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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #355203
Title: Predicting Lehmann’s lovegrass expansion at the JRN LTER site

Author
item BURRUSS, DYLAN - New Mexico State University
item Peters, Debra
item ARCHER, STEVEN - University Of Arizona

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/15/2018
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Lehmann lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana) is a perennial grass introduced across the American Southwest in the 1930s to restore production on grasslands. While climate and soils are known to influence broad distributions of E. lehmanniana, drivers of local patterns, such as patterns at the Jornada Basin LTER site, are less understood. Our objective was to integrate fine-scale maps of soils and climate with multi-scale patterns of E. lehmanniana occurrence through time to improve the spatio-temporal predictions of its expansion into Chihuahuan Desert ecosystems. Our results show climate, soil properties and seedling recruitment (germination, establishment, dispersal) processes result in non-linear rates and patterns of spread through time.