Ventenata Invasion in the Blue Mountains Ecoregion
Exotic plant invasions are a growing challenge to ecosystem management, and are particularly dramatic when they alter disturbance regimes beyond the range of natural variation. A relatively new invasive annual grass, Ventenata dubia thrives at higher elevations, threatening native forest biodiversity and creating ecosystem-level changes. We are conducting landscape scale research focused on the Blue Mountain Ecoregion (BME) in the Pacific Northwest to examine the extent of ventenata invasion and associated ecosystem change.
This project will examine how fuels, fire regimes, and fire effects might shift across the region, and how these changes might affect management. This project will depict alternative scenarios of ecosystem change associated with future climate change and management actions.
The research project has four primary objectives:
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Ventenata Occurrence in the BME
We have developed an initial ventenata occurrence map after compiling all known existing data with new spatial data collected in 2017 across the Blue Mountain Ecoregion. This is a work in progress! We will add new information as it becomes available and update the map. If you have ventenata occurrence data, please contact us!
This map was created through collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management, Central Oregon Fire Management Service, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, iMapInvasives.org, LANDFIRE.gov, Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon Flora Project Atlas, OSU Institute for Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, Wallowa Resources, US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, US Forest Service Starkey Experimental Forest and Range, and US Forest Service Region 6.
How You Can Help With Mapping Efforts
In order to map ventenata across the BME, we are seeking collaboration with weed control managers, biologists, ecologists, natural resource professionals, fire and fuel staff, students, land managers and others to collect locations of ventenata and basic site information when they visit sites as part of their normal work routines. To get started, check out our mapping tools.
Locations and site information can be collected in the field data with a mobile app (built in ESRI’s Survey123) or with a basic GPS unit and paper forms. The process should not take more than 5 minutes per location. Note that this app can be used to collect occurrence and abundance data for ANY species of interest and local units may want to use this process to collect data on other invasives or species of interest.
We are working to assess the extent of ventenata invasion in the BME and examine how the invasion has changed through time and what environmental (climate, soil, light) and disturbance (fire and grazing) factors influence and/or exacerbate populations.
We will also develop a spatially explicit map of ventenata distribution and spread, and create a predictive model of habitat suitability in the BME. Research questions:
- Where is ventenata increasing across the landscape?
- What environmental factors are related to prescence?
- What type of disturbances and management practices are exacerbating populations?
Determine how different future climate change scenarios may alter the habitat suitability and potential distribution of ventenata in the BME. Research question:
- How might climate change alter the ventenata invasion?
We will examine and describe ventenata dynamics in scablands and open areas and the post-fire response of ventenata to recent wildfires. Research questions:
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Does fire exacerbate ventenata populations?
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Is the response related to fire severity, pre-fire invasion levels, or environmental conditions?
We will also characterize ventenata populations along open areas/forested edges in invaded areas that have not burned. Research questions:
- What do open area/forested edges look like with respect to spread of ventenata into the forested understory?
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Does ventenata invasion result in fuel connectivity at these edges?
We will estimate potential shifts in fuels and fire regimes by developing scenarios to examine how the ventenata invasion might change fuels, fire behavior, burn probabilities, fire size and fire effects across large landscapes now and into the future using several operational climate change scenarios. Research questions:
- How might fuels, fire regimes, and fire effects shift across the region when the ventenata invasion reaches full potential (e.g. all available habitat invaded)?
- How might fuels, fire regimes, and fire effects shift across the region under future climate change?