Southwestern U. S. juniper savanna and piñon-juniper woodland communities: Ecological history and natural range of variability

Abstract

Juniper savanna and pinon-juniper woodland communities collectively represent a widespread and diverse vegetation type that occupies foothill and mesa landforms at middle elevations in semi-arid portions of the American Southwest. Ecological understanding and proper management of these juniper and pinon types requires local knowledge of component species, site history and potential, set within a regional floristic and climatic context. The wide distribution and broad ecological amplitude of this vegetation type across a six-state area of the southwestern United States is best appreciated as the sum of the individual ranges of the component pinon and juniper species, and their environmental tolerances. Key environmental controls of juniper and pinon occurrence, stand age-structure, and composition, include the interaction of climate, topography, soils, and disturbance processes, in combination with biotic interactions, that occur over various spatial and temporal scales.

Parent Publication

• Ecology, management, and restoration of pinon-juniper and ponderosa pine ecosystems: combined proceedings of the 2005 St. George, Utah and 2006 Albuquerque, New Mexico workshops

Citation

Jacobs, Brian F. 2008. Southwestern U. S. juniper savanna and pinon-juniper woodland communities: Ecological history and natural range of variability. In: Gottfried, Gerald J.; Shaw, John D.; Ford, Paulette L., compilers. 2008. Ecology, management, and restoration of pinon-juniper and ponderosa pine ecosystems: combined proceedings of the 2005 St. George, Utah and 2006 Albuquerque, New Mexico workshops. Proceedings RMRS-P-51. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 11-19