Modeling desert shrubland changes with an invasive grass introduction and climate change

View research brief.

This brief summarizes work by researchers who modeled exactly how problematic the grass-fire cycle could be for non-fire-adapted desert shrublands under three sets of climate conditions. Specifically, three different degrees of inter-annual precipitation variability (i.e., none, medium, and extreme climate change variability; sigma = 0 to 0.8) and related invasive grass cover biomass was modeled to theoretically induce land degradation.