Shrubby Foothill
Scenario model
Current ecosystem state
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Management practices/drivers
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- Transition T1A More details
- Restoration pathway R2A 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
The reference state consists of four distinct plant community phases. The Reference Plant Community, At Risk Plant Community, Increase Litter/Decadence Plant Community and Low Vigor Oak represent the state. Shrubs and a mixture of warm and cool season mid grasses give the site a sloping shrubland appearance on the landscape. The plant communities, and the various successional states between them, represent the natural range of variability due to the disturbance regimes applicable to the site.
Submodel
Description
The Oak Dominated state consists of one distinct plant community phase. The Oak Dominated Plant Community represents the state. Oak has become dominant with minor amounts of understory vegetation consisting of Kentucky bluegrass and upland sedge species. This state is very resistant to disturbances due to the dominance of oak. Species diversity and biologic integrity has been lost.
Submodel
Mechanism
Fire (prescribed or wild) reduces or eliminates tree competition and stimulates oak growth, and long-term continuous grazing (grazers) without adequate recovery opportunity, results in a shift across an ecological threshold toward an Oak Dominated Plant Community. This transition can pathway from the Reference PC or any associated successional plant communities.
Mechanism
The lack of fire together with very long-term prescribed grazing (browsers) that allows adequate recovery opportunity following each grazing event, and insects/disease, will cause the Oak Dominated Plant Community to transition across and ecological threshold toward the Reference State.
The time frame for this plant community shift is dependent on the length of fire removal from the system and the level of grazing management applied. These factors will contribute to the uncertainty of the restoration.
Model keys
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Ecological sites
Major Land Resource Areas
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.