Annual grass invasions and ecological disturbances associated with energy development, drought, and wildfires can reduce ecosystem services throughout western US rangelands. Once dominant, annual grasses are self-sustaining because their litter provides substantial fuel for wildfires and they easily germinate following fire. Consequently, many areas invaded by these species have degraded to a point where perennial grasses will not reestablish without substantial inputs. There is a significant need to identify the mechanisms sustaining invasive annual grasses, determine perennial grasses that effectively establish in these regions, and discover management solutions for breaking this feedback cycle. Here we present the results of two studies where we first identified the role of seed dispersal timing and frequency, seeding rate, and water availability on the competition between invasive annual and native perennial grasses, then identified practical, ecologically-based management solutions for breaking the annual grass feedback cycle and restoring seeded perennial grasses to these degraded regions.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.