Vegetal recovery following wildfire in seeded and unseeded sagebrush steppe
Issue Date
1995-09-01Keywords
rehabilitationsown grasslands
ground cover
Artemisia
steppes
species diversity
drilling
fires
fire effects
rain
Idaho
botanical composition
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Ratzlaff, T. D., & Anderson, J. E. (1995). Vegetal recovery following wildfire in seeded and unseeded sagebrush steppe. Journal of Range Management, 48(5), 386-391.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002239Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Following an August wildfire, sagebrush (Artemisia L.)/grass benchlands adjacent to Pocatello, Ida., were seeded with a mixture of exotic wheatgrasses and forbs by rangeland drill in November 1987. The effects of seeding on vegetation development in the immediate postfire years were evaluated by comparing plant density, vegetal cover, species composition, species diversity, and standing crop in seeded areas to that in unseeded control plots in 1988 and 1989. We also examined cover of bare ground, litter, and growth form between treatments and between sampling periods. Twenty paired 10-m transects were established in seeded and unseeded areas on each of 3 plots on the burned benches. Plant density, vegetal cover, and species diversity were lower in the seeded areas than in the unseeded areas in 1988 and 1989. Species composition, species richness, and standing crop were similar between treatments. Establishment of seeded species was poor, probably as a result of drought conditions in 1987 and 1988. Most plants observed in seeded and unseeded areas in the spring of 1988 sprouted from established perennials. Even though the first postfire season was a drought year, plant cover in the unseeded areas (18.3%) approached that estimated by a U.S. interagency task force as needed to stabilize soils on that site. In the following year, which had average precipitation, plant cover in both treatments exceeded the task force's estimate of prefire cover. Because the indigenous plant species recovered rapidly, seeding of this burn was unnecessary to establish plant cover and counterproductive in terms of erosion potential. These results serve to emphasize that objective criteria should be established for evaluating the necessity of postfire seeding.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002239