The Effects of Interactions Among Disturbances in Determining Vegetation and Ecosystem Recovery

Because California grasslands are largely dominated by annual plants, they can experience extreme fluctuations due to variations in precipitation, management practices, and wildfire. In particular, annual grasses can be limited in their response to disturbance events that limit their seed production or survival. In these circumstances, ecosystem resilience can be reliant on the seedbank of wildflowers.

In 2018, more than 65% of HREC’s 5,300 acres burned in the Mendocino Complex wildfire. Research on site has provided one of the only known existing pre-wildfire data on key variables that drive grassland vegetation recovery such as seed productivity, seedbanks, nutrient cycling, and plant composition. The fire has also provided unique opportunities to quantify the effects of other disturbances on the landscape that could not previously be observed. For example, researchers are now investigating if gopher mounds and ant nests provide islands of recovery as hotspots of unburned seeds post-fire. Research is also focused on how grazing pre- and post-fire impacts the recovery of plant communities and ecosystem functions post-fire.