Ecosystem resilience is evident 17 years after fire in Wyoming big sagebrush ecosystems

Native perennial forb variation between mountain big sagebrush and Wyoming big sagebrush plant communities.

Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) occupies large portions of the western United States and provides valuable wildlife habitat. However, information is lacking quantifying differences in native perennial forb characteristics between mountain big sagebrush [A. tridentata spp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle] and Wyoming big sagebrush [A. tridentata spp. wyomingensis (Beetle & A. Young) S.L. Wels...

Consequences of Treating Wyoming Big Sagebrush to Enhance Wildlife Habitats

Sagebrush (Artemisia L.) taxa historically functioned as the keystone species on 1 090 000 km of rangeland across the western United States, and Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle and Young) is or was dominant on a substantial amount of this landscape. Wyoming big sagebrush provides habitat for numerous wildlife species. Nevertheless, Wyoming big sagebrus...

Fuel and Fire Behavior Prediction in Big Sagebrush

Recovery of Soil Microbial Community Structure after Fire in a Sagebrush-grassland Ecosystem

Recovery of the soil microbial community after fire in a sagebrush-grassland ecosystem was examined using a chronosequence of four sites ranging in time since fire from 3–39 years. The successional stage communities examined included Recent Burn (3 years since fire, ysf), Establishment (7 ysf), Expansion (21 ysf), and Mature (39 ysf). Aboveground standing plant biomass increased with time since...

Post-fire seeding on Wyoming big sagebrush ecological sites: regression analyses of seeded nonnative and native species densities.

Since the mid-1980s, sagebrush rangelands in the Great Basin of the United States have experienced more frequent and larger wildfires. These fires affect livestock forage, the sagebrush/grasses/forbs mosaic that is important for many wildlife species (e.g., the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)), post-fire flammability and fire frequency. When a sagebrush, especially a Wyoming big...