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Activated carbon to limit herbicide effects to seeded bunchgrasses when revegetating invaded rangelands

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Results suggest that herbicide protection pods (HPPs) can be used to allow desired species to be seeded simultaneously with imazapic application. This will allow seeded species a longer window to become established before experiencing pressure from exotic annuals and enable a single-entry approach compared with multiple entries currently employed to revegetate annual grass − invaded rangelands. Though further field testing is needed, in particular with multiple species and higher herbicide applications rates, these results suggest that HPPs could improve our ability to restore and revegetate exotic annual grass − invaded rangelands.

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Defining ecological drought for the 21st century

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This paper defines the term ecological drought as an episodic deficit in water availability that drives ecosystems beyond thresholds of vulnerability, impacts ecosystem services, and triggers feedbacks in natural and/or human systems. We support this definition with a novel, integrated framework for ecological drought that is organized along two dimensions—the components of vulnerability (exposure + sensitivity/adaptive capacity) and a continuum from human to natural factors. The purpose of this framework is to help guide drought researchers and decision-makers to understand 1) the roles that both people and nature play as drivers of ecosystem vulnerability, 2) that ecological drought’s impacts are transferred to human communities via ecosystem services, and 3) these ecological and ecosystem service impacts will feed back to both natural and human systems. In addition, our framework will help identify important trade-offs and strategies for reducing the ecological drought risks facing both human and natural systems in the 21st century.

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Method to quantitatively determine Artemisia tridentata subspecies

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In this study, spectrophotometry was used to quantify chemical differences in the water-soluble compound, coumarin. Ultraviolet (UV) absorbance of A. tridentata subsp. vaseyana showed distinct differences among A.t. tridentata and wyomingensis. Use of spectrophotometry to acquire UV absorbance provides empirical results that can be used in seed testing laboratories using the seed chaff present with the seed to certify A. tridentata subspecies composition.

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Long-term trends in restoration and associated land treatments in the southwestern US

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Study results from this project suggest that treatments over a 70-year period on public lands in the southwestern United States are shifting toward restoration practices that are increasingly large, expensive, and related to fire and invasive species control.

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Weather-centric rangeland revegetation planning

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Skillful seasonal climate forecasts could greatly improve the cost efficiency of management treatments by limiting revegetation activities to time periods where forecasts suggest higher probabilities of successful seedling establishment. Climate-change projections are key to the application of current environmental models for development of mitigation and adaptation strategies and for management practices that require a multidecadal planning horizon. Adoption of new weather technology will require collaboration between land managers and revegetation specialists and modifications to the way we currently plan and conduct rangeland rehabilitation and restoration in the Intermountain West.

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Updating LANDFIRE fuel data assists local planning efforts

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The LANDFIRE program provides a data safety net by producing biannually updated fuels products for all-lands in the United States. But even these data are two to three years old when they are delivered, and while they provide a good starting point, they are designed for national and regional level application. Local review and calibration is recommended to ensure that the data are suitable for smaller landscapes. An example from Idaho illustrates how adjusting LANDFIRE fuel data can ensure that current, accurate fuel information is ready to support fire and land management activities.

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Towards improving wildland firefighter situational awareness through daily fire behaviour risk assessments in the US Northern Rockies and Northern Great Basin

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This paper presents a simple framework for relating fire danger indices to observed categorical wildland fire behaviour. Ordinal logistic regressions are used to model the probabilities of five distinct fire behaviour categories that are then combined with a safety-based weight function to calculate a Fire Behaviour Risk rating that can plotted over time and spatially mapped. Development and use across three adjacent US National Forests is demonstrated, and predicted fire behaviour risk ratings are compared with observed variations in satellite-measured fire radiative power. This approach transforms fire weather conditions into simple and actionable fire behaviour risk metrics that wildland firefighters can use to support decisions that meet required objectives and keep people safe.

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Managing climate change risks in rangeland systems

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A risk framework for adaptation could integrate key vulnerabilities, risk, and hazards, and facilitate development of adaptation actions that address the entire socio-ecological system. Adaptation plans will need to be developed and implemented with recognition of future uncertainty that necessitates an iterative implementation process as new experience and information accumulate. Developing the skills to manage with uncertainty may be a singularly important strategy that landowners, managers, and scientists require to develop adaptive capacity.

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Population genetic structure of Bromus tectorum in the mountains of western North America

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The wide geographic distribution of several common haplotypes almost completely restricted to montane habitats suggests that dominant lineages in montane populations may possess adaptive syndromes that are preserved through reduced outcrossing rates or negative selection on outcrossed progeny. However, conclusive evidence of such local adaptation requires reciprocal seeding experiments and further characterization of adaptive traits and breeding system characteristics. Other lineages have likely risen to dominance in montane populations through selectively neutral processes.

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Post-fire vegetation response at the woodland-shrubland interface is mediated by the pre-fire community

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Among sites with low-to-moderate tree cover, burning largely eliminated differences in understory composition, suggesting that biotic legacies were sufficient to result in predictable trajectories. In contrast, sites with high pre-fire tree cover transitioned into an annual forb-dominated community with sparse vegetation cover, suggesting that the loss of the understory community initiated unpredictable and divergent post-fire trajectories. Because plant communities were still changing four years after fire, it is unclear whether the alternate trajectories in sites with high tree cover will result in the formation of alternate states, or whether community composition will eventually converge with other sites at the same elevation. Results indicate that careful evaluation of site characteristics can be used to predict treatment outcomes at the woodland-shrubland interface, and to guide the appropriate use of prescribed fire or other management practices.

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