Combining active restoration and targeted grazing to establish native plants and reduce fuel loads in invaded ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Many drylands have been converted from perennial-dominated ecosystems to invaded, annual-dominated, fire-prone systems. Innovative approaches are needed to disrupt fire-invasion feedbacks. Targeted grazing can reduce invasive plant abundance and associated flammable fuels, and fuelbreaks can limit fire spread. Restored strips of native plants (native greenstrips) can function as fuelbreaks while also providing forage and habitat benefits. However, methods for establishing native greenstrips in invaded drylands are poorly developed. Moreover, if fuels reduction and greenstrip establishment are to proceed simultaneously, it is critical to understand how targeted grazing interacts with plant establishment. We determined how targeted grazing treatments interacted with seed rate, spatial planti

SUBMITTER: Porensky LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6309004 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature