Form Submission: Participation Entry

Studying biomass in dryland ecosystems is fundamental to understanding their structure and function, as well as effectively managing the natural resources they provide. However, direct biomass measurements can be time consuming and require destructive harvesting of plants. Alternatively, biomass can be estimated using nondestructive field measurements for each species of interest. Wyoming big sagebrush steppe in the western United States is a widespread dryland ecosystem that lacks reliable biomass estimation methods based on individual plant measurements. To fill this knowledge gap, I am developing regression equations that predict aboveground biomass of eight bunchgrass species within sagebrush plant communities using nondestructive field measurements. These measurements include average height, basal diameter, and tiller count for each bunchgrass individual. During the summer of 2017, I destructively sampled plants from 20 sites across the big sagebrush steppe in southwestern Wyoming. This resulted in measurement and harvest of 520 bunchgrass individuals representing eight of the most common bunchgrass species in this ecosystem. I am using regression modelling to determine which plant measurements are most effective at predicting aboveground biomass for each species. The resulting equations will allow biomass estimation from simple field measurements throughout the Wyoming big sagebrush steppe, with the potential of improving large-scale land management and conservation in this region.