1. Long-term patterns of wild and domestic
ungulate effects on rangeland plant
communities of the Colorado Plateau
Kyle Nehring
PhD Student Utah State University
Advisor: Kari Veblen

3. Direct = Individual Survival
and Reproduction Success

4. Indirect = Competition
and Plant Community Changes

5. Direct = Individual Survival
and Reproduction Success

6. Indirect = Competition
and Plant Community Changes

7. Direct and Indirect =
Soil Characteristic Changes/
Alterations

11. Are different forms of herbivory driving
these plant community dynamics?

12. Alternative
stable states

14. ?

15. Research Goals
1. Quantify the
effects of different
combinations of
ungulate species on
a plant community’s
composition and
structure

16. Research Goals
2. Identify herbivory
effects across
different plant
communities and
site characteristics

17. )
)
)
)
)
)
)
) ) )
)
)
Moab
)
)
)
)
0
20
40
Exclosure
Ecological Site Type
)
)
60
80
±
)
) )
)
)
)
)
100
Kilometers
)
)
)
)
Pinyon Juniper
Wyoming Big Sage
Mountain Big Sage
Salt Desert Shrub

18. Livestock and
Wildlife Exclosures

20. Methods

21. Plant Community
Composition and
Structure Surveys
• Nested Plant Frequency
Frames
• Line Point Intercept
• Basal Gap
• Canopy Intercept
• Shrub Belt Transects
• Grass Belt Transects

22. Ungulate Use
Surveys
• Graze and Browse Damage
Assessments
• Pellet Counts
• Ungulate Diet Composition:
Laboratory microhistological
tests
• Wildlife Cameras:
Ungulate exclosure use and
possible habitat selection

23. Soil Surveys and
Other
• Cryptobiotic Soil Cover
and Composition
• Soil Pedon
Characterization and
Classification
• Historical Vegetation
Cover: Aerial Photographs
and BLM/USFS Survey Data
• Climate Data

24. Preliminary Results

25. Mean Big Sagebrush Counts in Big Sage Sites
o No large compositional changes
o Structural Differences:
• Smaller sage outside exclosures (recruitment or grazed shrubs?)
• Large shrubs inside total exclosure

27. Winterfat Counts in Big Sage Sites

28. Mean Bunch Grass Counts in Big Sage Sites
INDIAN
RICEGRASS
SQUIRREL TAIL
NEEDLE AND
THREAD
SANDBERG
BLUEGRASS
SAND DROPSEED

29. Future Research
and
Applications

31. •
•
•

32. Utah Department of Agriculture and Food:
Cap Ferry Grant
Utah Agriculture Experimental Station
USU Ecology Center: 2013-2014 Graduate
Student Research Support Award and
Conference Travel Award
USU Wildland Resource Department
Research Collaborators: Jane Zelikova,
Eugene Schupp, Colby Brungard, April Darger
Moab USGS: Mike Duniway and Jayne Belnap
The Veblen Lab
Canyonlands Research Center and
Supporting Partners
Field Technicians: Hope Braithwaite, Corey
Sample, Andrew Tredennick, Antra Boca
My Committee: Kari Veblen, Janis Boettinger,
and Juan Villalba

33. Questions?