Filters: Tags: arid ecosystems (X) > Types: Citation (X)

Filters Date Range Past year (0) Past month (0) Past week (0) Past day (0) Custom range... To   Search Extensions Citation (5) Types Journal Citation (5) Contacts Bay, Robin F Bowker, Matthew A Chaudhary, V Bala Collins, Scott L D'Odorico, Paolo More... Categories Publication (5) View Results as: JSON ATOM CSV

Deuterium enriched irrigation indicates different forms of rain use in shrub/grass species of the Colorado Plateau We contrasted the seasonal use of simulated large rain events (24 mm) by three native species of the arid Colorado Plateau: the perennial grass Hilaria jamesii and two shrubs Artemesia filifolia and Coleogyne ramosissima. Deuterium-enriched water was used to distinguish shallow "pulse" water from water in deeper soil layers that were unaffected by the water input. We also measured the leaf gas exchange rates of watered and unwatered control plants for 5 days after the rain event. H. jamesii had twice the pulse water proportion in its xylem than the two shrubs in spring (approx. 70% vs 35%). In summer, the pulse water proportions of all species were around 70%. The increase in the relative pulse water uptake of the... Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Arid ecosystems, Oecologia, Plant functional types, Precipitation pulse use, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, All tags... Stable isotope label, Water partitioning, Fewer tags Success of Active Revegetation after Tamarix Removal in Riparian Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States: A Quantitative Assessment of Past Restoration Projects Invasion by the non-native tree Tamarix has led to implementation of restoration projects aimed at maintaining the ecological integrity of many riparian communities in the southwestern United States. These restoration efforts may include Tamarix removal, manipulation of hydrologic regimes, and active revegetation of native species. The goal of this study was to determine which site characteristics are correlated with restoration success, defined in terms of reductions of undesirable species such as Tamarix and establishment of desirable, native species. To accomplish this, vegetative and environmental data were collected at 28 sites in the southwestern United States where active revegetation was completed after... Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Restoration Ecology, Tamarix, arid ecosystems, invasion ecology, regression tree analysis, All tags... revegetation, riparian restoration, Fewer tags Photoacceleration of plant litter decomposition in an arid environment In arid ecosystems, abiotic processes facilitate the physical and chemical degradation of plant litter to the extent that decomposition models that use climatic and litter composition variables as surrogates for microbial activity are not predictive. The purpose of this study was to estimate the potential contribution of photodegradation to the decomposition of plant litters that varies in architecture and chemical composition. Litter of Pinus edulis, Juniperus monosperma and Populus deltoides were exposed to ambient and attenuated sunlight, with and without supplemental water additions, at a riparian forest site along the Middle Rio Grande (New Mexico, USA). Mass loss, elemental composition, and microbial extracellular... Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Soil Biology and Biochemistry, arid ecosystems, decomposition, extracellular enzyme activity, fungi, All tags... photodegradation, plant litter, Fewer tags Untangling the biological contributions to soil stability in semiarid shrublands Communities of plants, biological soil crusts (BSCs), and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are known to influence soil stability individually, but their relative contributions, interactions, and combined effects are not well understood, particularly in arid and semiarid ecosystems. In a landscape-scale field study we quantified plant, BSC, and AM fungal communities at 216 locations along a gradient of soil stability levels in southern Utah, USA. We used multivariate modeling to examine the relative influences of plants, BSCs, and AM fungi on surface and subsurface stability in a semiarid shrubland landscape. Models were found to be congruent with the data and explained 35% of the variation in surface stability... Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Ecological Applications, Ecological Society of America, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, arid ecosystems, biological soil crusts, All tags... erosion control, soil stability, structural equation modeling (SEM), Fewer tags Form and function of grass ring patterns in arid grasslands: the role of abiotic controls Ring-shaped growth patterns commonly occur in resource-limited arid and semi-arid environments. The spatial distribution, geometry, and scale of vegetation growth patterns result from interactions between biotic and abiotic processes, and, in turn, affect the spatial patterns of soil moisture, sediment transport, and nutrient dynamics in aridland ecosystems. Even though grass ring patterns are observed worldwide, a comprehensive understanding of the biotic and abiotic processes that lead to the formation, growth and breakup of these rings is still lacking. Our studies on patterns of infiltration and soil properties of blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) grass rings in the northern Chihuahuan desert indicate that ring... Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Aeolian processes, Arid ecosystems, Ecohydrology, Infiltration, Oecologia, All tags... Soil moisture, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Fewer tags