Thresholds and hotspots for shrub restoration following a heterogeneous megafire

Context Reestablishing foundational plant species through aerial seeding is an essential yet challenging step for restoring the vast semiarid landscapes impacted by plant invasions and wildfire-regime shifts. A key component of the challenge stems from landscape variability and its effects on plant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Landscape ecology Vol. 33; no. 7; pp. 1177 - 1194
Main Authors: Germino, Matthew J., Barnard, David M., Davidson, Bill E., Arkle, Robert S., Pilliod, David S., Fisk, Matthew R., Applestein, Cara
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.07.2018
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
altitude
annuals
Artemisia
Artemisia tridentata
Biodiversity hot spots
Biological invasions
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Decision trees
Ecological effects
ecological invasion
Ecology
Environmental Management
grasses
Hypothesis testing
introduced plants
Landscape
Landscape Ecology
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
landscapes
Life Sciences
Moisture content
Nature Conservation
Plant species
Plants (botany)
Recovery
Research Article
Restoration
Seeding
shrubs
Soil surfaces
Soil water
sowing
Sustainable Development
Test procedures
Thresholds
trees
Wildfires
Legacies
Landscape
Restoration
Mixed model
Fire
Sagebrush
Classification tree
ISSN:0921-2973, 1572-9761
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Context Reestablishing foundational plant species through aerial seeding is an essential yet challenging step for restoring the vast semiarid landscapes impacted by plant invasions and wildfire-regime shifts. A key component of the challenge stems from landscape variability and its effects on plant recovery. Objectives We assessed landscape correlates, thresholds, and tipping points for sagebrush presence from fine-scale sampling across a large, heterogeneous area burned the previous year, where we were able to quantify soil surface features that are typically occluded yet can strongly affect recovery patterns. Methods Hypothesis testing and binary-decision trees were used to evaluate factors affecting initial sagebrush establishment, using 2171 field plots (totaling ~ 2,000,000 m 2 sampled) over a 113,000-ha region. Results Sagebrush established in 50% of plots where it was seeded, a > 12-fold greater establishment frequency than in unseeded areas. Sagebrush establishment was enhanced in threshold-like ways by elevation (> 1200 m ASL), topographic features that alter heatload and soil water, and by soil-surface features such as “fertile islands” that bore the imprint of pre-fire sagebrush. Sagebrush occupancy had a negative, linear relationship with exotic-annual grass cover and parabolic relationship with perennial bunchgrasses (optimal at 40% cover). Conclusions Our approach revealed interactive, ecological relationships such as novel soil-surface effects on first year establishment of sagebrush across the burned landscape, and identified “hot spots” for recovery. The approach could be expanded across sites and years to provide the information needed to explain past seeding successes or failures, and in designing treatments at the landscape scale.
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ISSN:0921-2973
1572-9761
DOI:10.1007/s10980-018-0662-8