[APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass

Tue Feb 8 17:10:05 CST 2011

APWG:

Well, Ty, I hope some young enquiring minds will get busy testing your 
hypothesis pdq, starting with a review and critical analysis of the relevant 
literature, then building a sound theoretical framework upon which to build 
and test a detailed hypothesis. Of course, this much progress alone may be 
enough to cast doubt upon some of the sacred cows of "range" management. It 
will be quite another thing to convince the romantics and other speculators 
of its validity, however, as one cannot reason away belief.

My gut tells me you are right--at least as far as your hypothesis goes (I 
may be presuming too much on the basis of the information supplied and my 
interpretation of it). It would be interesting to hear more of the process 
of nitrate creation and the suppression of nitrifying bacteria. I presume 
that a look at the entire N cycle would be part of the testing, but even 
looking at the mechanisms of "rapid nitrate releases" would shed a lot of 
light on that part of the system's operation.

The actions of free-living N-fixers, as well as the nodule-dwelling ones and 
the consequences of various common perturbations that change the pathways 
and form of N through the rest of the system would be interesting, as would 
how some cryptobiotic species figure into the N "equation."

The role of P in all this also might similarly be interesting, starting, 
perhaps, with a simple compilation of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal 
species as determined in the field, then compared with the literature's 
conclusions on the subject (greenhouse tests might not always be 100 percent 
transferable to actual ecosystem function). The enquiring minds might wander 
off the track into dangerous territory, like investigating pathogenic action 
along with mutualism, then from species to systems and variations of such 
effects within "species."

Other effects of soil crusts, such as the reduction/elimination of surface 
cracks, thus keeping "weed" seeds on the surface, reducing germination and 
seedling survival in the earliest stages of their life cycles, for example, 
would be something that grammar-school kids could do.

Well, I've rambled on quite enough already, so I'll stop here. In other 
words, I think Ty is on the right track.

WT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ty Harrison" <tyju at xmission.com>
To: "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>; <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 11:44 PM
Subject: Re: [APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction 
Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass

> Based on 25 years of observation on some native grasslands here in 
> northern
> Utah, I have a hypothesis that cryptobiotic crust development in
> undisturbed, arid grasslands inhibits annual weed invasion by supression 
> of
> nitrifying bacteria which, with disturbance, create nitrates rathern than
> ammonia from stored soil organic N.  This is called Biological 
> Nitrification
> Inhibition (BNI).  It is well understood by agronomists but not by
> ecologists.  I think that cheatgrass and other fall-germinating, 
> disturbance
> annual weeds depend on rapid nitrate releases, rather than slow releases 
> of
> ammonia from stored organic N.  The availability of soil nitrate in a
> disturbance regime may  help explain rapid weed seedling growth when the
> "tight" community of perennial grasses and forbs  is altered or removed. 
> I
> need some of these young enquiring minds out there to test this 
> hypothesis.
> Dr. Ty Harrison
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>
> To: "Ty Harrison" <tyju at xmission.com>; <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 4:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction
> Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
>
>
>> What really gets me is the deafening silence from all but the emeriti . .
>> .
>> Not even a challenge to my heresy! It will be interesting to see if there
>> are any young minds out there willing to challenge authority . . .
>>
>> Healthy ecosystems tend to exclude weeds, and in Utah especially and arid
>> environments in particular, the most important index of a healthy
>> ecosystem
>> is the presence of a cryptogamic soil crust community, one easily spaded
>> up
>> by oversize-hoofed, drag-footed, bovines that did not evolve in that
>> habitat.
>>
>> Site specific protocols are possible, but not directly applicable in 
>> other
>> contexts (which can be mere feet or ridges away from such sites). Such
>> protocols should be flexible, based on feeback, carrying capacity, and
>> modulating population fluctuations rather than boom-bust cycles,
>> extinction,
>> or excesses--that is, efficiently, much as Nature does it, only more so.
>>
>> Regarding early 19th century biologists--they did a lot more with less 
>> and
>> stuck to the subject far better than today's 90-day wonders.
>>
>> WT
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Ty Harrison" <tyju at xmission.com>
>> To: "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>; <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
>> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 1:31 PM
>> Subject: Re: [APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction
>> Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
>>
>>
>>>I couldn't agree more with Wayne Tyson's assessment that grazing in the
>>>arid
>>> West is the "elephant in the room".  As Walter P. Cottam, Utah's early
>>> ecologist observed in his now famous 1947publication:  "Is Utah Sahara
>>> Bound?" (4 copies are available at Abebooks.com), the west's past,
>>> uncontrolled, over-grazing history is clearly the source of all
>>> Cheatgrass
>>> and other weedy evils.  Let's call a spade a spade.  The challenge is to
>>> develop site-specific protocols for arid grassland restorations which 
>>> can
>>> exclude weeds.  I don't know if grazing can ever be compatible in these
>>> fragile, low precipitation environments.   Dr. Ty Harrison, Emeritus
>>> Professor of Biology, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>
>>> To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 8:08 PM
>>> Subject: [APWG] FIRE 11 Vegetation as fuel and ecosystem dysfunction
>>> Re:NEWS: In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
>>>
>>>
>>>> While all that stuff is true, it is nothing new, but the elephant in 
>>>> the
>>>> room is embodied in the term "range." Like motherhood, the romantic
>>>> ideal
>>>> of
>>>> cowboys and cattle is a subject to be avoided. That's where the problem
>>>> came
>>>> from, and that's core variable that ensures that it will persist.
>>>> Cheatgrass
>>>> will never be gone, but until the cattle are gone, it will remain a
>>>> major
>>>> component of what's left of the ecosystem that evolved under a 
>>>> different
>>>> kind of grazing/browsing pressure than cattle provide. The simple
>>>> inconvenient truth is that ecosystems are a product of everything that
>>>> is
>>>> going on, and cattle are the primary cultivators of cheatgrass and the
>>>> other
>>>> components of the altered ecosystem that is the Intermountain West.
>>>>
>>>> WT
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>>> From: "Olivia Kwong" <plant at plantconservation.org>
>>>> To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 6:36 AM
>>>> Subject: [APWG] NEWS: In fire country,land managers struggle to fight
>>>> cheatgrass
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/03/2048524/in-fire-country-land-managers.html
>>>>>
>>>>> In fire country, land managers struggle to fight cheatgrass
>>>>> By PATRICK ORR
>>>>> McClatchy Newspapers
>>>>>
>>>>> BOISE, Idaho -- Cheatgrass can be a dirty word for land managers in 
>>>>> the
>>>>> West.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sure, they marvel at the invasive species' toughness and respect its
>>>>> stubborn ability to muscle out native bunch grasses of the desert of
>>>>> southwest Idaho and other areas of the West. But cheatgrass is also 
>>>>> the
>>>>> main reason why much of the arid lands of the West are so susceptible
>>>>> to
>>>>> unnaturally devastating range fires.
>>>>>
>>>>> See the link above for the full article text.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> PCA's Alien Plant Working Group mailing list
>>>>> APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>>>>> http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org
>>>>>
>>>>> Disclaimer
>>>>> Any requests, advice or opinions posted to this list reflect ONLY the
>>>>> opinion of the individual posting the message.
>>>>
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