Rangeland Ecology & Management

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A History of Plant Improvement by the USDA-ARS Forage and Range Research Laboratory for Rehabilitation of Degraded Western U.S. Rangelands
Author
Staub, Jack
Chatterton, Jerry
Bushman, Shaun
Johnson, Douglas
Jones, Thomas
Larson, Steve
Robins, Joseph
Monaco, Thomas
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2016-12-01
Body

On the Ground • Climate change models for the western United States predict warmer winters in the Great Basin and hotter, drier summers in the Mojave Desert, increasing the already high rate of rangeland and pasture degradation, which in turn will increase annual grass invasion, escalate wildfire frequency, and reduce forage production. • These changes in western U.S. rangelands will continue to result in the emergence of novel ecosystems that will require different and/or improved plant materials for successful revegetation. • Traditional plant improvement of native and non-native rangeland plant species by the USDA, ARS Forage and Range Research Laboratory (FRRL, Logan, Utah) has been accomplished through rigorous evaluation of seed collections followed by recurrent selection and hybridization of unique plant types within selected populations to identify plants with superior establishment and performance characteristics. After such plant types have been selected, they are further evaluated in multiple ecologically diverse locations to identify broadly adapted superior germplasm for public release. • Plant improvement of perennial grasses, legumes, and forbs by the FRRL has provided and will continue to deliver plant materials that support sustainable rangeland management efforts to service productive and functionally diverse rangelands. The Rangelands archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform March 2020

Language
en
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Journal Issue/Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1016/j.rala.2016.08.004
Additional Information
Staub, J., Chatterton, J., Bushman, S., Johnson, D., Jones, T., Larson, S., ... & Monaco, T. (2016). A History of Plant Improvement by the USDA-ARS Forage and Range Research Laboratory for Rehabilitation of Degraded Western US Rangelands. Rangelands, 38(5), 233-240.
IISN
0190-0528
OAI Identifier
oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/640170
Journal Volume
38
Journal Number
5
Journal Pages
233-240
Collection
Journal Name
Rangelands
Keywords
plant materials
restoration
novel ecosystems
plant breeding
abiotic stress tolerance
resilience
  • Practical, non-technical peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol 1, 1979 up to 3 years from the current year. More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.