Shrub encroachment into grasslands: end of an era?

ABSTRACT: Shifts in the abundance of grasses and woody plants in drylands have occurred several times during the Holocene. However, our understanding of the rates and dynamics of this state-change in recent decades is limited to scattered studies conducted at disparate spatial and temporal scales; the potential misperceptions of shrub cover change could be remedied using cross spatiotemporal scale analyses that link field observations, repeat ground-level photography and remote sensing perspectives. The study was conducted across a semi-arid landscape in southern Arizona. Local data from long-term transects revealed three distinct chronological phases of shrub cover change: expansion (1961-1991, 0.7% y^-1), decline (1992-1997, -2.3% y^-1) and stabilization (1998-2012, 22-25% with

SUBMITTER: Huang CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6129137 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature