Savannas are characterized by a discontinuous tree layer superimposed on a continuous layer of grass. Identifying the mechanisms that facilitate this tree–grass coexistence has remained a persistent challenge in ecology and is known as the ‘‘savanna problem’’. In this work, we propose a model that combines a previous savanna model Calabrese et al., 2010, which includes competitive interactions ...

Fire is thought to profoundly change the ecology of the sagebrush steppe. The Idaho National Laboratory provides an ideal setting to compare the effects of fire and physical disturbance on plant diversity in high-native-cover sagebrush steppe. Seventy-eight 1-hectare transects were established along paved, green-striped, gravel, and two-track roads, in overgrazed rangeland, and within sagebrush...

Statistical descriptors of the fire regime in ponderosa pine forests of the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, are spatially scale-dependent. Thus, quantification of fire regimes must be undertaken in a spatially explicit framework. We apply a variety of analytical tests adapted from species-area relationships to demonstrate an analytical framework for understanding scaling of disturbance regimes. A ...

Fire suppression in grassland systems that are adapted to episodic fire has contributed to the recruitment of woody species in grasslands worldwide. Even though the ecology of restoring these fire prone systems back to grassland states is becoming clearer, a major hurdle to the reintroduction of historic fires at a landscape scale is its social acceptability. Despite the growing body of literat...

Fire is a recurrent disturbance in savanna vegetation and savanna species are adapted to it. Even so, fire may affect various aspects of plant ecology, including phenology. We studied the effects of a spatially heterogeneous fire on the reproductive phenology of two dominant woody plant species, Miconia albicans (Melastomataceae) and Schefflera vinosa (Araliaceae), in a savanna area in South-ea...

Aim The use of species distribution models (SDMs) to predict biological invasions is a rapidly developing area of ecology. However, most studies investigating SDMs typically ignore prediction errors and instead focus on regions where native distributions correctly predict invaded ranges. We investigated the ecological significance of prediction errors using reciprocal comparisons between the pr...

Trophic interactions are important features of terrestrial ecosystems affecting grazing and detrital food webs and ecosystem processes (Lawrence & Wise, 2000; Schmitz et al., 2000; Wardle et al., 2005; Fukami et al., 2006; Dunham, 2008); however, pathways linking these subsystems have long been ignored. Detrital systems and their processes had been assumed to be primarily donor-controlled (via ...

Copes-Gerbitz, K., S. M. Hagerman, and L. D. Daniels. 2021. Situating Indigenous knowledge for resilience in fire-dependent social-ecological systems. Ecology Society 26(4):25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12757-260425

Grassland, as one of the most important ecosystems on Earth, experiences fires that affect the local ecology, economy and society. Notably, grassland fires occur frequently each year in northeastern China. Fire occurrence is a complex problem with multiple causes, such as natural factors, human activities and land use. This paper investigates the disruptive effects of grassland fire in the nort...