TY - JOUR
T1 - Biocrusts do not differentially influence emergence and early establishment of native and non-native grasses
AU - McIntyre, Cheryl
AU - Archer, Steven R.
AU - Predick, Katharine I.
AU - Belnap, Jayne
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported, in part, by U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture award 2015‐67013‐22950, and number 2012‐38640‐19581 through Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education project GW15‐006 (120833031‐246), and Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station project ARZT‐1361610. Cheryl McIntyre was supported by NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. Jayne Belnap was supported by USGS’ Ecosystems and Land Use Change programs. Abreeza Zegeer, Toby Rupel, and numerous technicians from U. Arizona and USGS assisted with experimental setup and/or data collection. Nicole Pietrasiak and Erik Lehnhoff provided valuable feedback on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Funding Information:
This work was supported, in part, by U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture award 2015-67013-22950, and number 2012-38640-19581 through Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education project GW15-006 (120833031-246), and Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station project ARZT-1361610. Cheryl McIntyre was supported by NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. Jayne Belnap was supported by USGS? Ecosystems and Land Use Change programs. Abreeza Zegeer, Toby Rupel, and numerous technicians from U. Arizona and USGS assisted with experimental setup and/or data collection. Nicole Pietrasiak and Erik Lehnhoff provided valuable feedback on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Ecosphere published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) cover the soil surface of global drylands and interact with vascular plants. Biocrusts may influence the availability and nature of safe sites for plant recruitment and the susceptibility of an area to invasion by non-native species. Therefore, to investigate the potential role of biocrusts in invasive species management, we sought to determine whether native and non-native grass recruitments in two North American deserts were differentially affected by biocrusts. We conducted a series of coordinated experiments in field, semi-controlled, and controlled environment settings in the Colorado Plateau and Sonoran Desert using contrasting biocrust and grass functional types. Experiments in field environments focused on early establishment of grass seedlings whereas controlled environment experiments focused on seedling emergence. Within each experiment, we compared responses (frequency, magnitude, and timing of emergence/establishment) both across species (biocrust types pooled) and across species and levels of biocrust development. Native grasses varied by experiment and included Aristida purpurea, A. purpurea var. longiseta, Bouteloua gracilis, and Vulpia octoflora. Emergence of non-native Bromus tectorum was similar to that of native grasses on the Colorado Plateau. Differences in emergence of native vs. non-native grasses in the Sonoran Desert were species- and response-specific. Emergence of the non-native Bromus rubens was comparable to that of native grasses whereas emergence frequency and magnitude of the non-native Pennisetum ciliare was lower compared with two of four native species. Within a grass species, emergence was higher and faster on bare soil compared with biocrusts in the Sonoran Desert semi-controlled and greenhouse environment experiments. However, the pattern was not consistent across other experiments. When comparing across Colorado Plateau and Sonoran Desert biocrusts in greenhouse experiments, we found that emergence of native grasses was higher on Colorado Plateau biocrusts. Based on the lack of consistent results across our experiments, grass recruitment on biocrusts appears to be driven more by species-specific traits than species provenance. Our greenhouse experiments suggest that biocrust topographic relief is an important safe site trait influencing plant recruitment.
AB - Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) cover the soil surface of global drylands and interact with vascular plants. Biocrusts may influence the availability and nature of safe sites for plant recruitment and the susceptibility of an area to invasion by non-native species. Therefore, to investigate the potential role of biocrusts in invasive species management, we sought to determine whether native and non-native grass recruitments in two North American deserts were differentially affected by biocrusts. We conducted a series of coordinated experiments in field, semi-controlled, and controlled environment settings in the Colorado Plateau and Sonoran Desert using contrasting biocrust and grass functional types. Experiments in field environments focused on early establishment of grass seedlings whereas controlled environment experiments focused on seedling emergence. Within each experiment, we compared responses (frequency, magnitude, and timing of emergence/establishment) both across species (biocrust types pooled) and across species and levels of biocrust development. Native grasses varied by experiment and included Aristida purpurea, A. purpurea var. longiseta, Bouteloua gracilis, and Vulpia octoflora. Emergence of non-native Bromus tectorum was similar to that of native grasses on the Colorado Plateau. Differences in emergence of native vs. non-native grasses in the Sonoran Desert were species- and response-specific. Emergence of the non-native Bromus rubens was comparable to that of native grasses whereas emergence frequency and magnitude of the non-native Pennisetum ciliare was lower compared with two of four native species. Within a grass species, emergence was higher and faster on bare soil compared with biocrusts in the Sonoran Desert semi-controlled and greenhouse environment experiments. However, the pattern was not consistent across other experiments. When comparing across Colorado Plateau and Sonoran Desert biocrusts in greenhouse experiments, we found that emergence of native grasses was higher on Colorado Plateau biocrusts. Based on the lack of consistent results across our experiments, grass recruitment on biocrusts appears to be driven more by species-specific traits than species provenance. Our greenhouse experiments suggest that biocrust topographic relief is an important safe site trait influencing plant recruitment.
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U2 - 10.1002/ecs2.3841
DO - 10.1002/ecs2.3841
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121831275
SN - 2150-8925
VL - 12
JO - Ecosphere
JF - Ecosphere
IS - 12
M1 - e03841
ER -