Restoration temporarily supports the resilience of sagebrush-steppe ecosystems subjected to repeated fires

Many ecosystems are experiencing increased fire frequencies and species invasions that can erode their resilience and cause a shift to alternative states. In the sagebrush-steppe, a semi-arid shrubland ecosystem in North America, restoration treatments are often implemented following wildfire to enhance their resilience to invasion. However, little is known about the long-term effectiveness of these treatments. We investigated whether repeated restoration efforts provide greater resilience in sagebrush-steppe communities initially dominated by species with different post-fire regeneration traits and subjected to compounding wildfires and invasion by Bromus tectorum over 25 years.
We studied 37 permanent transects (Columbia Basin, Washington, USA) in which species abundance was recorded multiple times from 1992 to 2017. We quantified community change and its relationship with fire, restoration, and moisture availability. Resilience was evaluated by quantifying community resistance and st..., See published article in the Journal of Applied Ecology for method details., Compilation of raw empirical species abundance and enviromental data utilized in the associated manuscript. To guide interpretation, a brief 'readme' tab is attached to each file.