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Article
Open AccessBiophysical factors control invasive annual grass hot spots in the Mojave Desert
Invasive annual grasses can promote ecosystem state changes and habitat loss in the American Southwest. Non-native annual grasses such as Bromus spp. and Schismus spp. have invaded the Mojave Desert and degraded ...
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Article
Fire, rodent herbivory, and plant competition: implications for invasion and altered fire regimes in the Mojave Desert
Biological invasions are responsive to changing wildfire regimes related to human activities that are altering biological communities. Our objective was to investigate how fire, rodent activity, and competitio...
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Article
Spatiotemporal patterns of cheatgrass invasion in Colorado Plateau National Parks
Exotic annual grasses are transforming native arid and semi-arid ecosystems globally by accelerating fire cycles that drive vegetation state changes. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), a particularly widespread and ag...
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Article
Niche opportunities for invasive annual plants in dryland ecosystems are controlled by disturbance, trophic interactions, and rainfall
Resource availability and biotic interactions control opportunities for the establishment and expansion of invasive species. Studies on biotic resistance to plant invasions have typically focused on competitio...
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Article
Open AccessScientific reasoning ability does not predict scientific views on evolution among religious individuals
Acceptance of evolutionary theory varies widely and is often associated with religious background. Some have suggested there exists an additional relationship between scientific reasoning ability and the accep...
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Article
Earlier snowmelt accompanied by warmer soil temperatures in mid-latitude aspen forest and subalpine meadow: Implications for soil carbon
An advance in snowmelt timing in seasonally snow covered ecosystems has a wide range of potential impacts on plant and soil processes. Plants may respond to earlier melt through changes in phenology and altere...
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Chapter
Soil and Belowground Processes
Soil characteristics and functions are critical determinants of rangeland systems and the ecosystem services that they provide. Rangeland soils are extremely diverse, but an emerging understanding is that para...
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Article
Open AccessInfluencing highly religious undergraduate perceptions of evolution: Mormons as a case study
Students frequently hold an incorrect view of evolution. There are several potential barriers that prevent religious students, specifically, from engaging evolutionary theory in the classroom. This study focu...
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Article
Plant community change mediates the response of foliar δ15N to CO2 enrichment in mesic grasslands
Rising atmospheric CO2 concentration may change the isotopic signature of plant N by altering plant and microbial processes involved in the N cycle. CO2 may increase leaf δ15N by increasing plant community produc...
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Article
Gopher mounds decrease nutrient cycling rates and increase adjacent vegetation in volcanic primary succession
Fossorial mammals may affect nutrient dynamics and vegetation in recently initiated primary successional ecosystems differently than in more developed systems because of strong C and N limitation to primary pr...
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Article
The influence of 3-years of warming and N-deposition on ecosystem dynamics is small compared to past land use in subalpine meadows
Drivers of ecosystem dynamics that are under human influence range from local, land-management decisions to global processes such as warming temperatures and N deposition. The goal of this study was to underst...
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Article
Soil-mediated effects of subambient to increased carbon dioxide on grassland productivity
Carbon dioxide enrichment can alter grassland ecosystem functioning directly and through indirect, soil-specific effects on moisture, nitrogen availability and species composition. Now research shows that chan...
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Article
Linking community and ecosystem development on Mount St. Helens
In the two decades following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State, the N2-fixing colonizer Lupinus lepidus is associated with striking heterogeneity in plant community and soil development. W...
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Article
Nonlinear grassland responses to past and future atmospheric CO2
Carbon sequestration in soil organic matter may moderate increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Ca) as Ca increases to more than 500?µmol?mol-1 this century from interglacial levels of less than 200?µmol?mo...
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Article
Influence of soil depth on the decomposition of Bouteloua gracilis roots in the shortgrass steppe
The distribution and turnover of plant litter contribute to soil structure, the availability of plant nutrients, and regional budgets of greenhouse gasses. Traditionally, studies of decomposition have focused ...
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Article
Longevity and turnover of roots in the shortgrass steppe: influence of diameter and depth
We used minirhizotrons to determine patterns of root longevity andturnover for the perennial bunchgrass Bouteloua gracilisinthe shortgrass steppe of eastern Colorado, USA. We hypothesized that rootlongevity would...
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Article
Plant-soil Interactions in Temperate Grasslands
We present a conceptual model in which plant-soil interactions in grasslands are characterized by the extent to which water is limiting. Plant-soil interactions in dry grasslands, those dominated by water limi...
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Chapter
Plant-Soil interactions in temperate grasslands
We present a conceptual model in which plant—soil interactions in grasslands are characterized by the extent to which water is limiting. Plant—soil interactions in dry grasslands, those dominated by water limi...
