All Systems are Equal: In Defense of Undervalued Ecosystems

On The Ground We introduce the concept of biodiversity potential to assign equal biodiversity value among socially valued and undervalued ecosystems. Widespread greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) ecosystems were examined as a case study of biodiversity potential of an undervalued ecosystem at the sodic end of soil salinity. Groundwater pumping could drop the water table below greasewood taproots, which could degrade wildlife habitat through decreased canopy cover, increased mineral soil, invasive flammable non-native annual species, and exotic forbs. State-and-transition simulation models and field studies can be used to assess degraded greasewood ecosystems.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Rangelands

• Publication date

  2020-10-01

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.rala.2020.07.002
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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