Wildfire Impacts, and Post-Fire Rehabilitation and Restoration
Science Center Objects
Land use and unintentional (e.g., wildfire) disturbances are increasingly dominant factors affecting land-use planning and management of semiarid landscapes, particularly in sagebrush steppe rangelands. In the last 10-20 years, wildfires are occurring more frequently and increasingly in very large burn patches.
Major conservation investments are often directed towards stabilizing soils and promoting native or desirable perennial plant communities that support wildlife and sustain livestock values under current and future conditions. My research group is evaluating risks of soil erosion and exotic-plant invasions, and approaches for increasing the effectiveness of post-fire seeding, herbicide applications, and also effects of grazing-resumption timing. Our activities contribute to the information base needed by managers to preserve or restore resistance and resilience to burned rangeland landscapes. Research sub-topics include:
Post-fire seeding, planting, and herbicide spraying effectiveness; finding ways to improve success
Seed-source effects, determined from actual seedings and through common-garden studies
Post-fire wind erosion: causes, consequences, and management implications
Developing monitoring approaches for post-fire landscapes
Assessing bunchgrass maturity and readiness for grazing
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Date published: November 16, 2017Status: ActivePlant-Soil-Environment Laboratory (FRESC)
We produce basic and applied science needed to manage landscapes in ways that make them resistant and resilient to stressors such as wildfire, exotic plant invasions, drought, and temperature extremes. These stressors impact ecosystem productivity and functioning and pose costly risks to human health and safety in the western United States. We team with other state and federal agencies to find...
Contacts: Matthew J GerminoAttribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
Postfire growth of seeded and planted big sagebrush - Strategic designs for restoring Greater Sage-grouse nesting habitat
Wildfires change plant community structure and impact wildlife habitat and population dynamics. Recent wildfire‐induced losses of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial losses in habitat for sagebrush‐obligate species such as Greater Sage‐grouse. Managers are...
Pyke, David A.; Shriver, Robert K.; Arkle, Robert; Pilliod, David; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Coates, Peter S.; Germino, Matthew; Heinrichs, Julie Arlene; Ricca, Mark A.; Shaff, Scott Soil characteristics are associated with gradients of big sagebrush canopy structure after disturbance
Reestablishing shrub canopy cover after disturbance in semi-arid ecosystems, such as sagebrush steppe, is essential to provide wildlife habitat and restore ecosystem functioning. While several studies have explored the effects of landscape and climate factors on the success or failure of sagebrush seeding, the influence of soil properties on...
Barnard, David; Germino, Matthew J.; Arkle, Robert; Bradford, John; Duniway, Michael; Pilliod, David; Pyke, David; Shriver, Robert; Welty, Justin Bunchgrass root abundances and their relationship to resistance and resilience of a burned shrub-steppe landscape
Invasion of exotic annual grasses (EAG) and increased wildfire have motivated an emphasis on managing rangeland plant communities for resistance to invasion and resilience to disturbances. These traits are provided primarily by perennial bunchgrasses in rangelands such as shrub steppe, and specifically but also hypothetically, the abundances and...
Germino, Matthew J.; Fisk, Matthew; Applestein, Cara Landscape and organismal factors affecting sagebrush-seedling transplant survival after megafire restoration
Larger and more frequent disturbances are motivating efforts to accelerate recovery of foundational perennial species by focusing efforts into establishing island patches to sustain keystone species and facilitate recovery of the surrounding plant community. Evaluating the variability in abiotic and biotic factors that contribute to differences in...
Davidson, Bill; Germino, Matthew J.; Richardson, Bryce; Barnard, David Appropriate sample sizes for monitoring burned pastures in sagebrush steppe: How many plots are enough, and can one size fit all?
Statistically defensible information on vegetation conditions is needed to guide rangeland management decisions following disturbances such as wildfire, often for heterogeneous pastures. Here we evaluate the number of plots needed to make informed adaptive management decisions using >2000 plots sampled on the 2015 Soda Fire that burned across...
Applestein, Cara; Germino, Matthew J.; Pilliod, David; Fisk, Matthew; Arkle, Robert Thresholds and hotspots for shrub restoration following a heterogeneous megafire
ContextReestablishing foundational plant species through aerial seeding is an essential yet challenging step for restoring the vast semiarid landscapes impacted by plant invasions and wildfire-regime shifts. A key component of the challenge stems from landscape variability and its effects on plant recovery.ObjectivesWe assessed landscape...
Germino, Matthew; Barnard, David; Davidson, Bill; Arkle, Robert; Pilliod, David; Fisk, Matthew; Applestein, Cara
A conservation paradox in the Great Basin—Altering sagebrush landscapes with fuel breaks to reduce habitat loss from wildfire
Interactions between fire and nonnative, annual plant species (that is, “the grass/fire cycle”) represent one of the greatest threats to sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems and associated wildlife, including the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). In 2015, U.S. Department of the Interior called for a “science-based strategy to...
Shinneman, Douglas J.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Coates, Peter S.; Germino, Matthew J.; Pilliod, David S.; Vaillant, Nicole M. Plant community resistance to invasion by Bromus species: The roles of community attributes, Bromus interactions with plant communities, and Bromus traits
The factors that determine plant community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species (Bromus hereafter) are diverse and context specific. They are influenced by the environmental characteristics and attributes of the community, the traits of Bromus species, and the direct and indirect interactions of Bromus with the plant community. Environmental...
Chambers, Jeanne; Germino, Matthew J.; Belnap, Jayne; Brown, Cynthia; Schupp, Eugene W.; St. Clair, Samuel B Challenges of establishing big sgebrush (Artemisia tridentata) in rangeland restoration: effects of herbicide, mowing, whole-community seeding, and sagebrush seed sources
The loss of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) on sites disturbed by fire has motivated restoration seeding and planting efforts. However, the resulting sagebrush establishment is often lower than desired, especially in dry areas. Sagebrush establishment may be increased by addressing factors such as seed source and condition or management...
Brabec, Martha M.; Germino, Matthew J.; Shinneman, Douglas J.; Pilliod, David S.; McIlroy, Susan K.; Arkle, Robert S. Wind erosion from a sagebrush steppe burned by wildfire: measurements of PM10 and total horizontal sediment flux
Wind erosion and aeolian transport processes are under studied compared to rainfall-induced erosion and sediment transport on burned landscapes. Post-fire wind erosion studies have predominantly focused on near-surface sediment transport and associated impacts such as on-site soil loss and site fertility. Downwind impacts, including air quality...
Wagenbrenner, Natalie S.; Germino, Matthew J.; Lamb, Brian K.; Robichaud, Peter R.; Foltz, Randy B. Transport of biologically important nutrients by wind in an eroding cold desert
Wind erosion following fire is an important landscape process that can result in the redistribution of ecologically important soil resources. In this study we evaluated the potential for a fire patch in a desert shrubland to serve as a source of biologically important nutrients to the adjacent, downwind, unburned ecosystem. We analyzed nutrient...
Sankey, Joel B.; Germino, Matthew J.; Benner, Shawn G.; Glenn, Nancy F.; Hoover, Amber N. A common-garden study of resource-island effects on a native and an exotic, annual grass after fire
Plant-soil variation related to perennial-plant resource islands (coppices) interspersed with relatively bare interspaces is a major source of heterogeneity in desert rangelands. Our objective was to determine how native and exotic grasses vary on coppice mounds and interspaces (microsites) in unburned and burned sites and underlying factors that...
Hoover, Amber N.; Germino, Matthew J.-
Date published: February 25, 2019Survival data of transplanted sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) seedlings in relation to vegetative, organismal, and topographic conditions after megafire
This dataset contains information on the survival of individual sagebrush seedlings, stands of seedlings and the vegetative and topographic conditions in which they were planted.
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center -
Date published: January 1, 2018
Exotic and perennial grass cover for pastures in the Soda Fire (2016)
The point data file ("Soda Fire Point and Pasture Data (2016).Point Data.csv") includes 2016 vegetative cover values of exotic annual grass and perennial grass measured within three different types of plots for 75 pastures in the Soda Fire, which burned in 2015: 6m² plot using a grid-point intercept photo software, SamplePoint (Booth et al. 2006), 1m² quadrat usi
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center