Date of Award:

5-2010

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Ecology

Committee Chair(s)

Thomas C. Edwards, Jr.

Committee

Thomas C. Edwards, Jr.

Committee

Peter Adler

Committee

Christopher Conte

Abstract

Land-use legacies can affect landscapes for decades to millennia. A long history of shrub management exists in the sagebrush steppe of the Intermountain West where shrub-removal treatments, a type of managed disturbance, have been implemented for over 50 years to reduce sagebrush cover. The assumption behind managed disturbances is that they will increase forage for domestic livestock and improve wildlife habitat. However, the long-term effects of managed disturbance on plant community composition and diversity are not well understood. We investigated the legacy effects of three common types of managed disturbance (chemical, fire, and mechanical treatments) on plant community diversity and composition. We also examined sagebrush steppe resilience to managed disturbance. Based on management assumptions and resilience theory, we expected within-state phase shifts characterized by an initial reduction in biodiversity followed by a return to prior state conditions. We also expected changes in species proportions, characteristic of within-state shifts in state-and-transition models. We also expected an increase in non-native contribution to overall diversity. We found that plant communities experienced a fundamental shift in composition following disturbance, and responded in a flat linear fashion, giving no indication of return to prior community composition or diversity. As expected, we found post-disturbance increases in the number of non-native grass species present. However, native forb species made the largest contribution to altered diversity. Disturbance modified functional group composition, so contrary to our expectations, within-state changes did not occur as a result of disturbance. Our results indicated that sagebrush steppe plant communities are not resilient to chemical, fire, and mechanical treatments, and subsequent to managed disturbance, community composition tips over a threshold into an alternate stable state.

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