Arid-land disturbance legacies persist for decades in the landscape

Evidence

Because production rates are low in most arid and semiarid systems, the recovery of vegetation from fire, grazing, or other disturbances is likely to be quite slow. Areas in the shrubsteppe that have been burned may not have regenerated shrub cover several decades later, and heavily grazed desert grasslands may show the effects long after cattle or sheep have been removed. Just as recovery is slow in these systems, so is any sort of community change. Many shrubs and cacti, once established, are long-lived and grow quite slowly, giving habitats considerable structural stability over time. Patch structure persists. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1146

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly useful to ‘Grafting & Growth’ and the landscape course: slow desert recovery means old burns and grazing still read in present structure — supports reading deep time from current patch pattern.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how do arid-region centuries-long recovery rates complicate the assumption that present landscape structure reflects recent disturbance rather than ancient imprint?
• XREF: connects to: Suppressing disturbance makes ecosystems more vulnerable to catastrophe — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2073; Frequent small animal disturbances maintain grassland diversity as a fine-grained mosaic — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 499

Broader Connections

• Suppressing disturbance makes ecosystems more vulnerable to catastrophe #expands (0.78) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2073
• Frequent small animal disturbances maintain grassland diversity as a fine-grained mosaic #complicates (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 499