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Filters: partyWithName: Munson, Seth M (X) > Extensions: Citation (X) > Types: Citation (X)

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Projected increases in aridity throughout the southwestern United States due to anthropogenic climate change will likely cause reductions in perennial vegetation cover, which leaves soil surfaces exposed to erosion. Accelerated rates of dust emission from wind erosion have large implications for ecosystems and human well-being, yet there is poor understanding of the sources and magnitude of dust emission in a hotter and drier climate. Here we use a two-stage approach to compare the susceptibility of grasslands and three different shrublands to wind erosion on the Colorado Plateau and demonstrate how climate can indirectly moderate the magnitude of aeolian sediment flux through different responses of dominant plants...
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This study provides a fast and easy-to-apply method to estimate threshold friction velocity (TFV) of wind erosion in the field. Wind tunnel experiments and a variety of ground measurements including air gun, pocket penetrometer, torvane, and roughness chain were conducted in Moab, Utah and cross-validated in the Mojave Desert, California. Patterns between TFV and ground measurements were examined to identify the optimum method for estimating TFV. The results show that TFVs were best predicted using the air gun and penetrometer measurements in the Moab sites. This empirical method, however, systematically underestimated TFVs in the Mojave Desert sites. Further analysis showed that TFVs in the Mojave sites can be...
Pulses of water availability characterize semiarid and arid ecosystems. Most precipitation events in these ecosystems are small (?10 mm), but can stimulate carbon flux. The large proportion of carbon stored belowground and small carbon inputs create the potential for these small precipitation events to have large effects on carbon cycling. Land-use change can modify these effects through alteration of the biota and soil resources. The goal of our research was to determine how small precipitation events (2, 5, and 10 mm) affected the dynamics of soil carbon flux and water loss in previously cultivated Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields and undisturbed shortgrass steppe. Total carbon loss and duration of elevated...
Hotter and drier conditions projected for the southwestern United States can have a large impact on the abundance and composition of long-lived desert plant species. We used long-term vegetation monitoring results from 39 large plots across four protected sites in the Sonoran Desert region to determine how plant species have responded to past climate variability. This cross-site analysis identified the plant species and functional types susceptible to climate change, the magnitude of their responses, and potential climate thresholds. In the relatively mesic mesquite savanna communities, perennial grasses declined with a decrease in annual precipitation, cacti increased, and there was a reversal of the Prosopis velutina...
Question: What are the plant population- and community-level effects of removal of dominant plant species in the shortgrass steppe? Location: The Shortgrass Steppe Long-Term Ecological Research site in northern Colorado, USA. Methods: We annually measured plant cover and density by species for 10 years after a one-time aboveground removal of the dominant perennial grass, Bouteloua gracilis. Removal and control plots (3 m � 3 m) were within grazed and ungrazed locations to assess the influence of grazing on recovery dynamics. Our analyses examined plant species, functional type, and community responses to removal, paying special attention to the dynamics of subdominant and rare species. Results: Basal cover of B....
    map background search result map search result map A simple method to estimate threshold friction velocity of wind erosion in the field A simple method to estimate threshold friction velocity of wind erosion in the field