Fuel control treatments are implemented in sagebrush (Artemisia L.) steppe communities to reduce severe wildfire, and to enhance ecosystem function and wildlife habitat. Resilience of sagebrush steppe communities after fuel control treatments or other disturbances is dependent on resistance to� cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.).� High cover of cheatgrass after treatments puts the system at risk of passing through a biotic threshold of increased fire frequency and continued cheatgrass dominance.� Sagebrush steppe resilience in part depends on perennial herbaceous cover to resist cheatgrass.� Higher resilience and resistance of sagebrush steppe systems has been associated with a cooler and wetter soil climate which supports higher perennial herbaceous cover compared to warmer and drier conditions that support cheatgrass. �We tested effects of treatments on soil temperature and soil water availability and plant cover on six sagebrush sites lacking tree expansion and 11 sites with tree expansion.� We measured soil temperatures and soil water potentials at 13-30, and 50 cm from 2011 through spring of 2016 and related them to cover of perennial herbs and cheatgrass 6 years post treatment (2011-2012) for most sites.� Prescribed fire slightly increased soil temperatures, and increased�cheatgrass cover on most sites.� Mechanical treatments increased soil water availability and increased perennial herbaceous cover.� However, both soil and vegetation responses varied more among sites than among treatments.� Non-metric dimensional scaling ordination and decision dree partition analysis indicated that sites with warmer and wetter falls had highest cover of cheatgrass.� Sites with wetter winters and early springs had higher cover of perennial herbs.� Our concurrent measurement of soil climate and vegetation cover variables on similar treatments across a wide array of sites supports the idea that cooler and wetter sites are most resilient and resistant to cheatgrass, while warmer and drier sites are least resistant.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.