A recently introduced non‐native annual grass,
Blue Mountains of the Inland Northwest, USA.
We measured environmental and plant community characteristics in 110 recently burned and nearby unburned plots. Plots were stratified to capture a range of
Rapid recovery of ecosystem function following extreme drought in a South African savanna grassland
Climatic extremes, such as severe drought, are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude with climate change. Thus, identifying mechanisms of resilience is critical to predicting the vulnerability of ecosystems. An exceptional drought (
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10456583
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ecology
- Volume:
- 101
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0012-9658
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Questions Ventenata dubia , is challenging previous conceptions of community resistance in forest mosaic communities in the Inland Northwest. However, little is known of the drivers and potential ecological impacts of this rapidly expanding species. Here we (1) identify abiotic and biotic habitat characteristics associated with theV .dubia invasion and examine how these differ betweenV .dubia and other problematic non‐native annual grasses,Bromus tectorum andTaeniatherum caput‐medusae ; and (2) determine how burning influences relationships betweenV .dubia and plant community composition and structure to address potential impacts on Inland Northwest forest mosaic communities.Location Methods V .dubia cover, elevations, biophysical classes, and fire severities. We investigated relationships betweenV .dubia , wildfire, environmental, and plant community characteristics using non‐metric multidimensional scaling and linear regressions.Results Ventenata dubia was most abundant in sparsely vegetated, basalt‐derived rocky scablands interspersed throughout the forested landscape. Plant communities most heavily invaded byV .dubia were largely uninvaded by other non‐native annual grasses.Ventenata dubia was abundant in both unburned and burned areas, but negative relationships betweenV .dubia cover and community diversity were stronger in burned plots, where keystone sagebrush species were largely absent after fire.Conclusions Ventenata dubia is expanding the overall invasion footprint into previously uninvaded communities. Burning may exacerbate negative relationships betweenV .dubia and species richness, evenness, and functional diversity, including in communities that historically rarely burned. Understanding the drivers and impacts of theV .dubia invasion and recognizing how these differ from other annual grass invasions may provide insight into mechanisms of community invasibility, grass‐fire feedbacks, and aid the development of species‐specific management plans. -
Fire causes abrupt changes in vegetation properties and modifies flux exchanges between land and atmosphere at subseasonal to seasonal scales. Yet these shortterm fire effects on vegetation dynamics and surface energy balance have not been comprehensively investigated in the fire-coupled vegetation model. This study applies the SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire (the Simplified Simple Biosphere Model coupled with the Top-down Representation of Interactive Foliage and Flora Including Dynamics with fire) model to study the short-term fire impact in southern Africa. Specifically, we aim to quantify how large impacts fire exerts on surface energy through disturbances on vegetation dynamics, how fire effects evolve during the fire season and the subsequent rainy season, and how surface-darkening effects play a role besides the vegetation change effects. We find fire causes an annual average reduction in grass cover by 4 %–8% for widespread areas between 5–20 S and a tree cover reduction by 1% at the southern periphery of tropical rainforests. The regional fire effects accumulate during June–October and peak in November, the beginning of the rainy season. After the fire season ends, the grass cover quickly returns to unburned conditions, while the tree fraction hardly recovers in one rainy season. The vegetation removal by fire has reduced the leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) by 3 %–5% and 5 %–7% annually. The exposure of bare soil enhances surface albedo and therefore decreases the absorption of shortwave radiation. Annual mean sensible heat has dropped by 1.4Wm−2, while the latent heat reduction is small (0.1Wm−2/ due to the evaporation. Surface temperature is increased by as much as 0.33K due to the decrease of sensible heat fluxes, and the warming would be enhanced when the surface-darkening effect is incorporated. Our results suggest that fire effects in grass-dominant areas diminish within 1 year due to the high resilience of grasses after fire. Yet fire effects in the periphery of tropical forests are irreversible within one growing season and can cause large-scale deforestation if accumulated for hundreds of years.more » « less
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Abstract. Fire causes abrupt changes in vegetation properties and modifies fluxexchanges between land and atmosphere at subseasonal to seasonal scales. Yetthese short-term fire effects on vegetation dynamics and surface energybalance have not been comprehensively investigated in the fire-coupledvegetation model. This study applies the SSiB4/TRIFFID-Fire (the SimplifiedSimple Biosphere Model coupled with the Top-down Representation of InteractiveFoliage and Flora Including Dynamics with fire) model to studythe short-term fire impact in southern Africa. Specifically, we aim toquantify how large impacts fire exerts on surface energy throughdisturbances on vegetation dynamics, how fire effects evolve during the fireseason and the subsequent rainy season, and how surface-darkening effectsplay a role besides the vegetation change effects. We find fire causes an annual average reduction in grass cover by 4 %–8 %for widespread areas between 5–20∘ S and a tree cover reductionby 1 % at the southern periphery of tropical rainforests. The regionalfire effects accumulate during June–October and peak in November, thebeginning of the rainy season. After the fire season ends, the grass coverquickly returns to unburned conditions, while the tree fraction hardlyrecovers in one rainy season. The vegetation removal by fire has reduced theleaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) by 3 %–5 % and5 %–7 % annually. The exposure of bare soil enhances surface albedo andtherefore decreases the absorption of shortwave radiation. Annual meansensible heat has dropped by 1.4 W m−2, while the latent heat reductionis small (0.1 W m−2) due to the compensating effects between canopytranspiration and soil evaporation. Surface temperature is increased by asmuch as 0.33 K due to the decrease of sensible heat fluxes, and the warmingwould be enhanced when the surface-darkening effect is incorporated. Ourresults suggest that fire effects in grass-dominant areas diminish within1 year due to the high resilience of grasses after fire. Yet fire effectsin the periphery of tropical forests are irreversible within one growingseason and can cause large-scale deforestation if accumulated for hundredsof years.more » « less
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Abstract Seeds provide the basis of genetic diversity in perennial grassland communities and their traits may influence ecosystem resistance to extreme drought. However, we know little about how drought effects the community functional composition of seed traits and the corresponding implications for ecosystem resistance to drought.
We experimentally removed 66% of growing season precipitation for 4 years across five arid and semi‐arid grasslands in northern China and assessed how this multi‐year drought impacted community‐weighted means (CWMs) of seed traits, seed trait functional diversity and above‐ground net primary productivity (ANPP).
Experimental drought had limited effects on CWM traits and the few effects that did occur varied by site and year. For three separate sites, and in different years, drought reduced seed length and phosphorus content but increased both seed and seed‐coat thickness. Additionally, drought led to increased seed functional evenness, divergence, dispersion and richness, but only in some sites, and mostly in later years following cumulative effects of water limitation. However, we observed a strong negative relationship between drought‐induced reductions in ANPP and CWMs of seed‐coat thickness, indicating that a high abundance of dominant species with thick seeds may increase ecosystem resistance to drought. Seed trait functional diversity was not significantly predictive of ANPP, providing little evidence for a diversity effect.
Our results suggest that monitoring community composition with a focus on seed traits may provide a valuable indicator of ecosystem resistance to future droughts despite inconsistent responses of seed trait composition overall. This highlights the importance of developing a comprehensive seed and reproductive traits database for arid and semi‐arid grassland biomes.
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Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. -
In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a prescribed burn over a large part of the northeastern corner of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Following this burn, a study was designed to look at the effect of fire on above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) (i.e., the change in plant biomass, represented by stems, flowers, fruit and foliage, over time) within three different vegetation types: mixed grass (MG), mixed shrub (MS) and black grama (G). Forty permanent 1m x 1m plots were installed in both burned and unburned (i.e., control) sections of each habitat type. The core black grama site included in SEV129 is used as a G control site for analyses and does not appear in this dataset. The MG control site caught fire unexpectedly in the fall of 2009 and some plots were subsequently moved to the south. For details of how the fire affected plot placement, see Methods below. In spring 2010, sampling of plots 16-25 was discontinued at the MG (burned and control) and G (burned treatment only) sites, reducing the number of sampled plots to 30 at each.To measure ANPP (i.e., the change in plant biomass, represented by stems, flowers, fruit and foliage, over time), the vegetation variables in this dataset, including species composition and the cover and height of individuals, are sampled twice yearly (spring and fall) at each plot. The data from these plots is used to build regressions correlating biomass and volume via weights of select harvested species obtained in SEV157, "Net Primary Productivity (NPP) Weight Data." This biomass data is included in SEV185, "Burn Study Sites Seasonal Biomass and Seasonal and Annual NPP Data."more » « less
