Landscape-Scale Changes in Plant Species Abundance and Biodiversity of a Sagebrush Steppe over 45 Years

Increasing demands on arid and semiarid ecosystems, which comprise one-third of Earth's terrestrial environment, create an urgent need to understand their biodiversity, function, and mechanisms of change. Sagebrush (Artemisia) steppe, the largest semiarid vegetation type in North America, is endangered because of losses to agriculture, excessive grazing, and invasive species. Establishment in 1950 of what is now designated as the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (southeastern Idaho, USA) created the largest existing reserve of this extensive vegetation type. We used cover, density, and frequency data for vascular plants sampled on 79 permanent plots nine times during 45 years to (1) assess...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Artemisia tridentata, Bromus tectorum, Ecological Monographs, Idaho (USA) INEEL, ecosystem function and species diversity, All tags... invasibility, landscape-scale long-term data set, livestock grazing, precipitation and vegetative cover, sagebrush steppe, species richness, stability, vegetation dynamics, Fewer tags