Sagebrush steppe and associated meadow systems are critical habitat in the Great Basin for wildlife and provide important ecosystem goods and services. Expansion of pinyon (Pinus�spp.) and juniper (Juniperus�spp.) in the Great Basin has reduced the extent of sagebrush steppe causing habitat, fire, and forage concerns.� Additionally many meadow systems have been degraded due to a variety of factors such as grazing pressure by both cattle and wild horses, road capture, and potentially from climate change with the combination of stresses resulting in the expansion of these deeply-rooted evergreen trees. We focus on the Porter Canyon Experimental Watershed which was established to address the hydrologic and ecological effects resulting from changing climate or management option on the distribution of vegetation, ecosystem function and land cover.� Ecosystem changes will influence temporal and spatial water budget partitioning of precipitation across the watershed with implications on hydrologic partitioning of soil moisture to evapotranspiration (ET), interflow and groundwater recharge.� These changes will affect the resistance and resilience of downstream meadows. We used a combination of field measurements and an integrated groundwater and surface water flow model (GSFLOW) to understand flow within and between three regions: (1) plant canopy to the bottom of the soil zone, (2) surface water bodies and (3) the groundwater system below the soil zone. Model runs simulated tree removal and changes in climate.� Field based measures were used to examine various components of the water-budget such as canopy interception, changes in soil moisture with treatment, and plant transpiration.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.