Скачать или смотреть EOARC Ag Minutes: Jeremy James-Soil Salinity

My research focuses on understanding and managing ecological processes driving rangeland plant community change. The goal of this research is to use this understanding to develop and promote sustainable rangeland management and restoration strategies. Rangelands play a key role in sustainable agricultural systems and represent some of the largest contiguous plant and wildlife habit in the West and thus provide an array of critical ecological functions and services. The health and continuity of these ecosystems, however, is threatened by a number of factors including environmental and land use change, invasive species and changes in natural fire cycles.
Within this context, my research at EOARC centers on developing systems approaches for managing rangeland plant community change. State and Transition models (STM), largely based on non-equilibrium concepts of plant community ecology, have provided a useful way to organize knowledge about ecological sites but in most cases these models are only used conceptually and lack a quantitative basis. The systems model I have developed complements STMs by providing the ability to quantitatively predict how management will influence plant community change.
I am developing and applying this systems model in three areas:
1. Restoring desired species to improve production and other essential ecological functions
2. Developing ecologically-based IPM for medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae)
3. Predicting effects of environmental change on rangeland plant community dynamics