Compilation of studies assessing post-wildfire seeding of rangelands worldwide (1965-2010)

Mitigation of ecological damage caused by rangeland wildfires has historically been an issue restricted to the western United States. It has focused on conservation of ecosystem function through reducing soil erosion and spread of invasive plants. Effectiveness of mitigation treatments has been debated recently. We searched for literature on postfire seeding of rangelands worldwide. Literature databases searched included SCOPUS, Dissertation Abstracts, Forest Science, Tree search, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and science.gov. Search terms within publications included fire or wildfire in combination with seeding, rehabilitation, restoration, revegetation, stabilization, chaining, disking, drilling, invasives, weeds, cheatgrass, medusahead, sagebrush, rangeland, or grassland. The initial pool of potentially relevant articles numbered 1,519. Abstracts of all papers were reviewed. This pool included many papers not directly relevant to our review, including different ecosystems and different issues associated with wildfire (e.g. air pollution or property damage). On the basis of titles and abstracts, 126 potentially relevant papers were reviewed by at least two investigators. Upon further evaluation, some papers either did not pertain to our focal ecosystems or did not address aspects of soil erosion or invasive species. Effectiveness of postfire seedings was examined in 8 erosion and 19 invasive species cases. This data set provides these citations and the evaluations of the two observers.