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No Long-Term Effects of Prescribed Fire on Lehmann Lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana)–Invaded Desert Grassland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Christopher M. McGlone
Christopher M. McGlone*
Affiliation:
Jornada Basin LTER, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003
*
Corresponding author's E-mail: Chris.McGlone@nau.edu
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Abstract

Desert grasslands of the southwestern United States have experienced an increase in the abundance and distribution of woody plant species over the past century. Shrub encroachment has caused a substantial loss of grasslands in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. The Chihuahuan Desert has also been invaded by Lehmann lovegrass, a fire-adapted species from southern Africa. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service burned a remnant desert grassland to determine the effects of prescribed fire on shrub–perennial grass dynamics. The grassland also contained the nonnative perennial grass Lehmann lovegrass. I am reporting on a study that was initiated to determine whether prescribed burning would alter the vegetative community within and proximal to a Lehmann lovegrass–dominated patch. Cover of Lehmann lovegrass showed no significant response to the burn treatment. Of the dominant native species, only black grama and broom snakeweed had a significant year by treatment interaction. No species or growth form had a significant vegetation type by year by treatment interaction. After 6 yr, differences between burned and unburned transects were not significant for any species or growth form.

Keywords

Lehmann lovegrass, Eragrostis lehmanniana Neesblack grama, Bouteloua eriopoda (Torr.) Torr.broom snakeweed, Gutierrezia sarothrae (Pursh) Britt. & RusbyBlack gramainvasive speciesNew Mexicoperennial grassesprescribed burnshrub encroachment
Type
Notes and Commentary
Information
Invasive Plant Science and Management , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 449 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America 

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