Downy Brome-Intruder in the Plant Succession of Big Sagebrush Communities in the Great Basin
Issue Date
1973-11-01Keywords
site qualityHand Cutting
plant litter
Seedbed Characteristics
Churchill Canyon Watershed
Seed Reserves
Seedbed Quality
downy brome
Overstory
shrub
clearing
plant succession
establishment
Great Basin
seeding
big sagebrush
Bromus tectorum
forbs
cover
Artemisia tridentata
Nevada
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Young, J. A., & Evans, R. A. (1973). Downy brome-intruder in the plant succession of big sagebrush communities in the Great Basin. Journal of Range Management, 26(6), 410-415.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/3896974Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
We investigated succession on six big sagebrush sites of different potential ranging from the edge of the salt desert shrub to seral communities in the pinon/juniper woodland where the brush overstory had been removed by hand cutting. Depending upon the site, herbaceous communities that developed after elimination of overstory cover were composed of either a diversity or a relatively limited number of species of native annual forbs. Alien annual forbs were initial dominants on sites where seed source of these species was available. Dominance by downy brome caused a marked reduction of native annual species. Downy brome was seeded for 3 consecutive years in each of six different big sagebrush communities. On the majority of the sites, providing a seed source resulted in establishment and near total dominance by downy brome. The established populations have persisted and continued to dominate the communities. Some sites were outside the seedbed potential of downy brome, and seeding resulted in establishment only once in 3 years. Presence of plant litter and a rough microtopography were key seedbed characteristics permitting downy brome establishment on these sites.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/3896974