Climatic effects on buffelgrass productivity in the Sonoran Desert
Issue Date
1995-01-01Keywords
plant introductionarid zones
dry matter accumulation
Mexico
rain
biomass production
Cenchrus ciliaris
plant litter
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Martin, M. H., Cox, J. R., & Ibarra-F, F. (1995). Climatic effects on buffelgrass productivity in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of Range Management, 48(1), 60-63.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002505Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Buffelgrass (Cenchrus cilaris L.), a perennial bunchgrass from northcentral Kenya has been successfully seeded on 400,000 ha in northwest Mexico. To determine if carrying capacity increased after buffelgrass introduction we measured live, recent-dead standing, old-dead standing and litter at 2-week intervals for three years. Live biomass was produced throughout the year but peak production, over the 3 years was in August. Peak live biomass production varied from 46S kg/ha in a summer of below-average precipitation to 3,045 kg/ha in a summer of above-average precipitation. Recent- and old-dead standing quantities were highly variable among years and transfers among components were dependent on temperature and precipitation. Buffelgrass annually produces about 3 times more green forage than native grasses.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002505