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The sagebrush steppe is a patchwork of species and subspecies occupying distinctenvironmental niches across the intermountain regions of western North America. These ecosystems facedegradation from disturbances and exotic weeds. Using sagebrush seed that is matched to its appropriateniche is a critical component to successful restoration, improving habitat for the threatened greater sage-grouse and other species. The need for restoration is greatest in basin habitats composed of two subspecies:diploid basin big sagebrush (A. tridentatasubsp.tridentata) and tetraploid Wyoming big sagebrush (subsp.wyomingensis). In this study we assess seed weights across five subspecies-cytotype groups of bigsagebrush and examine...
Invasions by exotic grasses, particularly annuals, rank among the most extensive and intensive ways that humans are contributing to the transformation of the earth’s surface. The problem is particularly notable with a suite of exotic grasses in the Bromus genus in the arid and semiarid regions that dominate the western United States, which extend from the dry basins near the Sierra and Cascade Ranges across the Intermountain Region and Rockies to about 105° longitude. This genus includes approximately 150 species that have a wide range of invasive and non-invasive tendencies in their home ranges and in North America. Bromus species that became invasive upon introduction to North America in the late 1800’s, such...
Wind erosion and aeolian transport processes are under studied compared to rainfall-induced erosion and sediment transport on burned landscapes. Post-fire wind erosion studies have predominantly focused on near-surface sediment transport and associated impacts such as on-site soil loss and site fertility. Downwind impacts, including air quality degradation and deposition of dust or contaminants, are also likely post-fire effects; however, quantitative field measurements of post-fire dust emissions are needed for assessment of these downwind risks. A wind erosion monitoring system was installed immediately following a desert sagebrush and grass wildfire in southeastern Idaho, USA to measure wind erosion from the burned...
The Nature’s Stage Climate Mapper allows users to explore the geoclimatic stability of HUC5 watersheds within the Pacific Northwest.Geoclimatic Stability, as defined here, is a measure of a natural system’s capacity to remain stable as the climate changes over time. This is based on two factors: * Climate Departure: a measure of how different the future climate is projected to be from the historical climate. * Climate Resilience: a measure of how resilient an area is expected to be to changes in climate (based on topoclimate diversity and landscape permeability).A watershed with lower levels of climate departure and higher levels of climate resilience is more likely to sustain current levels of native biodiversity...
Pacific trout Oncorhynchus spp. in western North America are strongly valued in ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural views, and have been the subject of substantial research and conservation efforts. Despite this, the understanding of their evolutionary histories, overall diversity, and challenges to their conservation is incomplete. We review the state of knowledge on these important issues, focusing on Pacific trout in the genus Oncorhynchus. Although most research on salmonid fishes emphasizes Pacific salmon, we focus on Pacific trout because they share a common evolutionary history, and many taxa in western North America have not been formally described, particularly in the southern extent of their ranges....
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) woodlands are expected to be sensitive to climate change, and have declined in parts of the West. Great Basin mountain ranges may be near the limits of aspen’s climatic threshold, in terms of temperature and aridity, and thus are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Birds associating with aspen are likely to undergo regional population fluctuations and changes in distribution as a result of changes in aspen availability or distribution. Thus, understanding the habitat relationships of avian communities in aspen and other montane cover types is important for tracking the impacts of future landscape change. The mountainous terrain of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in...
Studies of multiple taxa across broad-scales suggest that species distributions are shifting poleward in response to global climate change. Recognizing the influence of distribution shifts on population indices will be an important part of interpreting trends within management units because current practice often assumes that changes in local populations reflect local habitat conditions. However, the individual- and population-level processes that drive distribution shifts may occur across a large, regional scale and have little to do with the habitats within the management unit. We examined the latitudinal center of abundance for the winter distributions of six western North America raptor species using Christmas...
How climate constrains species’ distributions through time and space is an important question in the context of conservation planning for climate change. Despite increasing awareness of the need to incorporate mechanism into species distribution models (SDMs), mechanistic modeling of endotherm distributions remains limited in this literature. Using the American pika (Ochotona princeps) as an example, we present a framework whereby mechanism can be incorporated into endotherm SDMs. Pika distribution has repeatedly been found to be constrained by warm temperatures, so we used Niche Mapper, a mechanistic heat-balance model, to convert macroclimate data to pika-specific surface activity time in summer across the western...
Alien grass invasions in arid and semi-arid ecosystems are resulting in grass-fire cycles and ecosystem-level transformations that severely diminish ecosystem services. Our capacity to address the rapid and complex changes occurring in these ecosystems can be enhanced by developing an understanding of the environmental factors and ecosystem attributes that determine resilience of native ecosystems to stress and disturbance, and resistance to invasion. Cold desert shrublands occur over strong environmental gradients and exhibit significant differences in resilience and resistance. They provide an excellent opportunity to increase our understanding of these concepts. Herein, we examine a series of linked questions...
On September 29, speaker Erik Beever presented his results on pika distribution and climate change.The Great Basin is one of North America’s most physiographically complex regions, engendering both great microclimatic diversity and high levels of endemism. Although mountains comprise the majority of the Basin, their climate and wildlife are under-studied. Beever’s team is taking advantage of historical (1898-1956) surveys, 21 years of more-systematic and more-comprehensive recent surveys, and a diversity of technological and modeling advances. This information helps tackle numerous questions at the interface of how Great Basin systems work (‘basic science’) and how Basin resources may be managed and conserved, amidst...
Groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) rely on near-surface groundwater. These systems are receiving more attention with rising air temperature, prolonged drought, and where groundwater pumping captures natural groundwater discharge for anthropogenic use. Phreatophyte shrublands, meadows, and riparian areas are GDEs that provide critical habitat for many sensitive species, especially in arid and semi-arid environments. While GDEs are vital for ecosystem services and function, their long-term (i.e. ~ 30 years) spatial and temporal variability is poorly understood with respect to local and regional scale climate, groundwater, and rangeland management. In this work, we compute time series of NDVI derived from sensors...
This dataset provides a near-real-time estimate of 2017 herbaceous annual cover with an emphasis on annual grass (Boyte and Wylie. 2016. Near-real-time cheatrass percent cover in the Northern Great Basin, USA, 2015. Rangelands 38:278-284.) This estimate was based on remotely sensed enhanced Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (eMODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data gathered through June 19, 2017. This is the second iteration of an early estimate of herbaceous annual cover for 2017 over the same geographic area. The previous dataset used eMODIS NDVI data gathered through May 1 (https://doi.org/10.5066/F7445JZ9). The pixel values for this most recent estimate ranged from 0 to100% with...
Integration of conservation partnerships across geographic, biological, and administrative boundaries is increasingly relevant because drivers of change, such as climate shifts, transcend these boundaries. We explored successes and challenges of established conservation programs that span multiple watersheds and consider both social and ecological concerns. We asked representatives from a diverse set of 11 broad-extent conservation partnerships in 29 countries 17 questions that pertained to launching and maintaining partnerships for broad-extent conservation, specifying ultimate management objectives, and implementation and learning. Partnerships invested more funds in implementing conservation actions than any...
Wetland mapping is conducted in defined geographic areas called projects. Imagery is used as the base information to define the type and location of each wetland. The scale, type and date of imagery used in a project is provided in a pop-up window when a wetland polygon is selected on the Wetlands Mapper. Investigators that complete a wetland mapping project record information on the source imagery, collateral data, inventory method, data limitations, geographic features, landforms, wetland types and other specifics in a project metadata document. Wetland identification and interpretation was done “heads-up” using ArcMap versions 10.2-11.0. US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) mapping...
• Aspen communities are biologically rich and ecologically valuable, yet they face myriad threats, including changing climate, altered fire regimes, and excessive browsing by domestic and wild ungulates.• Recognizing the different types of aspen communities that occur in the Great Basin, and being able to distinguish between seral and stable aspen stands, can help managers better identify restoration needs and objectives.• Identifying key threats to aspen regeneration and persistence in a given stand or landscape is important to designing restoration plans, and to selecting appropriate treatment types.• Although some aspen stands will need intensive treatment (e.g., use of fire) to persist or remain healthy, other...
Emerging applications of ecosystem resilience and resistance concepts in sagebrush ecosystems allow managers to better predict and mitigate impacts of wildfire and invasive annual grasses. Soil temperature and moisture strongly influence the kind and amount of vegetation, and consequently, are closely tied to sagebrush ecosystem resilience and resistance (Chambers et al. 2014, 2016). Soil taxonomic temperature and moisture regimes can be used as indicators of resilience and resistance at landscape scales to depict environmental gradients in sagebrush ecosystems that range from cold/cool-moist sites to warm-dry sites. We aggregated soil survey spatial and tabular data to facilitate broad-scale analyses of resilience...
On June 25, 2015 Dr. John Boone of the Great Basin Bird Observatory presented on his work evaluating species management guidance and monitoring programs for the Great Basin.Species-based wildlife management in Nevada’s Great Basin is conducted by multiple agencies using a diverse array of guidelines, protocols and information sets, many of which are outdated, incomplete or inconsistent. The first step of this project is to review the basis for species management in Nevada–focusing on a core set of avian species—to identify where opportunities for improvement exist. We then develop an array of both generalized and species-specific recommendations for more consistent and effective species management. These recommendations...
This presentation aired as part of the Great Basin LCC webinar series on November 1, 2017. The presentation was given by Dr. Jim Sedinger and Phillip Street of University of Nevada Reno and Shawn Espinosa of the Nevada Department of Wildlife.Description: This project uses management-related variation in grazing by both feral horses and livestock as well as five years of field work to assess how both Greater Sage-grouse and the habitats on which they depend might be influenced by grazing. The research team monitored radio-tagged sage-grouse and vegetation on Hart Mountain and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuges as well as lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) south and west of Sheldon from 2013-2016....