Alternative pathways to landscape transformation: invasive grasses, burn severity and fire frequency in arid ecosystems
Abstract
Arid ecosystems are often vulnerable to transformation to invasive‐dominated states following fire, but data on persistence of these states are sparse. The grass/fire cycle is a feedback process between invasive annual grasses and fire frequency that often leads to the formation of alternative vegetation states dominated by the invasive grasses. However, other components of fire regimes, such as burn severity, also have the potential to produce long‐term vegetation transformations. Our goal was to evaluate the influence of both fire frequency and burn severity on the transformation of woody‐dominated communities to communities dominated by invasive grasses in major elevation zones of the Mojave Desert of western North America.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 20, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1111/1365-2745.12863
Entities
People
- Matt Brooks
- Robert C. Klinger
Organizations
- United States Department of Defense