Christopher "Digger" Anthony (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Providing a Climate Science Foundation for Updating the Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy Actionable Science Plan
The long-term success of management efforts in sagebrush habitats are increasingly complicated by the impacts of a changing climate throughout the western United States. These complications are most evident in the ongoing challenges of drought and altered rangeland fire regimes resulting from the establishment of nonnative annual grasses. The Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy recognize
Pre-fire satellite derived and field calculated functional cover across Great Basin megafires
Data includes satellite derived pre-fire functional group cover of annual and perennial herbaceous, shrubs, bareground and litter across four rangeland megafires in the Western US, as well as field estimated invasive annual grass measurements from the 2nd to 3rd years post-fire. Additional landscape and restoration treatment covariates hypothesized to influence post-fire invasive annual grass cove
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: 16
Propensity score matching mitigates risk of faulty inferences in observational studies of effectiveness of restoration trials
Determining effectiveness of restoration treatments is an important requirement of adaptive management, but it can be non-trivial where only portions of large and heterogeneous landscapes of concern can be treated and sampled. Bias and non-randomness in the spatial deployment of treatment and thus sampling is nearly unavoidable in the data available for large-scale management trials, and the bioph
Authors
Chad Raymond Kluender, Matthew Germino, Christopher A Anthony
Analysis adapted from text mining quantitively reveals abrupt and gradual plant-community transitions after fire in sagebrush steppe
ContextPlant communities vary both abruptly and gradually over time but differentiating between types of change can be difficult with existing classification and ordination methods. Structural topic modeling (STRUTMO), a text mining analysis, offers a flexible methodology for analyzing both types of temporal trends.ObjectivesOur objectives were to (1) identify post-fire dominant sagebrush steppe p
Authors
Cara Applestein, Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Satellite-derived prefire vegetation predicts variation in field-based invasive annual grass cover after fire
AimsInvasion by annual grasses (IAGs) and concomitant increases in wildfire are impacting many drylands globally, and an understanding of factors that contribute to or detract from community resistance to IAGs is needed to inform postfire restoration interventions. Prefire vegetation condition is often unknown in rangelands but it likely affects variation in postfire invasion resistance across lar
Authors
Christopher A Anthony, Cara Applestein, Matthew Germino
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment— Climate and weather topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western U.S. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the e
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Does post-fire recovery of native grasses across abiotic-stress and invasive-grass gradients match theoretical predictions, in sagebrush steppe?
Interactions among species can strongly affect how plant communities reassemble after disturbances, and variability among native and invasive species across environmental gradients must be known in order to manage plant-community recovery. The stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts species interactions will be more positive in abiotically stressful conditions and conversely, more negative in be
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment — Sagebrush and sage-grouse topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Matthew J Holloran, Christopher R. Anthony, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment—Fire topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Matthew J Holloran, Christopher R. Anthony, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment: Restoration topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are substantial management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment: Invasives topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Plant community trajectories following livestock exclusion for conservation vary and hinge on initial invasion and soil-biocrust conditions in shrub steppe
Adjustments or complete withdrawal of livestock grazing are among the most common conservation actions in semiarid uplands, but outcomes can vary considerably with ecological context. Invasion by exotic annual grasses and the excessive wildfire they promote are increasing threats to semiarid shrub-steppe, and plant-community response to livestock exclusion in these areas may be complicated by the
Authors
Matthew J. Germino, Chad Raymond Kluender, Christopher R. Anthony
Temporal mismatch in space use by a sagebrush obligate species after large-scale wildfire
The increase in size and frequency of wildfires in sagebrush steppe ecosystems has significant impacts on sagebrush obligate species. We modeled seasonal habitat use by female greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the Trout Creek Mountains of Oregon and Nevada, USA, to identify landscape characteristics that influenced sage-grouse habitat selection and to create predictive surfaces of
Authors
Elizabeth M. Schuyler, Christian A. Hagen, Christopher R. Anthony, Lee J. Foster, Katie Dugger
Predictive models of selective cattle use of large, burned landscapes in semiarid sagebrush-steppe
The fire-exotic annual grass cycle is a severe threat to shrub-steppe rangelands, and a greater understanding of how livestock grazing relates to the problem is needed to guide effective management interventions. Grazing effects vary throughout shrub-steppe rangelands because livestock are selective in their use within pastures. Thus, knowing where cattle are located and concentrate their use in a
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Non-USGS Publications**
Anthony, C.R., Hagen, C.A., Dugger, K.M., and Elmore, R.D., 2021, Greater sage-grouse nest bowls buffer microclimate in a post-megafire landscape although effects on nest survival are marginal: Ornithological Applications: The Condor v. 123, no. 1, p. 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithapp/duaa068
Anthony, C.R., and Sanchez, D.M., 2019, Habitat selection and space use of Myotis evotis in a western juniper woodland of central Oregon: Journal of Mammalogy v. 100, no. 1, p. 239–248, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyy150
Anthony, C.R., and Sanchez, D.M., 2018, Roost site selection of western long-eared myotis in a western juniper woodland: The Journal of Wildlife Management, v. 82, no. 3, p. 618–628, https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21416
**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.
Science and Products
Providing a Climate Science Foundation for Updating the Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy Actionable Science Plan
The long-term success of management efforts in sagebrush habitats are increasingly complicated by the impacts of a changing climate throughout the western United States. These complications are most evident in the ongoing challenges of drought and altered rangeland fire regimes resulting from the establishment of nonnative annual grasses. The Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy recognize
Pre-fire satellite derived and field calculated functional cover across Great Basin megafires
Data includes satellite derived pre-fire functional group cover of annual and perennial herbaceous, shrubs, bareground and litter across four rangeland megafires in the Western US, as well as field estimated invasive annual grass measurements from the 2nd to 3rd years post-fire. Additional landscape and restoration treatment covariates hypothesized to influence post-fire invasive annual grass cove
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: 16
Propensity score matching mitigates risk of faulty inferences in observational studies of effectiveness of restoration trials
Determining effectiveness of restoration treatments is an important requirement of adaptive management, but it can be non-trivial where only portions of large and heterogeneous landscapes of concern can be treated and sampled. Bias and non-randomness in the spatial deployment of treatment and thus sampling is nearly unavoidable in the data available for large-scale management trials, and the bioph
Authors
Chad Raymond Kluender, Matthew Germino, Christopher A Anthony
Analysis adapted from text mining quantitively reveals abrupt and gradual plant-community transitions after fire in sagebrush steppe
ContextPlant communities vary both abruptly and gradually over time but differentiating between types of change can be difficult with existing classification and ordination methods. Structural topic modeling (STRUTMO), a text mining analysis, offers a flexible methodology for analyzing both types of temporal trends.ObjectivesOur objectives were to (1) identify post-fire dominant sagebrush steppe p
Authors
Cara Applestein, Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Satellite-derived prefire vegetation predicts variation in field-based invasive annual grass cover after fire
AimsInvasion by annual grasses (IAGs) and concomitant increases in wildfire are impacting many drylands globally, and an understanding of factors that contribute to or detract from community resistance to IAGs is needed to inform postfire restoration interventions. Prefire vegetation condition is often unknown in rangelands but it likely affects variation in postfire invasion resistance across lar
Authors
Christopher A Anthony, Cara Applestein, Matthew Germino
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment— Climate and weather topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western U.S. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the e
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Does post-fire recovery of native grasses across abiotic-stress and invasive-grass gradients match theoretical predictions, in sagebrush steppe?
Interactions among species can strongly affect how plant communities reassemble after disturbances, and variability among native and invasive species across environmental gradients must be known in order to manage plant-community recovery. The stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts species interactions will be more positive in abiotically stressful conditions and conversely, more negative in be
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment — Sagebrush and sage-grouse topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Matthew J Holloran, Christopher R. Anthony, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment—Fire topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Matthew J Holloran, Christopher R. Anthony, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment: Restoration topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are substantial management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Integrated rangeland fire management strategy actionable science plan completion assessment: Invasives topic, 2015–20
Loss and degradation of sagebrush rangelands due to an accelerated invasive annual grass-wildfire cycle and other stressors are significant management, conservation, and economic issues in the western United States. These sagebrush rangelands comprise a unique biome spanning 11 states, support over 350 wildlife species, and provide important ecosystem services that include stabilizing the economie
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew J Holloran, Mark A. Ricca, Steven E. Hanser, Sue L. Phillips, Paul F. Steblein, Lief A. Wiechman
Plant community trajectories following livestock exclusion for conservation vary and hinge on initial invasion and soil-biocrust conditions in shrub steppe
Adjustments or complete withdrawal of livestock grazing are among the most common conservation actions in semiarid uplands, but outcomes can vary considerably with ecological context. Invasion by exotic annual grasses and the excessive wildfire they promote are increasing threats to semiarid shrub-steppe, and plant-community response to livestock exclusion in these areas may be complicated by the
Authors
Matthew J. Germino, Chad Raymond Kluender, Christopher R. Anthony
Temporal mismatch in space use by a sagebrush obligate species after large-scale wildfire
The increase in size and frequency of wildfires in sagebrush steppe ecosystems has significant impacts on sagebrush obligate species. We modeled seasonal habitat use by female greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the Trout Creek Mountains of Oregon and Nevada, USA, to identify landscape characteristics that influenced sage-grouse habitat selection and to create predictive surfaces of
Authors
Elizabeth M. Schuyler, Christian A. Hagen, Christopher R. Anthony, Lee J. Foster, Katie Dugger
Predictive models of selective cattle use of large, burned landscapes in semiarid sagebrush-steppe
The fire-exotic annual grass cycle is a severe threat to shrub-steppe rangelands, and a greater understanding of how livestock grazing relates to the problem is needed to guide effective management interventions. Grazing effects vary throughout shrub-steppe rangelands because livestock are selective in their use within pastures. Thus, knowing where cattle are located and concentrate their use in a
Authors
Christopher R. Anthony, Matthew Germino
Non-USGS Publications**
Anthony, C.R., Hagen, C.A., Dugger, K.M., and Elmore, R.D., 2021, Greater sage-grouse nest bowls buffer microclimate in a post-megafire landscape although effects on nest survival are marginal: Ornithological Applications: The Condor v. 123, no. 1, p. 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithapp/duaa068
Anthony, C.R., and Sanchez, D.M., 2019, Habitat selection and space use of Myotis evotis in a western juniper woodland of central Oregon: Journal of Mammalogy v. 100, no. 1, p. 239–248, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyy150
Anthony, C.R., and Sanchez, D.M., 2018, Roost site selection of western long-eared myotis in a western juniper woodland: The Journal of Wildlife Management, v. 82, no. 3, p. 618–628, https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21416
**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.