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Invasive Plants We Study: Brome Active

By Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program October 2, 2022

Brome is an invasive plant.

Brome Research

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cheatgrass

Cheatgrass and Medusahead

Invasive annual grasses, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), are one of the most significant stressors to rangeland ecosystems in the western U.S. Their expansion and dominance across this area are the most damaging ecosystem agents on this iconic landscape.
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
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Cheatgrass and Medusahead

Invasive annual grasses, such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), are one of the most significant stressors to rangeland ecosystems in the western U.S. Their expansion and dominance across this area are the most damaging ecosystem agents on this iconic landscape.
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Annual brome species invading a trail across native priairie

An adaptive management framework to control invasive annual brome grasses in Northern Great Plains parks (ABAM)

Invasion by annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese brome) and other exotic annual grasses into National Park Service units (parks) in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) impacts park ecological and historical landscape integrity. The Annual Brome Adaptive Management (ABAM) decision support tool (DST) was built to support vegetation management decision making, particularly regarding these...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
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An adaptive management framework to control invasive annual brome grasses in Northern Great Plains parks (ABAM)

Invasion by annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese brome) and other exotic annual grasses into National Park Service units (parks) in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) impacts park ecological and historical landscape integrity. The Annual Brome Adaptive Management (ABAM) decision support tool (DST) was built to support vegetation management decision making, particularly regarding these...
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Photo of annual brome grasses in an unburned, untreated control plot

What role does prescribed fire play in managing annual bromes in Northern Great Plains grasslands?

Prescribed fire is used in grasslands throughout the Northern Great Plains National Park Service units (parks) to manage fuel loads, control nonnative species, and maintain a vital ecosystem process. Questions about its effects in areas with invasive annual brome grasses require answers to ensure its application produces desired results. Using an experimental approach at two parks in South Dakota...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
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What role does prescribed fire play in managing annual bromes in Northern Great Plains grasslands?

Prescribed fire is used in grasslands throughout the Northern Great Plains National Park Service units (parks) to manage fuel loads, control nonnative species, and maintain a vital ecosystem process. Questions about its effects in areas with invasive annual brome grasses require answers to ensure its application produces desired results. Using an experimental approach at two parks in South Dakota...
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Tiny desert tortoise found during a population census

Desert Tortoise Ecology, Health, Habitat, and Conservation Biology

The desert tortoise is listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. USGS WERC scientists, along with project partners have been conducting long-term analyses on how changes in the southwestern deserts of the United States can affect desert tortoise populations. Dr. Todd Esque and his team are investigating how habitat disturbances and restoration projects influence tortoise populations...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Species Management Research Program, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)
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Desert Tortoise Ecology, Health, Habitat, and Conservation Biology

The desert tortoise is listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. USGS WERC scientists, along with project partners have been conducting long-term analyses on how changes in the southwestern deserts of the United States can affect desert tortoise populations. Dr. Todd Esque and his team are investigating how habitat disturbances and restoration projects influence tortoise populations...
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Wildfire in the Mid-Elevation Mojave Desert

Wildland Fire Science in Forests and Deserts

Fuel conditions and fire regimes in western forests and deserts have been altered due to past land management, biological invasions, and recent extreme weather events and climate shifts. These changes have created extreme fire risk to local and regional communities, threatening their economic health related to wildland recreation, forest production, livestock operations, and other uses of public...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)
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Wildland Fire Science in Forests and Deserts

Fuel conditions and fire regimes in western forests and deserts have been altered due to past land management, biological invasions, and recent extreme weather events and climate shifts. These changes have created extreme fire risk to local and regional communities, threatening their economic health related to wildland recreation, forest production, livestock operations, and other uses of public...
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Explore our science using the data below.

Presence and abundance data and models for four invasive plant species

We developed habitat suitability models for four invasive plant species of concern to Department of Interior land management agencies. We generally followed the modeling workflow developed in Young et al. 2020, but developed models both for two data types, where species were present and where they were abundant. We developed models using five algorithms with VisTrails: Software for Assisted Habita
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Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center

Vegetation Composition and Management History Data (2015-2019) from Experimental Plots at Badlands NP, Wind Cave NP, and Scotts Bluff NM Used to Develop the ABAM Model

Plant species cover and richness data were collected in experimental plots at three sites: one at Badlands National Park (BADL), South Dakota, one at Scotts Bluff National Monument (SCBL), Nebraska, and one at Wind Cave National Park (WICA), South Dakota. At the Badlands and Scotts Bluff sites, data were collected in the summers of 2015 and 2017-2020 in 50 x 50-m plots with one of five treatments:
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Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Invasive Plant Cover in the Mojave Desert, 2009 - 2013 (ver. 2.0, April 2021)

We assessed the impacts of co-occurring invasive plant species on fire regimes and postfire native communities in the Mojave Desert, western USA by analyzing the distribution and co-occurrence patterns of three invasive annual grasses known to alter fuel conditions and community structure: Red Brome (Bromus rubens), Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and Mediterranean grass (Schismus spp.: Schismus a
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Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)

INHABIT species potential distribution across the contiguous United States

We developed habitat suitability models for invasive plant species selected by Department of Interior land management agencies. We applied the modeling workflow developed in Young et al. 2020 to species not included in the original case studies. Our methodology balanced trade-offs between developing highly customized models for a few species versus fitting non-specific and generic models for numer
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Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center

Plant community data for annual brome management experimental plots in grasslands of Badlands National Park, South Dakota, and Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska, 2015-2018

Plant cover data were collected in experimental plots at two sites, one at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, and one at Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska. At each site, 40 50 x 50 m plots were assigned randomly to one of the following treatments: control (no action), burn-only (prescribed fire in fall 2016), burn+herbicide (prescribed fire followed by imazapic application in fall 2016),
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Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Early Season Invasives Mapping 2001 - 2010, Washington County, Utah, USA

Invasive annual plants such as red brome (Bromus rubens), cheatgrass (B. tectorum), and African mustard (Malcomia africana) can have profound impacts on dryland ecosystems. Potential impacts include the alteration of fuel loads and fire regimes, as well as the competitive displacement of native plant populations. Both of these impacts can significantly degrade habitat quality for wildlife and can
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Southwest Biological Science Center

Explore our science using the publications below.

Filter Total Items: 20

Adaptive management framework and decision support tool for invasive annual bromes in seven Northern Great Plains National Park Service units

National Park Service (NPS) units in the northern Great Plains (NGP) were established to preserve and interpret the history of the United States, protect and showcase unusual geology and paleontology, and provide a home for vanishing large wildlife. A unifying feature among these national parks, monuments, and historic sites is northern mixed-grass prairie, which not only provides background scene
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Amy Symstad, Heather Baldwin, Max Post van der Burg
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Fire controls annual bromes in northern great plains grasslands—Up to a point

Concern about the impacts of two invasive annual brome grasses (cheatgrass and Japanese brome, Bromus tectorum L. and B. japonicus Thunb. ex Murray) on the mixed-grass prairie of North America's northern Great Plains (NGP) is growing. Cheatgrass is well known west of the NGP, where replacement of fire-intolerant, native sagebrush steppe by fire-prone, exotic annual grasslands is widespread. Conseq
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Amy Symstad, Deborah A. Buhl, Daniel J Swanson
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Weed-suppressive bacteria fail to control bromus tectorum under field conditions

The exotic winter annual grass Bromus tectorum L. (downy brome or cheatgrass) infests millions of hectares of western rangelands. Weed-suppressive bacteria (ACK55 and D7 strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens Migula 1895) have been shown to reduce B. tectorum populations in eastern Washington. Unfortunately, outside of Washington, little is known about the efficacy of these or other weed-suppressive b
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Kurt O Reinhart, Chris H Carlson, Kevin P Feris, Matthew Germino, Clancy J Jandreau, Brynne E. Lazarus, Jane M. Mangold, Dave W Pellatz, Philip Ramsey, Matthew J. Rinella, Morgan Valliant
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Fire and nonnative invasive plants in the central bioregion

The Central bioregion is a vast area, stretching from Canada to Mexico and from the eastern forests to the Rocky Mountains, dominated by grasslands and shrublands, but inclusive of riparian and other forests. This bioregion has been impacted by many human induced changes, particularly relating to agricultural practices, over the past 150 years. Also changed are fire regimes, first by native people
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James B. Grace, Kristin Zouhar
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Negative impacts of invasive plants on conservation of sensitive desert wildlife

Habitat disturbance from development, resource extraction, off-road vehicle use, and energy development ranks highly among threats to desert systems worldwide. In the Mojave Desert, United States, these disturbances have promoted the establishment of nonnative plants, so that native grasses and forbs are now intermixed with, or have been replaced by invasive, nonnative Mediterranean grasses. This
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K. Kristina Drake, Lizabeth Bowen, Kenneth E. Nussear, Todd C. Esque, Andrew J. Berger, Nathan Custer, Shannon C. Waters, Jay D. Johnson, A. Keith Miles, Rebecca L. Lewison
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)

Preserving prairies: Understanding temporal and spatial patterns of invasive annual bromes in the Northern Great Plains

Two Eurasian invasive annual brome grasses, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus), are well known for their impact in steppe ecosystems of the western United States where these grasses have altered fire regimes, reduced native plant diversity and abundance, and degraded wildlife habitat. Annual bromes are also abundant in the grasslands of the Northern Great Plains (NG
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Isabel Ashton, Amy J. Symstad, Christopher Davis, Daniel J. Swanson
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Native Prairie Adaptive Management: a multi region adaptive approach to invasive plant management on Fish and Wildlife Service owned native prairies

Much of the native prairie managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the northern Great Plains is extensively invaded by the introduced cool-season grasses, smooth brome (Bromus inermis) and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis). Management to suppress these invasive plants has had poor to inconsistent success. The central challenge to managers is sele
Authors
Jill J. Gannon, Terry L. Shaffer, Clinton T. Moore
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Soil Seed Bank Responses to Postfire Herbicide and Native Seeding Treatments Designed to Control Bromus tectorum in a Pinyon–Juniper Woodland at Zion National Park, USA

The continued threat of an invasive, annual brome (Bromus) species in the western United States has created the need for integrated approaches to postfire restoration. Additionally, the high germination rate, high seed production, and seed bank carryover of annual bromes points to the need to assay soil seed banks as part of monitoring programs. We sampled the soil seed bank to help assess the eff
Authors
Matthew L. Brooks, graduate student Hondo Brisbin, Associate Professor Andrea Thode, graduate student Karen Weber
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC)

Forty years of vegetation change on the Missouri River floodplain

Comparative inventories in 1969 and 1970 and in 2008 of vegetation from 30 forest stands downstream of Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota showed (a) a sharp decline in Cottonwood regeneration; (b) a strong compositional shift toward dominance by green ash; and (c) large increases in invasive understory species, such as smooth brome, reed canary grass, and Canada thistle. Th
Authors
W. Carter Johnson, Mark D. Dixon, Michael L. Scott, Lisa Rabbe, Gary Larson, Malia Volke, Brett Werner
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

An adaptive approach to invasive plant management on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-owned native prairies in the Prairie Pothole Region: decision support under uncertainity

Much of the native prairie managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) is extensively invaded by the introduced cool-season grasses smooth brome (Bromus inermis) and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis). The central challenge to managers is selecting appropriate management actions in the face of biological and environmental uncertainties. We describe t
Authors
Jill J. Gannon, Clinton T. Moore, Terry L. Shaffer, Bridgette Flanders-Wanner
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Eastern Ecological Science Center

Model estimation of land-use effects on water levels of northern Prairie wetlands

Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region exist in a matrix of grassland dominated by intensive pastoral and cultivation agriculture. Recent conservation management has emphasized the conversion of cultivated farmland and degraded pastures to intact grassland to improve upland nesting habitat. The consequences of changes in land-use cover that alter watershed processes have not been evaluated relat
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R.A. Voldseth, W.C. Johnson, T. Gilmanov, G.R. Guntenspergen, B.V. Millett
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Eastern Ecological Science Center

Conservation reserve program: benefit for grassland birds in the northern plains

During the past few decades numbers of some species of upland-nesting birds in North America have declined. Duck species such as mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), northern pintail (A. acuta) and blue-winged teal (A. discors) have declined since the early 1970s and have remained low since 1985 (Caithamer et al. 1993). Some grassland-dependent nonwaterfowl species also have declined since 1966, as indic
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R. E. Reynolds, T.L. Shaffer, J.R. Sauer, B.G. Peterjohn
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center