The authors' objective was to evaluate effects of disturbance size and soil texture on the development of microtopography for a shortgrass plant community in north central Colorado. Disturbances, defined as the death of individual plants, were created in 1984 and 1985 to evaluate development through time of the small-scale pattern of perennial bunchgrasses and bare soil openings that characterize this semiarid grassland. Differences between crown heights of plants and bare soil openings were comparable for both the undisturbed landscape and inside disturbances indicating that small-scale microtopography had recovered within nine years after disturbance occurred. However, complete recovery to the undisturbed state had not occurred since crown heights of plants relative to bare soil openings were significantly less on disturbed than undisturbed locations. Larger differences in height were found on plots on the fine- than the coarse-textured soil, indicating the importance of soil particle size and plant cover type to the development of microtopography. In this semiarid grassland, patterns in microtopography were heterogeneous, likely as a result of the small-scale redistribution of soil between bare soil openings and Bouteloua gracilis plants through time. Results indicate that redistribution of soil is affected by disturbance size, soil texture, and patchy plant cover. The major effect of small-scale disturbances on patterns in microtopography of the shortgrass steppe are causing plant death and exposing soil to erosional and depositional processes.
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