Mojave Desert Plant Community Long-Term Response to Disturbance
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UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones December 2019 Mojave Desert Plant Community Long-Term Response to Disturbance Dominic M. Gentilcore Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Biology Commons, Environmental Sciences Commons, and the Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons Repository Citation Gentilcore, Dominic M., "Mojave Desert Plant Community Long-Term Response to Disturbance" (2019). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3804. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/18608655 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MOJAVE DESERT PLANT COMMUNITY LONG-TERM RESPONSE TO DISTURBANCE By Dominic M. Gentilcore Bachelor of Science – Biology Saint Louis University 2007 Master of Science – Natural Resources and Environmental Science University of Nevada, Reno 2015 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy - Biological Science School of Life Sciences College of Sciences The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2019 Dissertation Approval The Graduate College The University of Nevada, Las Vegas November 13, 2019 This dissertation prepared by Dominic M. Gentilcore entitled Mojave Desert Plant Community Long-Term Response to Disturbance is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy - Biological Science School of Life Sciences Scott Abella, Ph.D. Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D. Examination Committee Chair Graduate College Dean Dale Devitt, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Lloyd Stark, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Stanley Smith, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Jacimaria Batista, Ph.D. Graduate College Faculty Representative ii Abstract All vegetation communities have been shaped by disturbances. This dissertation consists of three separate chapters: Blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) natural regeneration in the Great Basin-Mojave Desert Transition Zone on two fires, Long-term Response to Fire in Eastern Mojave Desert semi-arid shrubland communities, and an Annotated Checklist of Gold Butte National Monument in the Mojave-Colorado Plateau Transition Zone. The section on blackbrush natural regeneration was a long-term dataset from two fires in Basin and Range National Monument that burned in 2008 with monitoring events in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2019. The monitoring documented some of the strongest post-fire regeneration for the paleoendemic Coleogyne. It established as seedlings the first year following fire and grew to dominate the burned area over the next decade, reaching 11% total cover. The fire chronosequence included permanent plots on 31 burned areas across the Eastern Mojave Desert that burned from 1980- 2006 and were previously monitored from 2007—2009, and then remonitored in 2016. It documents long-term change in creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and Coleogyne shrubland communities. An Annotated Checklist of Gold Butte National Monument is a landscape scale description of the vegetation communities and diversity at one of the country’s newest national monuments. It verified 676 vouchered vascular plant taxa from 84 families that occurred within the monument’s boundaries, including Nevada state records for Cutler’s jointfir (Ephedra cutleri) and Utah knotweed (Polygonum utahense). These three chapters relate to the description of Mojave Desert plant communities and their successional responses following disturbance. The often slow response of desert plant communities and long-lived shrubs makes them difficult to monitor. The strength of the data come from study designs with substantial replication of disturbance events within the area and repeated long-term permanent plots which are able to iii describe vegetation change occurring over decades. This dissertation will expand on existing knowledge about long-term vegetation recovery and floristic composition in the Mojave Desert. iv Acknowledgements This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under the Nevada Solar NEXUS Grant No. IIA-1301726, Nevada Native Plant Society under the Margaret Williams Grant, The Garden Society of American under the Desert Studies Grant, and the Bureau of Land Management under the National Conservation Lands System Inventory Grant. The Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service provided permits to allow data collection on public lands they manage. I am indebted to many people who assisted with field data collection and/or identification of plant material including Dr. Jim Andre, Kevin Berghal, Dr. Jim Boone, Lindsay Chiquoine, Felicia Chan, Dr. David Charlet, Joslyn Curtis, Adam Czarnecki, Cayenne Engel, Sylvia Gentilcore (wife), Greg Gust, Ka-Voka Jackson, Lara Kobelt, Olivia Niziolek, Tiffany Pereira, and Arnold Tiehm. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Jaci Batista, Dr. Dale Devitt, Dr. Stan Smith, and Dr. Llo Stark who provided advice throughout the duration of the project. Finally, I would like to especially thank my major advisor, Dr. Scott Abella, who was endlessly helpful, always willing to answer my many questions, and has been absolutely essential to my growth as a scientist. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii Chapter 1: Blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima: Rosaceae) Natural Regeneration Following Fire in the Great Basin- Mojave Transition Zone. .................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Long-term response to fire in Eastern Mojave Desert Semi-arid Shrubland Communities. ............................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 3: An Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Gold Butte National Monument, Clark County, Nevada. .......................................................................................... 46 References .................................................................................................................................. 172 Cirriculum Vitae ....................................................................................................................... 184 vi List of Tables Table 1. Climate data from Hiko, NV weather station.. ............................................................ 9 Table 2. Mean vegetation cover by native status and functional group for Fossil and Jacob Fires... ........................................................................................................................................... 16 Table 3. Absolute and relative cover of the most common species on the burned area. ...... 17 Table 4 Repeated measure ANOVA results comparing 2007—2009 to 2016........................ 34 Table 5. Kendall’s tau correlation values between NMS ordination axes and cover and richness variables. ....................................................................................................................... 38 Table 6. Cover and species richness differences between burned vs. unburned areas.. ...... 41 Table 7. Bureau of Land Management designated sensitive species within Gold Butte National Monument. ................................................................................................................... 70 Table 8. Nevada Natural Heritage Program designated at-risk species within Gold Butte National Monument. ................................................................................................................... 70 Table 9. List of botanists who have collected at Gold Butte National Monument. ............... 75 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Map of Fossil and Jacob Burned Area... .................................................................... 6 Figure 2. Overview of a demonstration plot.. ............................................................................. 8 Figure 3. Coleogyne ramosissima seedling and mature density at Fossil and Jacob fires.. .. 11 Figure 4. Coleogyne ramosissima mean cover (circles) with 95% confidence error bars from one year (2009) to 11 years (2019) after wildfire