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Brynne E Lazarus

I am a Botanist at the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

 

 

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D., Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA (2010)

  • M.S., Natural Resources, University of Vermont (2004)

  • B.S., Biology, Stanford University (2000)

Science and Products

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Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)

The Effect of Pre-Emergent Herbicides on Soil in The Sagebrush Steppe

We are studying how herbicides sprayed onto soil to prevent the establishment of exotic annual grasses such as cheatgrass may impact the health, growth resources and microbiota of soils in sagebrush-steppe, where herbicide use is an important and common tool. Our findings will help make herbicide applications more successful.
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Wildland Fire Science
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The Effect of Pre-Emergent Herbicides on Soil in The Sagebrush Steppe

We are studying how herbicides sprayed onto soil to prevent the establishment of exotic annual grasses such as cheatgrass may impact the health, growth resources and microbiota of soils in sagebrush-steppe, where herbicide use is an important and common tool. Our findings will help make herbicide applications more successful.
Learn More
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a field of short brown grass, in the middle is a square of bare ground

Longevity of Herbicides Targeting Exotic Annual Grasses in Sagebrush-Steppe Soils

Pre-emergent herbicides applied to soil are a primary tool for reducing exotic annual grasses, such as cheatgrass, in sagebrush steppe rangelands. Effective herbicide application can allow existing perennials to grow and spread to outcompete cheatgrass, preventing reinvasion, but most perennials are slow-growing and require more years of relief from annual-grass competition than standard...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Wildland Fire Science
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Longevity of Herbicides Targeting Exotic Annual Grasses in Sagebrush-Steppe Soils

Pre-emergent herbicides applied to soil are a primary tool for reducing exotic annual grasses, such as cheatgrass, in sagebrush steppe rangelands. Effective herbicide application can allow existing perennials to grow and spread to outcompete cheatgrass, preventing reinvasion, but most perennials are slow-growing and require more years of relief from annual-grass competition than standard...
Learn More
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two scientists working in a sagebrush experimental plot

Plant-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...
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Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
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Plant-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...
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If you are unable to access or download a product, email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov a request, including the full citation, or call (541) 750-1030.

Pre and post treatment (2016-2021) vegetation cover for three southwest Idaho sites treated with pre-emergent herbicides after fire

Selective herbicide application is a common restoration strategy to control exotic invaders that interfere with native plant recovery after wildfire. Whether spraying with preemergent or bioherbicides releases native plants from competition with exotics ("spray-and-release" strategy) and can make communities resistant to re-invasion by exotic annual grasses (e.g., cheatgrass, medusahead), without
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Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Post-fire Chondrilla juncea and biocontrol at Boise River Wildlife Management Area 2018-2019

Top-down and bottom-up factors affecting invasive populations are rarely considered simultaneously, yet their interactive responses to disturbances and management interventions can be essential to understanding invasion patterns. We evaluated post-fire responses of the exotic perennial forb Chondrilla juncea (rush skeletonweed) and its biocontrol agents to landscape factors and a post-fire combine
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Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Post-fire vegetation cover, plant species diversity, and Ustilago bullata infection rates at Boise River Wildlife Management Area 2018-2019

Invasive-plant treatments often target a single or few species, but many landscapes are diversely invaded. Exotic annual grasses (EAGs) increase wildfires and degrade native perennial plant communities in cold-desert rangelands, and herbicides are thus sprayed to inhibit EAG germination and establishment. We asked how EAG-target and nontarget species responded to an herbicide mixture sprayed over
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Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

If you are unable to access or download a product, email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov a request, including the full citation, or call (541) 750-1030.

Filter Total Items: 15

Integration of weed-suppressive bacteria with herbicides to reduce exotic annual grasses and wildfire problems on ITD right-of-ways

Invasion by exotic-annual grasses such as cheatgrass is impacting semiarid rangelands and especially transportation corridors, where it causes increased wildfire and many other environmental issues. Methods of reducing exotic annual grasses and restoring native perennials are needed, particularly testing of their intended target or unintended, non-target effects. In a series of experiments arrayed
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Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino, Toby M. Maxwell
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Plant community context controls short- vs. medium-term effects of pre-emergent herbicides on target and non-target species after fire

Questions: Selective herbicide application is a common restoration strategy to control exotic invaders that interfere with native plant recovery after wildfire. Whether spraying with preemergent or bioherbicides releases native plants from competition with exotics (“spray-and-release” strategy) and can make communities resistant to re-invasion by exotic annual grasses (e.g., cheatgrass, medusahead
Authors
Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Wildland Fire Science

Post-fire management targeting invasive annual grasses may have inadvertently released the exotic perennial forb Chondrilla juncea and suppressed its biocontrol agent

Top-down and bottom-up factors affecting invasive populations are rarely considered simultaneously, yet their interactive responses to disturbances and management interventions can be essential to understanding invasion patterns. We evaluated post-fire responses of the exotic perennial forb Chondrilla juncea (rush skeletonweed) and its biocontrol agents to landscape factors and a post-fire combine
Authors
Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Wildland Fire Science

A chemical and bio‐herbicide mixture increased exotic invaders, both targeted and non‐targeted, across a diversely invaded landscape after fire

QuestionsInvasive‐plant treatments often target a single or few species, but many landscapes are diversely invaded. Exotic annual grasses (EAGs) increase wildfires and degrade native perennial plant communities in cold‐desert rangelands, and herbicides are thus sprayed to inhibit EAG germination and establishment. We asked how EAG target and non‐target species responded to an herbicide mixture spr
Authors
Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew J. Germino
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Wildland Fire Science

Warming of alpine tundra enhances belowground production and shifts community towards resource acquisition traits

Climate warming is expected to stimulate plant growth in high‐elevation and high‐latitude ecosystems, significantly increasing aboveground net primary production (ANPP). However, the effects of simultaneous changes in temperature, snowmelt timing, and summer water availability on total net primary production (NPP)—and elucidation of both above‐ and belowground responses—remain an important area in
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Yan Yang, Julia A. Klein, Daniel E. Winkler, Ahui Peng, Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino, Katherine Suding, Jane G. Smith, Lara M. Kueppers
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

Weed-suppressive bacteria effects differ in culture compared to in soils and with or without microbial competition and separation of active ingredient

Weed-suppressive bacteria (WSB), specifically the D7 and ACK55 strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens, were previously reported to selectively inhibit growth of invasive annual grasses (IAGs) that have caused severe ecosystem degradation across much of the western US. However, recent studies show highly mixed evidence for WSB effectiveness in field settings. We evaluated how the effectiveness of WSB,
Authors
Brynne E. Lazarus, Kevin Feris, Matthew Germino
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Post-fire management-scale trials of bacterial soil amendment MB906 show inconsistent control of invasive annual grasses

Rangeland managers need tools to control invasive annual grasses, particularly following wildfire. We assessed responses of native and invasive/exotic grasses to the MB906 soil amendment containing live cultures of a purportedly weed-suppressive strain of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens (“WSB”). MB906 was applied alone and in combination with the pre-emergent herbicide imazapic on >3000 ha a
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Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino, Martha Brabec, Logan Peterson, Ryan N Walker, Ann Moser
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Synthesis of weed-suppressive bacteria studies in rangelands of the Western United States: Special section of articles in Rangeland Ecology and Management provides no evidence of effectiveness

No abstract available. 
Authors
Matthew Germino, Brynne E. Lazarus
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Intraspecific variation in surface water uptake in a perennial desert shrub

Despite broad recognition that water is a major limiting factor in arid ecosystems, we lack an empirical understanding of how this resource is shared and distributed among neighbouring plants. Intraspecific variability can further contribute to this variation via divergent life‐history traits, including root architecture. We investigated these questions in the shrub Artemisia tridentata and hypoth
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Andrii Zaiats, Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew Germino, Marcelo D. Serpe, Bryce A. Richardson, Sven Buerki, T. Trevor Caughlin
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Weed-suppressive bacteria have no effect on exotic or native plants in sagebrush-steppe

Approaches and techniques for control of exotic annual grasses are a high priority in rangelands including sagebrush steppe. Strains of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens have been proposed to be selectively pathogenic to multiple species of exotic annual grasses (“Pf,” weed-suppressive bacteria, “WSB”). However, defensible tests of the target and nontarget effects of these WSB strains in
Authors
Matthew Germino, Brynne E. Lazarus
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science 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
Authors
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

An experimental test of weed-suppressive bacteria effectiveness in rangelands in southwestern Idaho, 2016–18

Approaches and techniques for control of exotic annual grasses are a high priority in sagebrush-steppe and other rangelands. Strains of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens (Pf) have been proposed to be selectively pathogenic to multiple species of exotic annual grasses with effects evident by the second year, and with no effect on native or desirable species including native bunchgrasses. H
Authors
Brynne E. Lazarus, Matthew J. Germino
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Lazarus, B.E., J.H. Richards, V.P. Claassen, R.E. O’Dell, and M.A. Ferrell 2011. Species specific plant-soil interactions influence plant distribution on serpentine soils. Plant and Soil 342:327-344
Lazarus, B.E., J.H. Richards, P.E. Gordon, L.R. Oki, and C.S. Barnes 2011. Plasticity tradeoffs in salt tolerance mechanisms among desert Distichlis spicata genotypes. Functional Plant Biology 38:187-198
Schaberg, P.G., B.E. Lazarus, G.J. Hawley, J.M. Halman, C.H. Borer, and C.F. Hansen 2011. Assessment of weather-associated causes of red spruce winter injury and consequences to aboveground carbon sequestration. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 41:359-369
Lazarus, B.E., P.G. Schaberg, G.J. Hawley, D.H. DeHayes 2006. Landscape scale spatial patterns of winter injury to red spruce foliage in a year of heavy region-wide injury. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 36: 142-152
Lazarus, B.E., P.G. Schaberg, D.H. DeHayes, G.J. Hawley 2004. Severe red spruce winter injury in 2003 creates unusual ecological event in the northeastern United States. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34: 1784-1788

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

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A Chemical and Bio-Herbicide Mixture Increased Exotic Invaders, Both Targeted and Non-Targeted, Across a Diversely Invaded Landscape After Fire

Herbicides sprayed to inhibit exotic annual grass germination and establishment can have unintended effects, including the release of secondary...

Read Article
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Post-fire Management may have Inadvertently Released an Exotic Perennial Forb and Suppressed its Biocontrol Agents

Invasive plants that establish in sagebrush steppe ecosystems during the critical post-fire recolonization period can affect long-term vegetation...

Read Article
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Weed-Suppressive Bacteria Effects Differ in Culture Compared to in Soils

Weed-suppressive bacteria (WSB), specifically the D7 and ACK55 strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens, were previously reported to selectively inhibit...

Read Article
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Bacterial Soil Amendment MB906 Shows Inconsistent Control of Invasive Annual Grasses

In 2016, land managers began using a soil amendment called MB906, a weed-suppressive bacteria, to control invasive annual grasses, yet the success of...

Read Article
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Intraspecific Variation in Surface Water Uptake in a Perennial Desert Shrub

Variability in root architecture is one source of plant trait diversification that affects how water is distributed among plants. 

Read Article
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Weed-Suppressive Bacteria have no Effect on Exotic or Native Plants in Sagebrush Steppe

Approaches and techniques for controlling exotic annual grasses are a high priority in rangelands including sagebrush steppe. 

Read Article
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Cold Hardiness of Big Sagebrush May be Maladaptive in a Warmer Climate

Physiological responses to temperature extremes are considered strong drivers of plant species’ resilience to climate variability. 

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