Research Project: Development of Management Strategies for Livestock Grazing, Disturbance and Climate Variation for the Northern Plains

Location: Livestock and Range Research Laboratory

2024 Annual Report

Objectives
Objective 1: Develop management strategies to improve rangeland cattle production and ecological stability through effective use of rangeland forage and supplementation. Subobjective 1A: Determine effects of dormant rangeland forage utilization on heifer development, young cow productivity, plant productivity, and species composition. Subobjective 1B: Determine effects of seasonal rangeland forage utilization by steers and heifers during backgrounding on estimates of respiration gas. Subobjective 1C: Determine timing of grazing season and grazing intensity effects on plant productivity, community composition and cattle diet quality. Subobjective 1D: Enhance the accuracy of DNA metabarcoding to assess diet composition. Subobjective 1E: Evaluate factors regulating calf growth on rangelands. Subobjective 1F: Use precision management technologies (global positioning of livestock, sensor networks, virtual fencing, remote sensing of landscape and others) to enhance livestock producer capability for optimum management of pastures and rangelands, allowing balance between production and ecosystem services. Objective 2: Develop management techniques to improve stock water quality in reservoirs by manipulating plant and microbiota abundance. Objective 3: Develop management strategies to restore degraded rangelands and prevent weed invasions. Subobjective 3A: Develop bacterial management strategies to reduce invasive bromes. Subobjective 3B: Improve vegetation outcomes on Conservation Reserve Program lands. Subobjective 3C: Design seed mixes to more consistently meet plant establishment goals during rangeland restoration. Subobjective 3D: Identify seasonal grazing effects on revegetation following Russian olive removal. Objective 4: Identify cool-season perennial grass seed rates that are high enough to prevent weed invasions and low enough to allow establishment of diverse plant communities on disturbed rangelands. Subobjective 4A: Identify cool-season grass seed rates needed to prevent weed invasions and allow seeded shrub establishment during rangeland restoration. Objective 5: Determine the effect of subsurface soil calcium carbonate on available phosphorus, plant biomass, root traits, and mycorrhizal responsiveness. Objective 6: Develop fire management strategies to maintain and improve rangeland stability and livestock production. Subobjective 6A: Determine perennial grass response to timing of fire relative to plant phenology. Subobjective 6B: Quantify drought and post-drought fire effects on plant community composition and productivity. Subobjective 6C: Determine how seasonal timing of fire affects forage quality and cattle grazing preference.

Approach
Sustainability of rangeland production hinges on the ability of plant communities to resist change and quickly recover from disturbance (stability) because changes in species composition, forage production, and forage quality fundamentally affect the animal community. Primary forces of change in rangelands are weather, grazing, alien plants, fire and their interactions. This project is designed to improve ecological sustainability and rangeland production by addressing opportunities for increased efficiency of livestock nutrient conversion, mechanisms affecting restoration success and weed control, and interacting effects of management with weather. Improved efficiency of nutrient conversion from dormant rangeland forages is among the most viable options for increasing animal production and minimizing effects on plant communities. We will address this proposition through a series of experiments evaluating plant and animal responses to dormant-season utilization and supplementation strategies. Rangeland restoration methods will be evaluated for direct weed control and mechanisms controlling successful establishment of desirable species. Water manipulations and historical weather data will be included in experiments to determine weather and long-term climate effects on plants and livestock because precipitation is the primary controlling factor for plant productivity and community composition. Fire research will focus on timing of fire (seasonal and phenological) to facilitate development of fire prescriptions that reduce weedy species, promote desirable species, and increase availability of quality forage. Scientists will be integrated across objectives to determine interacting effects of precipitation, grazing, weeds, and fire on soil and plant communities (production, species composition, diversity, propagation, survival) and cattle (weight gain, reproductive performance, diet quality, diet selection). Understanding mechanisms that control rangeland stability and animal responses to alterations in plant communities will assist land managers and livestock producers in improving rangeland integrity (diverse communities dominated by native species) and efficiency of livestock production. Results will also provide scientists greater understanding of the complex interacting forces on rangelands.

Progress Report
This is the final report for the project 3030-21630-005-00D which terminated in February 2024 with completion of objectives and initiation of new project 3030-21500-001-000D Precision Technologies and Management for Northern Plains Rangeland. Objective 1: Opportunities to increase rangeland forage utilization were identified that also reduced an invasive annual grass. Greater use of dormant rangeland forages can increase livestock production and reduce purchased feed. Compared to moderate growing season grazing, heavy summer grazing reduced perennial cool-season grass standing crop 22%. Moderate dormant fall grazing increased perennial cool-season grass standing crop 15%, but also increased the invasive annual, Japanese brome. Heavy dormant fall grazing effects did not differ from those of moderate summer grazing for perennial cool-season grass or total native species standing crop, but heavy fall grazing reduced cheatgrass 51%. Where Japanese brome and cheatgrass co-occur, moderate growing season grazing combined with heavy dormant fall grazing may be needed to affect both species. Diversity and native species standing crop were similar between heavy fall and moderate summer grazing, but heavy fall grazing caused the least non-native species biomass. Heavy fall use is recommended as potential treatment to be rotated among pastures over time to increase forage utilization and reduce invasive annual grasses. Long-term data established that 180-day old calves weighed 13% more when born during early March than early May. Early calving likewise appeared to benefit calf production (weight of 180-day old surviving calves per calf born), with benefits increasing as climate warming reduced neonatal mortality from cold exposure. Compared to calf production from early May calving, estimated calf production from early March calving was 8% greater in the 1940s and 10% greater in the 2010s. Continued late winter and early spring warming would further increase benefits of early calving. The impact of this research is that it provides producers information allowing them to better balance growth and mortality risk. Objective 2: Planted artificial islands were tested to reduce dissolved sulfates from livestock drinking water. Islands were not effective at removing dissolved sulfates in livestock water, and other strategies, including water softeners, must be used to address high sulfate livestock health risks. Objective 3: Addition of the reportedly weed-suppressive bacteria (Pseudomonas fluorescens [D7, ACK55]) reduced cheatgrass germination and root and shoot lengths in Petri plates. However, no effects were observed on plants during growth chamber plant-soil bioassays or field experiments in Montana and Wyoming, indicating the bacterial treatment should not be promoted for broad application as a cheatgrass control agent. Fire was determined to be effective in controlling Russian olive seeds and seedlings. Germination was reduced to one-fifth of the non-burned level with fire at light fuel load and did not differ from 0% heavy grassland fuel load. The probability of at least one seed germinating from 50-seed lots decreased as all measures of temperature and time–temperature increased. Fire killed all but one of 250 seedlings, indicating Russian olive seedlings at 10 weeks old or younger were highly susceptible to fire-induced mortality. Bud production after fire was interpreted as an indicator of potential resistance to fire. Our results indicate that fire reduces seed viability and likely kills most Russian olive seedlings that are less than 1 year old. There is a need to improve forb establishment on Conservation Reserve Program lands. Two to five growing seasons after seeding, seeded forb cover was <10% in most of the fields studied, and no seeded forbs were observed in 23% of fields. High grass seed rates and high weed densities shortly after seeding reduced forb cover at the end of the study. Post-emergence herbicides sometimes benefit seeded forbs, and are being tested with follow up research. Seed rates were too low to maximize forb abundances, and much money was wasted buying seeds of species that did not establish. A key impact of the research was that we identified several species with relatively high establishment probabilities that will support most pollinators. Objective 4; To identify grass seed rates low enough to allow other plants to establish but high enough to constrain weeds, cool-season grass seed rates were varied while holding warm-season grass, shrub, and forb seed rates fixed. Because weed abundances were high, warm-season grasses, shrubs, and forbs experienced similarly intense competition regardless of grass rate, so low rates did not increase seeded plant establishment. Regardless of seed rate, cool-season grass cover did not increase between the second and fourth growing season, perhaps because of low precipitation. The main impact of the research is that it showed increasing warm-season grass, shrub, and forb abundances will require controlling weeds in addition to lowering cool-season grass seed rates. Lowering grass rates without implementing weed control risks sites becoming weedy for prolonged periods. That chances of relatively low densities decline as seeding rate is divided more evenly among more species was proven mathematically. This decline is sharpest if survival probabilities vary widely among species. To determine how much survival probabilities typically vary, grasses commonly seeded in Great Plains grasslands and Mediterranean annual grasslands of the western U.S. were studied. Survival probabilities varied extensively, so chances of low densities declined markedly with increasing species numbers. In the Great Plains, chances of establishment failures were 50% when the seeding rate was allocated to one species versus 0% when the seed rate was divided evenly among five or more species. Similarly in Mediterranean annual grasslands, chances of very low densities declined from 24% when one species was seeded to 0% when three or more species were seeded. This research led to the management recommendation that seeding rates should be divided as evenly as possible among as many species as practical. Compared to increasing seeding rates to provide greater densities, dividing fixed rates more evenly among more species could prove less expensive. Objective 5: Geochemical processes in many of the world’s drylands cause phosphorus-limited conditions for rangeland plants. Where phosphorus solubility is low, plants rely on do-it-yourself strategies, such as root mining, to acquire sorbed phosphorus instead of partnering with mycorrhizal fungi to scavenge for scarce forms of labile phosphorus. Objective 6: Grazers have been observed to select recently burned areas over nonburned areas and forage quality is believed to be primary selection factor. Seasonal timing of fire can alter forage quality through changes in plant tissue nutrient content, plant phenology and species composition. Animals spent more nongrazing time on patches with no fire (38%) than those burned during fall or spring (19%) and summer-burned patches had intermediate and indifferent nongrazing use (24%). Fire effects on grazing preference differed by month. Cattle selected summer fire over spring fire during May and spring fire was selected over summer fire during June. Otherwise, no selection or avoidance was detected. Our expectations were that fire would increase forage quality and that cattle would prefer burned patches to those with no fire. Data did not support this hypothesis because patches with no fire were consistently grazed in proportion to their availability. Surprisingly, nonburned patches were selected for nongrazing activities. The early preference for summer over spring fire and reversal of that effect during June suggests fire treatment may have affected plant phenology and quality. Fire seasonality effects on timing of grazing preference offer opportunities to ensure greater benefit to animals grazing after fire. It may be possible to extend the period of preferred forage availability at the ranch level by offering nonburned pasture and pastures burned at different times so that peak quality occurs at different times across pastures. Rangeland response to fire was not affected by timing of drought preceding fire, indicating management after fire does not need to be modified based on pre-fire drought conditions.

Accomplishments
1. Grazing affects vegetation and soil carbon, but recommended practices do not benefit both. The voluntary carbon market’s marketing to ranchers promises co-benefits of good grazing. Ranchers are told increasing soil carbon will increase their forage production, plant diversity, and water infiltration into the soil. Yet, the co-benefits concept is based on good intentions and not sound science. To test for co-benefits, ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, conducted a 5-year grazing experiment with a control (summer moderate grazing) and three new grazing treatments (summer heavy, fall moderate, fall heavy). We measured soil carbon and forage production and related above-ground plant properties of a semiarid natural grassland in eastern Montana. Changes to grazing practices can affect soil carbon without affecting plant properties and can affect plant properties without affecting soil carbon. In other words, we found good grazing and soil carbon outcomes do not result in co-benefits to forage production and forage diversity.

2. Trends in wildfire activity in the Western Great Plains. Existing knowledge on historical trends in wildfire activity and the effects of bio-physical and socio-ecological drivers is primarily limited to forested ecosystems and highly-populated regions. The Western Great Plains has not only some of the largest areas of rangeland in the U.S., but also the highest concentration of public land in the Great Plains. A collaboration between ARS in Miles City, Montana, and the University of Florida described spatial and temporal patterns in fire across the Western Great Plains by analyzing over 62,000 wildfire incidents from 1992 to 2020. Ignition by humans was the dominant cause of fires. Despite public perceptions of increasing fire activity in the U.S., the Western Great Plains showed no statistically significant trends in either increasing or decreasing annual burned area. Within the region, the Northwestern Plains had the most burned area and the greatest number of incidents—consistently around or above 1000 incidents per year since 1992—with the majority in July. Although few long-term trends in human population, weather, or fuel properties were strongly associated with fire patterns, the findings highlight the large footprint of fire on public grazinglands. In the Northwestern Plains, over half of grazing allotments on U.S. Forest Service land and nearly one-third of allotments administered by the Bureau of Land Management were impacted by wildfire. On average, for every 10 wildfires on public land, six grazing leases potentially required modification (grazing restriction) due to wildfire, constituting thousands of impacted management plans. Rural landscapes in the Western Great Plains are a mosaic of public and private lands. Wildfire on public grazingland and resulting federal agency restrictions on grazing after wildfire can have broad and deep impact on livestock producers and rural livelihoods.

3. Microbial communities are positively related with plant communities. Rangelands cover a third of global ice-free land, and our perception of their condition is heavily influenced by time of year (e.g. spring versus fall), livestock (e.g. condition pre- versus post-grazing), and weather conditions (e.g. wet versus dry). To prevent rangeland degradation from mismanagement, we need a system of monitoring that includes strong leading (not trailing) indicators of changing forage production and soil water infiltration that can be applied across soils and environments. With a global group of cooperators distributed across 18 grassland sites, ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, tested whether local gradients in plant yield and diversity are associated with soil bacteria and fungi. We found 170 bacterial taxa indicators of high and low yielding sites. Particularly important bacterial indicators of high- and low-productivity grasslands were members of the genera Bacillus and Rubrobacter, respectively. Microbial diversity was positively correlated with plant diversity, especially fungi. The associations between plants and microbes likely result from similar environmental factors structuring plant and microbial communities, plant-microbe interactions, or both.

4. Water source affects climate change experiments. The majority of climate change experiments, that simulate increases in rainfall, irrigate plots with mineralized water (e.g. tap water) in place of rainwater. While this practice is common and seemingly unimportant, biogeochemical theory predicts that dissolved solids common in tap water will affect the availability of soil nutrients. For example, tap water is likely to contain calcium, and calcium added to alkaline soils will result in calcium-bound phosphorus and less phosphorus available to plants. Little is known about how the use of mineralized water may complicate climate change study results and interpretations. Researchers in Miles City, Montana, found that irrigating plots with tap water dramatically increased soil sulfate concentrations and to a lesser degree increased iron and calcium. We found that results supported theory and indicated tap water additions decreased plant available phosphorus. Climate change experiments with irrigation treatments should collect and apply rainwater to plots or utilize filtered water.

5. Comparing forecasting methods for predicting rangeland biomass. The ability to forecast the amount of standing vegetation biomass can provide important early warning information for livestock and fire management. However, few studies have been conducted on forecasting vegetation biomass for periods in the near-term (1-24 months in the future). Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI) methods may be useful for improving near-term forecasting. In this study, ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, and Texas A&M University collaborators tested multiple deep learning artificial intelligence models to predict aboveground biomass 6, 12, 18, and 24 months into the future and compared these to a traditional statistical model. Using vegetation biomass values from 5 rangeland sites in Kenya for training and testing, the forecasting models were run, and outputs compared. No model was found to be superior in forecasting standing vegetation biomass, and the traditional statistical model slightly outperformed the artificial intelligence models. As expected, the accuracy for all models decreased with increasing length of the forecast period. Based on this limited study, producers who use, or would pay more for artificial intelligence-derived forecasts of vegetation biomass may not receive increased reliability when compared to forecasts that use traditional statistical methods.

6. Prickly pear mapping on rangelands. During the last 100 years, prickly pear cactus has been increasing on rangelands in the U.S. and elsewhere. Mapping prickly pear locations would be useful for precision herbicide applications or removal. However, mapping has been challenging because of the mixture and diversity of plants across rangeland landscapes. ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, teamed with Texas A&M University researchers to determine if a reliable method could be identified for accurately mapping prickly pear on rangelands. Using field data, aerial imagery, and information on the unique light reflectance properties of prickly pear, a series of classification models were trained and tested. The best performing model was able to identify prickly pear locations 96% of the time. The classification model was then used to evaluate reductions in prickly pear after fire and found that a prescribed fire decreased prickly pear cover by 46%. Results indicate that mapping prickly pear on rangelands is feasible and can be used to aid in the design and effectiveness evaluation of rangeland management strategies such as fire.

7. Prescribed fire enhances forage nutritive value and mineral content, increases cattle weight gains. Rangeland management often prioritizes either conservation or livestock production. But sustainable grazing management that includes ecological processes such as spatially-patchy fire could optimize both together. Scientists at North Dakota State University collaborating with ARS in Miles City, Montana, conducted a controlled, ranch-scale experiment to compare forage nutritive value and livestock performance on patch-burned pastures to rotational and continuous grazing. Fire increased crude protein, neutral detergent fiber digestibility, and energy, and decreased acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, and lignin components of forage nutritive value relative to unburned patches and grazing systems without fire. Recently-burned patches had the best forage nutritive value throughout the grazing season, and often had higher mineral content than areas with longer time since fire. Cows spent more time in recently-burned patches compared with other patches in pastures managed with patch-burning, likely because recently-burned patches were more likely to meet grazing animal nutritional requirements throughout the grazing season than unburned patches or anywhere in the rotationally-grazed or continuously-stocked pastures. As such, cows from patch-burned pastures performed better over the course of the grazing season. Not only do these results indicate prescribed fire is a viable option for ranchers across the Northern Plains, they also suggest that post-fire grazing in the hundreds of public grazingland allotments affected by wildfire each year might present opportunities for high-quality forage to lessees.

8. Even distribution of more seeded species increases restoration success. A major factor hindering ecological restoration is uncertainty about which plant species will best establish. ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, accounted for this uncertainty in design of seed mixes. Seed mixes were comprised of one or more species groups (e.g. shrubs, grasses, nitrogen fixers). We mathematically established that chances of relatively low densities decline as a species group’s seeding rate (e.g. 100 seeds m-2) is divided more evenly among more species. This decline is sharpest if survival probabilities vary widely among species. To determine how much survival probabilities typically vary, we studied grasses commonly seeded in Great Plains grasslands and Mediterranean annual grasslands of the western U.S. Survival probabilities varied extensively, so chances of low densities declined markedly with increasing species numbers. In the Great Plains, chances of establishment failures (0 plants m-2) were 50% when the seeding rate was allocated to one species versus 0% when the seeding rate was divided evenly among five or more species. Similarly in Mediterranean annual grasslands, chances of very low densities (=1.0 plants m-2) declined from 24% when one species was seeded to 0% when three or more species were seeded. Seeding rates should be divided as evenly as possible among as many species as practical. Compared to increasing seeding rates to provide greater densities, dividing fixed rates more evenly among more species could prove less expensive.

9. Reduced cool-season seeding rates and weed control are required to increase functional group diversity in restoration plantings. Plants seeded to degraded grasslands often fail to establish. In the Northern Great Plains, perennial cool-season grasses are easiest to establish, and they sometimes competitively suppress warm-season grasses, shrubs, and forbs. Seeding cool-season grasses at low rates sometimes benefits other seeded plants but risks greater weed abundances. To identify grass seed rates low enough to allow other plants to establish but high enough to constrain weeds, ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, varied cool-season grass seed rates while holding warm-season grass, shrub, and forb seed rates fixed. The first couple of growing seasons after seeding, we hypothesized cover of other seeded plants and weeds would decrease with increasing cool-season grass seed rate. During later growing seasons, we hypothesized weed cover would gradually become independent of grass seed rates due to seeded plants increasing in plots seeded at low rates. Neither hypothesis was supported. Because weed abundances were high, warm-season grasses, shrubs, and forbs apparently experienced similarly intense competition regardless of grass rate, so low rates did not increase seeded plant establishment. Regardless of seed rate, cool-season grass cover did not increase between the second and fourth growing season, perhaps because of low precipitation. Increasing warm-season grass, shrub, and forb abundances will require controlling weeds in addition to lowering cool-season grass seed rates. Even these steps will not always increase establishment, because native plants sometimes died before herbicide applications became feasible and grass competition became important. Lowering grass rates without implementing weed control risks sites becoming weedy for prolonged periods.

10. Point-intercept methods increase efficiency of current-year biomass estimation and data richness over manual sorting. Productivity is a primary indicator for plant communities and their responses to management or disturbance, but difficult and costly to determine. Adding to this complication is retention of standing litter from previous years’ growth intermingled with current-year biomass. The most accurate method for estimating productivity is to clip and manually sort vegetation to separate current-year and previous years’ growth. Because sorting is costly, it is often only done for subsamples or not at all. Productivity estimates will be biased upward for conditions that accumulate standing dead material, which is problematic when comparing treatments such as fire or different levels of grazing. ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, tested whether line-point intercept methods could be adapted to determine proportions of current-year and older vegetation and estimate current-year biomass. Data were collected by seven observers across four years and five experiments in northern mixed prairie using 306 plots. Point-intercept transects with 20-cm spacing between points were used to determine number of intercepts for current-year and older vegetation and compared with clipping data and manual sorting vegetation. Intercepts per 100 points was positively related to total standing crop and current-year biomass, but explained only 49 and 53% of variation in data. The relationship between manually-sorted current-year biomass and that derived from the product of point-intercept percentages and total standing crop was positive, explained 96% of the variation, and had an absolute error of less than 7% of average current-year biomass. Point-intercept sampling is more efficient than manual sorting and can provide more indicators, including cover and diversity. Data indicate point intercept methods are accurate and can replace manual sorting of current-year herbaceous biomass.

11. Fire reduces greasewood canopy for years and herbaceous communities are resilient. Black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) is a native salt-tolerant, resprouting shrub common on rangelands in the western United States. Stands can become dense, with limited native herbaceous biomass, and are prone to invasion by exotic species. ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, and University of Wyoming collaborators tested fall and spring fire compared to nonburned controls in a degraded rangeland site in Miles City, Montana, and a healthy site in Laramie, Wyoming, to determine effects on shrub survival, density and canopy structure. In a second experiment at the Montana site, nontreated controls, fall fire, 2,4-D herbicide and 2,4-D herbicide preceded by fire were tested for effects on herbaceous biomass and greasewood. Fire did not affect greasewood survival, but fire in either season reduced canopy volume 52% across two growing seasons and models projected 4 or 5 growing seasons for structural recovery. Fine fuel load was negatively related to greasewood density and canopy structure. Herbicide reduced greasewood survival 55% and fire plus herbicide reduced survival 30%. Exotic species were reduced in fall burned plots in Montana and cheatgrass did not increase in burned plots in Wyoming. The proportion of native species in both plant communities remained constant and native perennial warm-season grasses were resilient to fire. Burn treatment had no negative effects on plant diversity. Fire treatments had variable effects on current-year biomass with influences of drought and season of burn. Prescribed fire did not exacerbate exotic plant species spread or reduce native species dominance in either location, indicating greasewood rangelands are resilient to fire. Prescribed fire can reduce greasewood canopy structure for multiple years without killing the shrubs. Herbicide is more effective than fire if the objective is to reduce greasewood density, but multiple applications may be required.

12. Principles for successful livestock grazing management are defined for western rangelands. In recent decades rangeland science has moved from a “command and control” framework to one that values heterogeneity, recognizes rangelands as social-ecological systems, and seeks to integrate complexity. This new framework recognizes management as fundamentally site-specific, but rangeland science has not provided clear principles for successful livestock grazing management for use by producers and other stakeholders. This reticence has created a void often filled by prescriptive solutions that contradict our best understanding of rangeland systems. ARS researchers in Miles City, Montana, and collaborators across the western U.S. engaged hundreds of livestock grazing management experts in an iterative conversation to distill a set of evidence-based, adaptable principles for successful livestock grazing management in the semiarid and arid rangelands of the western United States. Seven principles identified are: Practice adaptive management; Optimize stocking rate; Use a grazing plan; Prioritize ecological health; Evaluate distribution; Welfare begets performance; and Think beyond the range. The full versions of these principles contain paragraph length descriptions highlighting key considerations for each. These principles can be applied as checklists for assessment and use in teaching, extension, and industry evaluation efforts.

Review Publications
Anderson, K.J., Vermeire, L.T., Strong, D.J., Poland, W.W. 2023. New applications for point intercept methods: Replacing manual sorting of current-year herbaceous biomass. Ecological Indicators. 158. Article 111360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.111360.
Donovan, V.M., Wonkka, C.L., Roberts, C.P., Wedin, D.A., McGranahan, D.A., Twidwell, D. 2023. The influence of wildfire on invasive plant abundance and spatial structure in eastern ponderosa pine savanna. Plant Ecology. 224:987-999. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-023-01355-9.
Heimbuch, N.G., McGranahan, D.A., Wonkka, C.L., Vermeire, L.T., Branson, D.H. 2023. Grasshopper abundance and offtake increase after prescribed fire in semi-arid grassland. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 32(12):1828-1833. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF23031.
Frost, M.D., Komatsu, K.J., Porensky, L.M., Reinhart, K.O., Wilcox, K.R., Bunch, Z.L., Jolin, A.D., Johnston, K.A., Trimas, G.E., Koerner, S.E. 2024. Plant, insect, and soil microbial communities vary across brome invasion gradients in northern mixed-grass prairies. Oikos. Article e10515. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.10515.
Jablonski, K.E., Derner, J.D., Bailey, D.W., Davies, K.W., Meiman, P.J., Roche, L., Thacker, E.T., Vermeire, L.T., Stackhouse-Lawson, K.R. 2023. Principles for successful livestock grazing management on Western US rangelands. Rangelands. 46(2):35-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2023.11.001.
Jaime, X., Angerer, J.P., Yang, C., Walker, J., Mata, J., Tolleson, D., Wu, X. 2023. Exploring effective detection and spatial pattern of Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia genus) from airborne imagery before and after prescribed fires in the Edwards Plateau. Remote Sensing. 15(16). Article 4033. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15164033.
McGranahan, D.A., Wonkka, C.L. 2024. Pyrogeography of the Western Great Plains: A 40-year history of fire in semi-arid rangelands. Fire. 7(1). Article 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/fire7010032.
Noa-Yarasca, E., Osorio Leyton, J.M., Angerer, J.P. 2024. Deep learning model effectiveness in forecasting limited-size aboveground vegetation biomass time series: Kenyan grasslands case study. Agronomy. 14(2). Article 349. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14020349.
Preiss, V.D., Wonkka, C.L., McGranahan, D.A., Lodge, A.G., Dickinson, M.B., Kavanagh, K.L., Starns, H.D., Tolleson, D.R., Treadwell, M.L., Twidwell, D., Rogers, W.E. 2023. Exotic herbivores and fire energy drive standing herbaceous biomass but do not alter compositional patterns in a semiarid savanna ecosystem. Applied Vegetation Science. 26(4). Article e12749. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12749.
Radujkovic, D., Vicca, S., Van Rooyen, G., Wilfahrt, P., Brown, L., Jentsch, A., Reinhart, K.O., Brown, C., De Gruyter, J., Jurasinski, G., Askarizadeh, D., Bartha, S., Beck, R., Blenkinsopp, T., Cahill, J., Campetella, G., Canullo, R., Chelli, S., Enrico, L., Fraser, L., Hao, X., Henry, H.L., Hohn, M., Hasan Jouri, M., Koch, M., Lawrence Lodge, R., Yonghong Li, F., Milligan, P., Minggagud, H., Palmer, T., Schroder, B., Szabo, G., Zhang, T., Zimmermann, Z., Verbruggen, E. 2023. Consistent predictors of microbial community composition across spatial scales in grasslands reveal low context-dependency. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 32(24):6924-6938. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17178.
Reinhart, K.O., Rinella, M.J., Waterman, R.C., Sanni Worogo, H., Vermeire, L.T. 2023. Above-ground plant properties are not leading indicators of grazing-induced soil carbon accrual in the Northern Great Plains. Global Change Biology. 158. Article 111509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.111509.
Reinhart, K.O., Vermeire, L.T. 2023. Precipitation manipulation experiments may be confounded by water source. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. 23:3775-3779. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01298-0.
Rinella, M.J., Bellows, S.E. 2024. Low weed and cool-season grass abundances likely necessary for warm-season grass, forb, and shrub establishment. Restoration Ecology. 32(5). Article e14177. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.14177.
Spiess, J.W., McGranahan, D.A., Berti, M., Gasch, C., Hovick, T.J., Geaumont, B. 2024. Spatio-temporal patterns of rangeland forage nutritive value and grazer selection with patch-burning in the US northern Great Plains. Journal of Environmental Management. 357. Article 120731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120731.
Wade, N.M., Vermeire, L.T., Scasta, J. 2024. Fire seasonality and herbicide effects on Sarcobatus vermiculatus survival and structure in western Great Plains. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 94:64-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2024.02.001.
Wade, N.M., Vermeire, L.T., Scasta, J. 2024. Prescribed fire and exotic plant responses in phreatophytic Sarcobatus vermiculatus rangelands with contrasting degradation. Global Ecology and Conservation. 52. Article e02955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02955.
Wanchuk, M.R., McGranahan, D.A., Sedivec, K.K., Berti, M., Swanson, K.C., Hovick, T.J., Limb, R.F. 2024. Improving forage nutritive value and livestock performance with spatially-patchy prescribed fire in grazed rangeland. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. 368. Article 109004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109004.
West, N.M., Branson, D.H., Muscha, J.M., Campbell, J.W. 2023. Early impacts of invasive shrub removal on riparian arthropod communities. Ecological Restoration. 41(4):189-198. https://doi.org/10.3368/er.41.4.189.