Effect of pyric herbivory on source-sink dynamics in grassland birds

Grasslands world-wide provide a host of ecosystem services. In particular, these grasslands serve as biodiversity repositories for a myriad of imperilled animal species. One such group is grassland birds, which have experienced significant declines, predominantly caused by extensive loss and degradation of native grasslands. Rangeland management that promotes increasing and sustaining livestock production through reducing the inherent, disturbance-driven variability that historically occurred in grasslands is considered a major contributing factor to these declines. An alternative approach to this homogeneous management paradigm attempts to restore a shifting mosaic of disturbance patches across the landscape through the spatial and temporal interactions of fire and grazing (i.e. pyric herbivory). Application of pyric herbivory through patch-burn grazing increases overall habitat heterogeneity, likely a critically important factor in maintaining and enhancing grassland bird populations....