Semiarid ecosystem development as a function of resource processing and allocation

Technical Report · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6089509

Redente, E F; Cook, C W; Stark, J M; Simmons, C L ^[1]

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1. eds.

The overall objective of the research contained in this report was to study the structural and functional changes occurring within and among ecosystem compartments during secondary succession. The report is divided into two major sections. The first part, Ecosystem Development Section, presents first year data from a new study funded for the first time in 1984. The second part, Restoration of Natural Functioning Ecosystem Section, presents results from on-going long-term experiments dealing with ecosystem recovery and restoration following disturbance related to oil shale development. Accomplishments during the first year of the new study consisted of construction of the Ecosystem Development Plot and collection of baseline data before and after plot establishment. Baseline sampling of the vegetation prior to plot construction has shown that the plant community was essentially a shrub-grass community with big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata tridentata) being the dominant woody species. Results from on-going long-term studies in ecosystem recovery and restoration are extensive and range from the effects of weathering processes on retorted shale chemical properties and how this effects the structure of vascular plant and microbial communities, to the influence of competition on the structure of natural and disturbed plant communities.

• Research Organization: Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins (USA). Dept. of Range Science
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76EV04018
• OSTI ID: 6089509
• Report Number(s): DOE/EV/04018-8; ON: DE85007290
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
041000* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Environmental Aspects
510200 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
BORON COMPOUNDS
COMPETITION
COPPER COMPOUNDS
DATA
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FERTILIZERS
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
GRASS
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
MINERAL CYCLING
MINING
MOLYBDENUM COMPOUNDS
MYCORRHIZAS
NUMERICAL DATA
NUTRIENTS
OIL SHALE MINING
PLANTS
POPULATION DENSITY
POPULATION DYNAMICS
PRODUCTIVITY
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
REPRODUCTION
REVEGETATION
SELENIUM COMPOUNDS
SHRUBS
SOILS
TRACE AMOUNTS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
UPTAKE
WASTES