U.S. Joint Fire Science Program
Joint Fire Science Program Digests
Date of this Version
5-2012
Document Type
Newsletter Issue
Citation
Fire Science Digest, Issue 13, May 2012
Abstract
Cheatgrass and its cousin, red brome, are exotic annual grasses that have invaded and altered ecosystem dynamics in more than 41 million acres of desert shrublands between the Rockies and the Cascade-Sierra chain. A fungus naturally associated with these Bromus species has been found lethal to the plants’ soil-banked dormant seeds. Supported by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP), researchers Susan Meyer, Phil Allen, and Julie Beckstead cultured this fungus, Pyrenophora semeniperda, in the laboratory and developed an experimental field application that, in some trials, killed all the dormant soil-banked Bromus seeds, leaving none to germinate the following year. The team’s work opens the way to a commercial biocontrol product that may be capable of safely eliminating the seed bank of persistent invasive grasses. Biocontrol could be used in conjunction with other weed control measures and conservation strategies to make sagebrush-steppe lands less susceptible to reinvasion. A biocontrol tool effective against Bromus seeds would be a boon to managers working to restore the native bunchgrasses, forbs, and shrubs that characterize an intact shrub-steppe ecosystem.
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Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Fire Science and Firefighting Commons, Forest Biology Commons, Forest Management Commons, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons, Weed Science Commons, Wood Science and Pulp, Paper Technology Commons
Comments
United States government work