Warm Gravelly Shallow Hills
Scenario model
Current ecosystem state
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Management practices/drivers
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- Transition T1 More details
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No transition or restoration pathway between the selected states has been described
Target ecosystem state
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Description
State 1 represents the historic range of variability for this ecological site. Primary natural disturbance mechanisms include drought and wildfire. This site is inherently resilient to disturbance due to a high cover of large surface fragments and rock outcrops which: 1. limits vegetation cover and biomass, thereby limiting the flammability of the site; 2. provides localized microsites in which the plant community is protected from fire which can then serve as propagule sources for recovery; and 3. provides additional run-on which promotes recovery after fire and provides refugia from drought (e.g. Green et al. 1993).
Historically, fire in this state would have been very rare, since adjacent communities, which drive the occurrence of fire in this ecological site, were much less likely to experience large fires. However, long periods of heavy precipitation could have promoted native annual growth such that fire (e.g. Brown and Minnich 1986) could be carried in adjacent plant communities, and spread to this ecological site.
Description
State 2 represents the current range of variability for this site. Non-native annuals including red brome, Mediterranean grass, and redstem stork's bill are naturalized in this plant community. Their abundance varies with precipitation, but they are at least sparsely present (as current year's growth or present in the soil seedbank). The ecological dynamics for the site have not changed significantly.
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The Ecosystem Dynamics Interpretive Tool is an information system framework developed by the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and New Mexico State University.