Skip to main content
Log in

Thresholds and hotspots for shrub restoration following a heterogeneous megafire

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

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 m2 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.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Applestein C, Germino MJ, Fisk MJ (accepted) Vegetation community response to landscape scale post-fire herbicide (imazapic) application. Invasive Plant Sci Manag

  • Bates D, Maechler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2014) lme4: linear mixed-effects models using Eigen and S4. R Package Version 1:1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Beven K, Kirkby MJ (1979) A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology. Hydrol Sci J 24:43–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bochet E, García-Fayos P, Alborch B, Tormo J (2007) Soil water availability effects on seed germination account for species segregation in semiarid roadslopes. Plant Soil 295:179–191

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bolker BM, Brooks ME, Clark CJ, Geange SW, Poulsen JR, Stevens MHH, White JSS (2009) Generalized linear mixed models: a practical guide for ecology and evolution. Trends Ecol Evolut 24:127–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd CS, Davies KW, Lemos JA (2017) Influence of soil color on seedbed microclimate and seedling demographics of a perennial bunchgrass. Rangel Ecol Manag 70:621–624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brabec MM, Germino MJ, Richardson BA (2016) Climate adaption and post-fire restoration of a foundational perennial in cold desert: insights from intraspecific variation in response to weather. J Appl Ecol 54:293–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brabec MM, Germino MJ, Shinneman DJ, Pilliod DS, McIlroy SK, Arkle RS (2015) Challenges of establishing big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) in rangeland restoration: effects of herbicide, mowing, whole-community seeding, and sagebrush seed sources. Rangel Ecol Manag 68:432–435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brudvig LA, Barak RS, Bauer JT, Caughlin TT, Laughlin DC, Larios L, Matthews JW, Stuble KL, Turley NE, Zirbel CR (2017) Interpreting variation to advance predictive restoration science. J Appl Ecol 54:1018–1027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burkett LM, Bestelmeyer BT, Tugel AJ (2011) A field guide to pedoderm and pattern classes. Version 2.2. http://jornada.nmsu.edu/files/FieldGuidePedodermPattern.pdf

  • Chambers JC (2000) Seed movements and seedling fates in disturbed sagebrush steppe ecosystems: implications for restoration. Ecol Appl 10:1400–1413

    Google Scholar 

  • Chambers JC, Bradley BA, Brown CS, D’Antonio C, Germino MJ, Grace JB, Hardegree SP, Miller RF, Pyke DA (2014) Resilience to stress and disturbance, and resistance to Bromus tectorum L. invasion in cold desert shrublands of western North America. Ecosystems 17:360–375

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Copeland SM, Munson SM, Pilliod DS, Welty JL, Bradford JB, Butterfield BJ (2017) Long-term trends in restoration and associated land treatments in the southwestern United States. Restor Ecol 26:311–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Antonio CM, Vitousek PM (1992) Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass/fire cycle, and global change. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 23:63–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies KW, Bates JD (2017) Restoring big sagebrush after controlling encroaching western juniper with fire: aspect and subspecies effects. Restor Ecol 25:33–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies KW, Bates JD, James JJ (2009) Microsite and herbaceous vegetation heterogeneity after burning Artemisia tridentata steppe. Oecologia 159:597–606

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davies KW, Boyd CS, Nafus AM (2013) Restoring the sagebrush component in crested wheatgrass–dominated communities. Rangel Ecol Manag 66:472–478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De’ath G, Fabricius KE (2000) Classification and regression trees: a powerful yet simple technique for ecological data analysis. Ecology 81:3178–3192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DiCristina K, Germino M (2006) Correlation of neighborhood relationships, carbon assimilation, and water status of sagebrush seedlings establishing after fire. West N Am Nat 66:441–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donato DC, Fontaine JB, Campbell JL, Robinson WD, Kauffman JB, Law BE (2006) Post-wildfire logging hinders regeneration and increases fire risk. Science 311(5759):352

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eiswerth ME, Krauter K, Swanson SR, Zielinski M (2009) Post-fire seeding on Wyoming big sagebrush ecological sites: regression analyses of seeded nonnative and native species densities. J Environ Manag 90:1320–1325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Germino MJ, Belnap J, Stark JM, Allen EB, Rau BM (2016) Ecosystem impacts of exotic annual invaders in the genus Bromus. In: Germino MJ, Chambers JC, Brown C (eds) Exotic Brome-grasses in arid and semiarid ecosystems of the western US. Springer, Berlin, pp 61–95

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Germino MJ, Reinhardt K (2014) Desert shrub responses to experimental modification of precipitation seasonality and soil depth: relationship to the two-layer hypothesis and ecohydrological niche. J Ecol 102:989–997

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardegree SP, Abatzoglou JT, Brunson MW, Germino MJ, Hegewisch KC, Moffet CA, Pilliod DS, Roundy BA, Boehm AR, Meredith GR (2017) Weather-centric rangeland revegetation planning. Rangel Ecol Manag 71:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassan MA, West NE (1986) Dynamics of soil seed pools in burned and unburned sagebrush semi-deserts. Ecology 67:269–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoover AN, Germino MJ (2012) A common-garden study of resource-island effects on a native and an exotic, annual grass after fire. Rangel Ecol Manag 65:160–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hulvey KB, Leger EA, Porensky LM, Roche LM, Veblen KE, Fund A, Shaw J, Gornish ES (2017) Restoration islands: at tool for efficiently restoring dryland ecosystems? Restor Ecol. Online first

  • James JJ, Svejcar TJ, Rinella MJ (2011) Demographic processes limiting seedling recruitment in arid grassland restoration. J Appl Ecol 48:961–969

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knutson KC, Pyke DA, Wirth TA, Arkle RS, Pilliod DS, Brooks ML, Chambers JC, Grace JB (2014) Long-term effects of seeding after wildfire on vegetation in Great Basin shrubland ecosystems. J Appl Ecol 51:1414–1424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McArthur ED, Plummer AP (1978) Biogeography and management of native western shrubs—a case study, section Tridentatae of Artemisia. Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs 2:229–243

    Google Scholar 

  • McCune B, Keon D, Marrs R (2002) Equations for potential annual direct incident radiation and heatload. J Veg Sci 13:603–606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson ZJ, Weisberg PJ, Kitchen SG (2014) Influence of climate and environment on post-fire recovery of mountain big sagebrush. Int J Wildland Fire 23:131–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ott JE, Cox RD, Shaw NL (2017) Comparison of postfire seeding practices for wyoming big sagebrush. Rangel Ecol Manag 70:625–632

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmquist KA, Schlaepfer DR, Bradford JB, Lauenroth WK (2016) Mid-latitude shrub steppe plant communities: climate change consequences for soil water resources. Ecology 97:2342–2354

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pilliod DS, Welty JL, Toevs GR (2017) Seventy-five years of vegetation treatments on public rangelands in the Great Basin of North America. Rangelands 39:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prevéy JS, Germino MJ, Huntly NJ, Inouye RS (2010) Exotic plants increase and native plants decrease with loss of foundation species in sagebrush steppe. Plant Ecol 207:39–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2017) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/

    Google Scholar 

  • Reisner MD, Grace JB, Pyke DA, Doescher PS (2013) Conditions favouring Bromus tectorum dominance of endangered sagebrush steppe ecosystems. J Appl Ecol 50:1039–1049

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rinella MJ, Hammond DH, Bryant A-EM, Kozar BJ (2015) High precipitation and seeded species competition reduce seeded shrub establishment during dryland restoration. Ecol Appl 25:1044–1053

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rodhouse TJ, Irvine KM, Sheley RL, Smith BS, Hoh S, Esposito DM, Mata-Gonzalez R (2014) Predicting foundation bunchgrass species abundances: model-assisted decision-making in protected-area sagebrush steppe. Ecosphere 5(9):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rottler CM, Burke IC, Palmquist KA, Bradford JB, Lauenroth WK (2017) Reclamation after oil and gas development does not speed up succession or plant community recovery in big sagebrush ecosystems in Wyoming. Restor Ecol 26:114–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sankey JB, Germino MJ, Sankey TT, Hoover AN (2012) Fire effects on the spatial patterning of soil properties in sagebrush steppe, USA: a meta-analysis. Int J Wildland Fire 21:545–556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlaepfer DR, Lauenroth WK, Bradford JB (2014a) Modeling regeneration responses of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) to abiotic conditions. Ecol Model 286:66–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlaepfer DR, Lauenroth WK, Bradford JB (2014b) Natural regeneration processes in big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). Rangel Ecol Manag 67:344–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seefeldt SS, Germino MJ, DiCristina K (2007) Prescribed fires in Artemisia tridentata ssp. Vaseyana steppe have minor and transient effects on vegetation cover and composition. Appl Veg Sci 10:249–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sólymos P, Lele SR (2016) Revisiting resource selection probability functions and single-visit methods: clarification and extensions. Methods Ecol Evolut 7:196–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Therneau TM, Atkinson B, Ripley MB (2010) The rpart package

  • Thompson JR, Spies TA, Ganio LM (2007) Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104(25):10743–10748

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wijayratne UC, Pyke DA (2012) Burial increases seed longevity of two Artemisia tridentata (Asteraceae) subspecies. Am J Bot 99:438–447

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by JFSP (Grant 16-1-03-13) with support from the Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative, US Geological Survey (USGS) Fire program, USGS/BLM SageSuccess project and contribution of USGS data funded by the BLM’s ESR program. Cindy Fritz, Peter Torma, Cara Hastings and other BLM staff helped with planning, logistics, and comments on the research. The Soda Fire Field Crew assisted with field data collection. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

MG conceived of the project, obtained the funding, led the writing, and contributed to all phases of the work. DB performed the modeling and co-led the writing. RA, MF, CA, and BD assisted in designing the sampling plan; MF, CA, and BD led the field sampling and data organization. All authors contributed to writing and gave final approval for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew J. Germino.

Additional information

Matthew J. Germino and David M. Barnard have contributed equally to this work.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Germino, M.J., Barnard, D.M., Davidson, B.E. et al. Thresholds and hotspots for shrub restoration following a heterogeneous megafire. Landscape Ecol 33, 1177–1194 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0662-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0662-8

Keywords

Navigation