The reference state has a large gradient of soil temperature, moisture, slope, and depth. As a result, cool season grass-shrub communities will grade into warm season grass dominant communities. As slope increases, bare ground increases due to mass movement of rock and soil.
Resilience management
The reference state has the greatest resilience to disturbance such as fire, drought, recreational impacts, and limited livestock grazing.
Resilience to mass movement is low, especially as slopes become steeper. This can include slow displacements such as creep or rapid movements such as landslides and rock slides (Schoeneberger and Wysocki, 2012). Without plants acting as physical barriers, anchored by root systems, slow displacements will lead to rapid movements.
Disturbance that decreases the plant density and cover causes this site to cross a threshold to the mass movement state. This may include extended drought, greater than five years, which leads to disease and plant mortality. This may also include excessive, repetitive grazing and browsing in select areas where livestock have access. This excessive grazing reduces plant cover and density while depleting stabilizing root systems. Plants may also decrease due to recreational and infrastructure impacts such as roads, trails and areas of high fire frequency due to recreational campfire initiation.
Once mass movement begins rapidly with landslides and rockslides, it will take time for gravity to work, allowing the angle of slope to decrease and the site to naturally begin to stabilize. Over time plants will begin to recolonize bare areas and produce cover and stabilizing root systems.
Model keys
Briefcase
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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.
) icon wherever it occurs. Drag and drop items to reorder. Cookies are used to store briefcase items between browsing sessions. Because of this, the number of items that can be added to your briefcase is limited, and briefcase items added on one device and browser cannot be accessed from another device or browser. Users who do not wish to place cookies on their devices should not use the briefcase tool. Briefcase cookies serve no other purpose than described here and are deleted whenever browsing history is cleared.
