Viewpoint: Sustainability of piñon-juniper ecosystems—a unifying perspective of soil erosion thresholds

Abstract

Many piñon-juniper ecosystems in the western U.S. are subject to accelerated erosion while others are undergoing little or no erosion. Controversy has developed over whether invading or encroaching piñon and juniper species are inherently harmful to rangeland ecosystems. We developed a conceptual model of soil erosion in piñon-juniper ecosystems that is consistent with both sides of the controversy and suggests that the diverse perspectives on this issue arise from threshold effects operating under very different site conditions. Soil erosion rate can be viewed as a function of (1) site erosion potential (SEP), determined by climate, geomorphology and soil erodibility; and (2) ground cover. Site erosion potential and cover act synergistically to determine soil erosion rates, as evident even from simple USLE predictions of erosion. In piñon-juniper ecosystems with high SEP, the erosion rate is highly sensitive to ground cover and can cross a threshold so that erosion increases dramatically in response to a small decrease in cover. The sensitivity of erosion rate to SEP and cover can be visualized as a cusp catastrophe surface on which changes may occur rapidly and irreversibly. The mechanisms associated with a rapid shift from low to high erosion rate can be illustrated using percolation theory to incorporate spatial, temporal, and scale-dependent patterns of water storage capacity on a hillslope. Percolation theory demonstrates how hillslope runoff can undergo a threshold response to a minor change in storage capacity. Our conceptual model suggests that piñon and juniper contribute to accelerated erosion only under a limited range of site conditions which, however, may exist over large areas.