forest landscape succession and disturbance model (LANDIS-II) with a fine-scale climatic water deficit approach to simulate dynamics of aspen and associated conifer and shrub species over the next 150 years under...
thumbnail
FY2014Land management agencies seek to understand how organisms use the landscape in order to develop management strategies that maintain healthy, resilient communities that have the ecological and evolutionary potential to respond to climate change. An ideal approach to understanding how organisms move through the landscape is by inferring ongoing and historic movements from patterns of genetic continuity that characterize regional sets of populations. From patterns of genetic connectivity we can infer the habitat and landscape characteristics that facilitate animal movement and species range shifts over both short and long timescales. Knowing the spatial distribution of critical linkages or corridors allows conservation...
The exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) dominates vast acreages of rangeland in the western USA, leading to increased fire frequency and ecosystem degradation that is often irreversible. Episodic regeneration failure (“die-off”) has been observed in cheatgrass monocultures and can have negative ecosystem consequences, but can also provide an opportunity for restoration of native species and ecological function within the imperiled sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Proximate causes of cheatgrass die-off are uncertain, although several taxa of fungal soil pathogens have been implicated. Die-off occurrence is stochastic and can occur in remote areas. Thus, developing remote sensing indicators that are repeatable...
thumbnail
FY2011Aspen populations are in decline across western North America due to altered fire regimes, herbivory, drought, pathogens, and competition with conifers. Aspen stands typically support higher avian biodiversity than surrounding habitats, and maintaining current distributions of several avian species is likely tied to persistence of aspen on the landscape. We are examining effects of climate change on aspen and associated avian communities in isolated mountain ranges of the northern Great Basin, by coupling empirical models of avian-habitat relationships with spatially-explicit landscape simulations of vegetation and disturbance dynamics (using LANDIS-II) under various climate change scenarios. We are addressing...
    map background search result map search result map Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Cheatgrass Die-offs in the Great Basin Landscape Connectivity of a Sagebrush Obligate: Functional Continuity of Habitat for the Pygmy Rabbit A Multi-scale Resilience-based Framework for Restoring and Conserving Great Basin Wet Meadows and Riparian Ecosystems Quantifying vulnerability of quaking aspen woodlands and associate bird communities to global climate change in the northern Great Basin Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Cheatgrass Die-offs in the Great Basin Quantifying vulnerability of quaking aspen woodlands and associate bird communities to global climate change in the northern Great Basin A Multi-scale Resilience-based Framework for Restoring and Conserving Great Basin Wet Meadows and Riparian Ecosystems Landscape Connectivity of a Sagebrush Obligate: Functional Continuity of Habitat for the Pygmy Rabbit