Browsing by Author "Fuhlendorf, Samuel D."

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Inconsistent outcomes of heterogeneity-based management underscore importance of matching evaluation to conservation objectives
(2013-08) McGranahan, Devan A.; Engle, David M.; Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.; Winter, Stephen L.; Miller, James R.; Debinski, Diane M.
Conservation policy often incentivizes managers of human-impacted areas to create landscape heterogeneity to maximize biodiversity. In rangeland, patchy disturbance regimes create landscape heterogeneity (patch contrast), but outcomes of heterogeneity-based management are rarely tested for a universal response. We analyzed four habitat variables – vegetation structure, plant functional group composition, litter cover, and bare ground – from five experimental rangelands in Oklahoma and Iowa, USA. We tested for response consistency to heterogeneity-based management across and within locations. We calculated effect sizes for each variable to compare patch contrast on pastures managed for heterogeneity (patch burn-grazing) and pastures managed for homogeneity (grazing with homogeneous fire regimes). Effects varied considerably across and within locations. Effects of heterogeneity-based management were positive for all variables at only three of five experimental rangeland locations. No location showed a consistent pattern of positive effect across all four variables, although one location showed no effect for any variable. At another location, we found a positive effect of heterogeneity-based management on litter cover and bare ground, but no effect on vegetation structure and plant functional group composition. We discuss effect variability and how the fire–grazing interaction applies to rangeland management and conservation. Although it is accepted practice to use heterogeneity-based management to increase rangeland habitat diversity, managers should also confirm that evaluation metrics match desired conservation outcomes.
Multivariate Analysis of Rangeland Vegetation and Soil Organic Carbon Describes Degradation, Informs Restoration and Conservation
(2015-07) McGranahan, Devan A.; Engle, David M.; Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.; Miller, James R.; Debinski, Diane M.
Agricultural expansion has eliminated a high proportion of native land cover and severely degraded remaining native vegetation. Managers must determine where degradation is severe enough to merit restoration action, and what action, if any, is necessary. We report on grassland degraded by multiple factors, including grazing, soil disturbance, and exotic plant species introduced in response to agriculture management. We use a multivariate method to categorize plant communities by degradation state based on floristic and biophysical degradation associated with historical land use. The variables we associate with degradation include abundance of the invasive cool-season grass, tall fescue (Schedonorus phoenix (Scop.) Holub); soil organic carbon (SOC); and heavy livestock grazing. Using a series of multivariate analyses (ordination, hierarchical clustering, and multiple regression), we identify patterns in plant community composition and describe floristic degradation states. We found vegetation states to be described largely by vegetation composition associated primarily with tall fescue and secondarily by severe grazing, but not soil organic carbon. Categorizing grasslands by vegetation states helps managers efficiently apply restoration inputs that optimize ecosystem response, so we discuss potential restoration pathways in a state-and-transition model. Reducing stocking rate on grassland where grazing is actively practiced is an important first step that might be sufficient for restoring grassland with high native species richness and minimal degradation from invasive plants. More severe degradation likely requires multiple approaches to reverse degradation. Of these, we recommend restoration of ecological processes and disturbance regimes such as fire and grazing. We suggest old-field grasslands in North America, which are similar to European semi-natural grassland in composition and function, deserve more attention by conservation biologists.
Spatial heterogeneity across five rangelands managed with pyric‐herbivory
(2012-07) McGranahan, Devan A.; Engle, David M.; Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.; Winter, Steven J.; Miller, James R.; Debinski, Diane M.
1. Many rangelands evolved under an interactive disturbance regime in which grazers respond to the spatial pattern of fire and create a patchy, heterogeneous landscape. Spatially heterogeneous fire and grazing create heterogeneity in vegetation structure at the landscape level (patch contrast) and increase rangeland biodiversity. We analysed five experiments comparing spatially heterogeneous fire treatments to spatially homogeneous fire treatments on grazed rangeland along a precipitation gradient in the North American Great Plains. 2. We predicted that, across the precipitation gradient, management for heterogeneity increases both patch contrast and variance in the composition of plant functional groups. Furthermore, we predicted that patch contrast is positively correlated with variance in plant functional group composition. Because fire spread is important to the fire–grazing interaction, we discuss factors that reduce fire spread and reduce patch contrast despite management for heterogeneity. 3. We compared patch contrast across pastures managed for heterogeneity and pastures managed for homogeneity with a linear mixed effect (LME) regression model. We used the LME model to partition variation in vegetation structure to each sampled scale so that a higher proportion of variation at the patch scale among pastures managed for heterogeneity indicates patch contrast. To examine the relationship between vegetation structure and plant community composition, we used constrained ordination to measure variation in functional group composition along the vegetation structure gradient. We used the meta‐analytical statistic, Cohen’s d, to compare effect sizes for patch contrast and plant functional group composition. 4. Management for heterogeneity increased patch contrast and increased the range of plant functional group composition at three of the five experimental locations. 5. Plant functional group composition varied in proportion to the amount of spatial heterogeneity in vegetation structure on pastures managed for heterogeneity. 6. Synthesis and applications. Pyric‐herbivory management for heterogeneity created patch contrast in vegetation across a broad range of precipitation and plant community types, provided that fire was the primary driver of grazer site selection. Management for heterogeneity did not universally create patch contrast. Stocking rate and invasive plant species are key regulators of heterogeneity, as they determine the influence of fire on the spatial pattern of fuel, vegetation structure and herbivore patch selection, and therefore also require careful management.
Temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass decreases as spatial variability increases
(2016-03) McGranahan, Devan A.; Hovick, Torre J.; Elmore, R. Dwayne; Engle, David M.; Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.; Winter, Stephen L.; Miller, James R.; Debinski, Diane M.
Ecological theory predicts that diversity decreases variability in ecosystem function. We predict that, at the landscape scale, spatial variability created by a mosaic of contrasting patches that differ in time since disturbance will decrease temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass. Using data from a multi-year study of seven grazed tallgrass prairie landscapes, each experimentally managed for one to eight patches, we show that increased spatial variability driven by spatially patchy fire and herbivory reduces temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass. This pattern is associated with statistical evidence for the portfolio effect and a positive relationship between temporal variability and functional group synchrony as predicted by metacommunity variability theory. As disturbance from fire and grazing interact to create a shifting mosaic of spatially heterogeneous patches within a landscape, temporal variability in aboveground plant biomass can be dampened. These results suggest that spatially heterogeneous disturbance regimes contribute to a portfolio of ecosystem functions provided by biodiversity, including wildlife habitat, fuel, and forage. We discuss how spatial patterns of disturbance drive variability within and among patches.