Pinon-juniper is not just one vegetation type: Key variation in composition, structure, and disturbance dynamics, with implications for wildlife and ecosystem management

Abstract

Pinon-Juniper vegetation covers 100 million acres across the western United States, in areas of diverse topography, climate, and soils. Consequently, Pinon-Juniper vegetation varies greatly in structure and disturbance processes at both the stand and landscape scales. Until recently, however, this variation was not widely recognized, and Pinon-Juniper vegetation was interpreted and managed in much the same way throughout its range (Jacobs 2008a). Early studies were conducted primarily in the Great Basin and Mexican borderlands, where juniper expansion into grasslands and shrublands was a major ecological process and management concern. Results of these studies were then applied uncritically to Pinon-Juniper vegetation elsewhere, notably on the Colorado Plateau, where more recent research has revealed very different stand and landscape dynamics.

Parent Publication

• Symposium Proceedings on Piñon-Juniper Habitats: Status and Management for Wildlife - 2016

Citation

Romme, William H. 2020. Pinon-juniper is not just one vegetation type: Key variation in composition, structure, and disturbance dynamics, with implications for wildlife and ecosystem management. In: Malcolm, Karl; Dykstra, Brian; Johnson, Kristine; Lightfoot, David; Muldavin, Esteban; Ramsey, Marikay. Symposium Proceedings on Pinon-Juniper Habitats: Status and Management for Wildlife - 2016. Proceedings RMRS-P-77. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 1-4.