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Project ID: 00-1-2-04

Year: 2001

Date Started: 11/20/2000

Date Completed: 09/04/2005

Title: Fire and Invasive Annual Grasses in Western Ecosystems

Project Proposal Abstract: Annual grasses have invaded shrub and forest ecosystems in western North America and are linked to changes in both ecosystem structure and fhnction and in some cases have altered fire regimes. This has occurred over vast expanses of public lands in the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert, and is a threat to lower elevation yellow pine forests. We hypothesize that fire has the potential for contributing the most to annual grass invasion in low nutrient soils, where postfire increases in theft availability are more effectively exploited by invasive grasses than by the native flora. Soil nutrient changes can vary widely depending on soil properties and the amount and duration of soil heating. In forested ecosystems such impacts of fire on soil nutrients and light solar radiation are potentially more profound now than under historic conditions because of unnaturally high fuel loads. We propose to investigate the interactions between fire and soil nutrients over three ecosystems cunently dominated or threatened by invasive annual grasses in western North America -- Great Basin shrubland, Mojave Desert scrub and Sierra Nevada yellow pine forest. Common factors driving the fire/annual grass cycle in these ecosystems will lead to generalizations widely applicable beyond the ecosystems under study. In addition, each of these systems has unique features that contribute to the dominance of invasive annual grasses, and elucidation of these will contribute to a broader understanding of the problem. We will use intensive field manipulations at representative sites in these three regions that will couple burning, nutrients, fiuels and light treatments. In addition, extensive surveys will be conducted across these regions to assess the soil nutrient status associated with invaded and non- invaded sites. These field studies will be coupled with laboratory studies to examine in detail the relationship between soil heating and nutrient availability for invasive grasses. With this information, managers could determine in advance if habitats are naturally vulnerable or resistant to invasions, enabling limited resources to be more effectively deployed both during and after fires. Fire prescriptions could be designed to avoid creating conditions susceptible to invasion, plus, restoration techniques could be better targeted, saving both time and money.

Principal Investigator: Matthew L. Brooks

Agency/Organization: USGS-Geological Survey

Branch or Dept: WERC-Yosemite Field Station

Other Project Collaborators

Type	Name	Agency/Organization	Branch or Dept
Co-Principal Investigator	Jayne Belnap	USGS-Geological Survey	BRD-Canyonlands Research Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Tim Duck	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Co-Principal Investigator	Jon E. Keeley	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Sequoia & Kings Canyon Field Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Bridget Lair	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Las Vegas Field Station
Co-Principal Investigator	John Matchett	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Las Vegas Field Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Thomas W. McGinnis	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Sequoia & Kings Canyon Field Station
Co-Principal Investigator	Robert L. Sanford	University of Denver	Biological Sciences
Co-Principal Investigator	Nathan Wojcik	University of Denver	Biological Sciences
Collaborator/Contributor	Richard Franklin	BLM-Bureau of Land Management	California Desert District
Collaborator/Contributor	William Kaage	NPS-National Park Service	Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
Collaborator/Contributor	Tom Patterson	NPS-National Park Service	Joshua Tree National Park
Federal Cooperator	Matthew L. Brooks	USGS-Geological Survey	WERC-Yosemite Field Station

Project Locations

Consortium

California

Great Basin

Southern Rockies

Southwest

There are no project locations identified for this project.

Project Deliverables

Final Report ("Results presented in JFSP Final Reports may not have been peer-reviewed and should be interpreted as tentative until published in a peer-reviewed source.")

	ID	Type	Title
	9935	Refereed Publication	Potential Effects of Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition on Alien Annual Plants in the Mojave Desert
	9934	Refereed Publication	Fire Temperature Patterns and Effects on Annual Plants in the Mojave Desert
	9933	Refereed Publication	Alien Plants and Fire in Desert Tortoise Habitat
	9932	Refereed Publication	Immediate Postfire Effects on Soil Nutrient Availability and Seed Bank Composition in Sagebrush Steppe Invaded by Annual Grasses
	9931	Refereed Publication	Alien Plants and Fire in Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) Habitat of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts
	9930	Refereed Publication	Effects of Invasive Alien Plants on Fire Regimes
	9929	Refereed Publication	Effects of Increased Soil Nitrogen on the Donminance of Alien Annual Plants in the Mojave Desert
	3240	Refereed Publication	Invasive Plants and Fire Management in California Mediterranean-Climate Ecosystems
	3238	Refereed Publication	Invasive Plants and Fire in the Deserts of North America
	3236	Refereed Publication	Peak Fire Temperatures and Effects on Annual Plants in the Mojave Desert
	6251	Refereed Publication	Impact of Prescribed Fire and Other Factors on Cheatgrass Persistence in a Sierra Nevada Ponderosa Pine Forest

Supporting Documents

There are no supporting documents available for this project.

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