Modification of habitat structure due to invasive plants can alter the risk landscape for wildlife by, for example, changing the quality or availability of refuge habitat. Whether perceived risk corresponds with actual fitness outcomes, however, remains an important open question. We simultaneously measured how habitat changes due to a common invasive grass (cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum) affecte...

Desert annuals are a critically important component of desert communities and may be particularly responsive to increasing atmospheric (CO2 ) because of their high potential growth rates and flexible phenology. During the 10-year life of the Nevada Desert FACE (free-air CO2 enrichment) Facility, we evaluated the productivity, reproductive allocation, and community structure of annuals in respon...

Bromus setifolius var. pictus (Hook) Skottsb., B. setifolius var. setifolius Presl. and B.setifolius var. brevifolius Ness are three native Patagonian taxa in the section Pnigma Dumort of the genus Bromus L. AFLP and RAPD analysis, in conjunction with genetic distance measurements and statistical techniques, revealed variation within this group and indicated that B. setifolius var. brevifolius ...

M any natural landscapes have undergone dramatic permanent alterations as a result of human activities, including conversion to cultural landscapes; such changes are readily observed and understood. However, extensive ecological change can also occur in regional landscapes that are maintained in a seminatural state, changes that go largely unrecognized because the regional landscape retains an ...

Throughout the western United States, the invasive annual grass, medusahead (Taeniatherum caputmedusae L. Nevski), is rapidly invading grasslands once dominated by native perennial grasses, such as bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) A). It is also invading grasslands dominated by less undesirable invasive annual grasses, especially cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.). Understandi...

fire is one of the most important ecological factors in semi-steppe rangelands directing plant community composition, diversity, structure and function of ecosystems. our primary aim was to examine the effect of fire on plant community composition, diversity, plant species restoration and animal selectivity in semi-steppe rangeland in karsanak region, chaharmahal & bakhtiari province in years 2...

historical records of cheatgrass Bromus tectorum invasion in North American sagebrush-steppe Sumanta Bagchi*, David D. Briske, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer and X. Ben Wu Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, 2138 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA; USDA-ARS, Jornada Experimental Range and Jornada Basin LTER, New Mexico State University, MSC 3JER, Box 30003, Las Cruce...