Long-term patterns of wild and domestic ungulate effects on rangeland plant

communities of the Colorado Plateau

Kyle Nehring PhD Student Utah State University

Advisor: Kari Veblen

Direct = Individual Survival and Reproduction Success

Indirect = Competition and Plant Community Changes

Direct = Individual Survival and Reproduction Success

Indirect = Competition and Plant Community Changes

Direct and Indirect =

Soil Characteristic Changes/ Alterations

Are different forms of herbivory driving these plant community dynamics?

Alternative stable states

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1. Quantify the effects of different combinations of ungulate species on a plant community’s composition and structure

Research Goals

2. Identify herbivory effects across different plant communities and site characteristics

Research Goals

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Moab

0 20 40 60 80 100Kilometers

± ExclosureEcological Site Type

) Pinyon Juniper) Wyoming Big Sage) Mountain Big Sage) Salt Desert Shrub

Livestock and Wildlife Exclosures

Methods

Plant Community Composition and Structure Surveys

•  Nested Plant Frequency Frames

•  Line Point Intercept

•  Basal Gap

•  Canopy Intercept

•  Shrub Belt Transects

•  Grass Belt Transects

Ungulate Use Surveys

•  Graze and Browse Damage Assessments

•  Pellet Counts

•  Ungulate Diet Composition: Laboratory microhistological tests

•  Wildlife Cameras: Ungulate exclosure use and possible habitat selection

•  Cryptobiotic Soil Cover and Composition

•  Soil Pedon Characterization and

Classification

•  Historical Vegetation

Cover: Aerial Photographs and BLM/USFS Survey Data

•  Climate Data

Soil Surveys and Other

Preliminary Results

o  No large compositional changeso  Structural Differences:

•  Smaller sage outside exclosures (recruitment or grazed shrubs?)•  Large shrubs inside total exclosure

Mean Big Sagebrush Counts in Big Sage Sites

Winterfat Counts in Big Sage Sites

INDIAN RICEGRASS

SQUIRREL TAIL NEEDLE AND THREAD

SANDBERG BLUEGRASS

SAND DROPSEED

Mean Bunch Grass Counts in Big Sage Sites

Future Research and

Applications

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Utah Department of Agriculture and Food: Cap Ferry Grant

Utah Agriculture Experimental Station

USU Ecology Center: 2013-2014 Graduate Student Research Support Award and Conference Travel Award

USU Wildland Resource Department

Research Collaborators: Jane Zelikova, Eugene Schupp, Colby Brungard, April Darger

Moab USGS: Mike Duniway and Jayne Belnap

The Veblen Lab

Canyonlands Research Center and Supporting Partners

Field Technicians: Hope Braithwaite, Corey Sample, Andrew Tredennick, Antra Boca

My Committee: Kari Veblen, Janis Boettinger, and Juan Villalba

Questions?