We compared 3 naturally ignited burns with unburned sites in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. Each burn site was restored with native and nonnative seed mixes, restored with native seeds only, or regen- erated naturally. In general, burned sites had significantly lower native species richness (1.8 vs. 2.9 species), native species cover (11% vs. 22.5%), and soil crust cover (4.1% vs. 15%) than unburned sites. Most burned plots, seeded or not, had significantly higher average nonnative species richness and cover and lower average native species richness and cover than unburned sites. Regression tree analyses suggest site variation was equally important to rehabilitation results as seeding treatments....
|
