Historical and modern disturbance regimes, stand structures, and landscape dynamics in piñon?juniper vegetation of the Western U.S.

Abstract

Piñon?juniper is one of the major vegetation types in western North America. It covers a huge area, provides many resources and ecosystem services, and is of great management concern. Management of piñon?juniper vegetation has been hindered, especially where ecological restoration is a goal, by inadequate understanding of the variability in historical and modern ecosystem structure and disturbance processes that exists among the many different environmental contexts and floristic combinations of piñon, juniper and associated species. This paper presents a synthesis of what we currently know, and don't know, about historical and modern stand and landscape structure and dynamics in three major and fundamentally different kinds of piñon?juniper vegetation in the western U.S.: persistent woodlands, savannas, and wooded shrublands. It is the product of a workshop that brought together fifteen experts from across the geographical range of piñon?juniper vegetation. The intent of this synthesis is to provide information for managers and policy?makers, and to stimulate researchers to address the most important unanswered questions.