Four-wing saltbush is an important browse species for wildlife and domestic livestock and has been reported to provide as much as 11.4% to 13.6% crude protein. Granivorous rodents are important in the ecology of plant communities as well as the management practices that occur in those communities. In any land management practice that involves seeding in restoration or rehabilitation efforts, land managers must be cognizant of the role that biotic and abiotic factors ultimately have on the success and failures of these efforts. Abiotic factors such as poor seed germination or lack of proper amount and periodicity of precipitation are more well understood than biotic factors such as seed and seedling predation by granivorous rodents. Granivorous rodents in this study consumed as much as 55% and 99% of the four-wing saltbush seed and seedlings, respectively. Understanding the possible effects of rodent behavior with four-wing saltbush seed and seedlings should help resource managers in their planning and implementation of future rehabilitation/restoration efforts. © 2017 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.
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.