Identifying mechanisms of rangeland drought resilience: management strategies for sustainable ecosystem health - The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

IDENTIFYING MECHANISMS OF RANGELAND DROUGHT RESILIENCE: MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEM HEALTH

Sponsoring Institution

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Project Status

COMPLETE

Funding Source

AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT

Reporting Frequency

Annual

Accession No.

1015509

Grant No.

2018-68002-27922

Cumulative Award Amt.

$1,186,000.00

Proposal No.

2017-07293

Multistate No.

(N/A)

Project Start Date

May 1, 2018

Project End Date

Apr 1, 2025

Grant Year

2018

Program Code

[A3171]- Climate and Land Use

Recipient Organization
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
1400 Spring Garden Street
Greensboro,NC 27412

Performing Department
Biology

Non Technical Summary
The USDA aims to increase the percentage of land with conservation and management strategies in place to sustain environmental health. However, projected climate change is currently threatening our nation's rangelands, and discovering and adopting best management practices for this changing climate is critical. Here, we propose to (1) experimentally examine the interactive effects of drought intensity and grazing management to determine mechanisms underlying rangeland resiliency in the face of a changing climate, and (2) facilitate implementation of best-management practices through a variety of extension activities including project development and information dissemination.Traditionally, experimental manipulations have focused on either environmental manipulations or management manipulations. Here we propose to experimentally test drought-management interactions in northern mixed-grass rangeland, which represents the largest ecoregion in the United States. Our proposed research will examine the mechanisms underlying rangeland responses to drought and management, including plant and soil components. The interactive drought-management and gradient approach of our experiment will help identify best management practices for a variety of future climate scenarios.Strategies to deal with predicted multi-year extreme droughts are limited by a lack of experimental and observational information. We will integrate stakeholders in project development to ensure management treatments and final recommendations are relevant and economically feasible. Further, best practices identified by the proposed research will be widely disseminated through stakeholder workshops, presentations, a webinar series, and web-based tools. Our broad extension approach, from project inception to information dissemination, will promote lasting connections between researchers and land managers and wide distribution of project-gained knowledge.

Animal Health Component

25%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

75%

Applied

25%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
121	0799	1070	100%

Knowledge Area
121 - Management of Range Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
0799 - Rangelands and grasslands, general;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;

Keywords

Goals / Objectives
Long-term sustainability of rangeland function is vital for providing food security, soil retention and productivity, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration, as well as maintaining the economic well-being of ranchers and rural societies (Havstad et al. 2007). However, the health of U.S. rangelands is currently under threat by changing climatic conditions. Extreme climatic events, such as drought (e.g., 1930's Dust Bowl, 2011-2012 extreme drought in U.S. central plains), are projected to increase in severity and frequency in the coming decades (IPCC 2013). Extreme drought events such as these can have serious implications for the resilience of rangeland function, and may even suppress cattle production in the years following drought. If ranchers are not able to adapt to predicted longer and more intense droughts, grazing impacts on rangeland health may include loss of soil quality, mortality of high quality plant forage species, and reduction of plant growth reserves (e.g., non-structural carbohydrates), all of which contribute to rangeland degradation (Thurow and Taylor 1999). It is therefore imperative to develop grazing management strategies that deal with increased climatic variability. This will require a data-driven approach to understanding sustainability and resilience of various grazing management practices under droughts of varying severity. Here we propose to experimentally manipulate the environment and management strategy to identify grazing practices that optimize rangeland drought resiliency, to the benefit of ranchers and communities alike. As such, our proposed work directly addresses the Resilient Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate program priority area in a critical food system.Long-term Goals:Examine resilience of rangeland function under various magnitudes of drought.Assess the impacts of realistic grazing strategies on long-term sustainability and resilience of rangeland function, both during and after extreme droughts.Provide relevant information and tools to land managers to optimize management strategies focused on long-term forage quantity and quality after extreme droughts.Supporting Objectives:Identify drought-driven "tipping points", whereat forage quantity and quality suffer disproportionately large declines.Quantify drought impacts on plant community structure and edaphic properties.Explore the direct (drought intensity) and indirect (changes in plant community structure and edaphic properties) mechanisms controlling forage quality and quantity responses to drought.Assess rancher philosophies concerning grazing during and after multi-year droughts.Examine how realistic grazing strategies during/after drought effect plant community structure, soil abiotic and biotic properties, and forage quality and quantity.Promote stakeholder implementation of research findings through producer-based meetings, extension bulletins, local field days, and non-traditional web based learning as well as the development of an online management tool.Overall, the proposed project will integrate researchers and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study, the results of which will be vital for land managers, policy makers, and stakeholders in seeking to enhance long-term food security in the more variable climate of the future.

Project Methods
Site descriptions - The Northern Great Plains Steppe ecoregion is comprised of grasslands/ shrublands covering more than 20,000 km2 in five U.S. states and two Canadian provincesand are dominated by temperate and semiarid mixed-grass prairie (Martin et al. 1998). Mean annual precipitation for this region ranges from less than 250 to 500 mm with most of the precipitation occurring during the growing season (May and June). Climate change forecasts for this region include increased winter and spring precipitation and decreased summer precipitation, with more widespread drought (Walsh et al. 2014). The region harbors a mixture of short, mid, and tall statured grasses, as well as warm and cool season species. We propose to utilize two sites in northern mixed-grass prairie--Fort Keogh and Thunder Basin.Proposed Activities - Extension and research activities to be conducted are listed in sequential order. The drought treatments proposed here will occur as depicted; however, due the integrative nature of the project, the grazing management strategies tested will be determined by feedback from the advisory panel provided in the pre-treatment period, as well as stakeholder input during the Management & Drought workshop and the first survey. For the purpose of this list of proposed activities, we diagram one set of potential grazing management strategies as an example.Drought Manipulation - In order to assess thresholds of ecosystem response to drought, we will establish a rainfall gradient manipulation at both sites with five levels of ambient rainfall reduction (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). This gradient in rainfall draws statistical power as a replicated regression. Although experimental gradients do not require replication at different treatment levels to be robust (Kreyling et al. 2014), we will include three replicates at each drought level to increase statistical power and allow for additional statistical approaches. Rainout shelters with five levels of rainfall reduction will be constructed following a modified Yahdjian and Sala (2002) structure, which has been tested previously for durability by co-PD Reinhart at Fort Keogh. Each rainout shelter will be 3×3m, and under each roof there will be a 2×2m sampling plot to limit edge effects. Sampling plots will be divided into 4 1×1m subplots for different types of measurements. One rainout shelter of each of the five drought levels will be grouped together into a rainfall gradient paddock. In order to protect rainout structures, each paddock will be fenced to exclude cattle. Each site will have nine rainfall gradient paddocks. Roofs will be up from April-September in each of the first two years of the project to exclude growing season precipitation, as (1) spring moisture drives the majority of ANPP dynamics in Northern mixed-grass prairie (Derner and Hart 2007), and (2) the shelters cannot withstand the weight of snow in the winters.Grazing Manipulation - In order to assess the effects of management by environment interactions, we will cross our drought experiment with three potential management choices. Each site consists of three grazing treatment blocks. Each block is comprised of three rainfall gradient paddocks (i.e., N=3). Each paddock per block will receive a different grazing management response to drought treatment. We propose to test realistic grazing management responses to drought, and therefore propose an adaptive experimental design with the exact grazing treatments based on the focus group meetings, surveys from stakeholders, and advisory board input. Here as anexample we describe one set of potential management strategies.We propose to manipulate the timing of rest from grazing relative to the timing of drought. Paddocks grazed annually will act as controls, as most pastures in regional rangelands are annually grazed. Two forms of grazing rest (i.e., deferment) will be applied: (i) not grazed in year two of the drought, and (ii) not grazed in the first recovery year following the drought. All paddocks will be grazed in every year except their designated rest year. Prior to the construction of the paddock fences (required to protect rainout shelters), all plot locations will have been grazed yearly. Once the fences are erected, cattle (Bos taurus) will be used to graze each paddock (30×40m) to a moderate level (i.e., leave an estimated 475 kg/ha of minimum post-grazing residual standing biomass). Moderate grazing will be achieved by grazing for one to three days (depending on annual forage production) with a cow and calf pair per paddock (1.0 AUD) in July for Fort Keogh and in May and July in Thunder Basin to simulate standard grazing regimes in this system. This grazing strategy has been used previously at Fort Keogh and other USDA field sites. A grazing enclosure approach will limit selectivity of livestock away from drought treatment plots, thus promoting grazing of experimental areas. Grazing will occur during a rain-free period. Rainout roofs will come down the day before grazing and be replaced the day after grazing. This ability to graze and drought plots simultaneously makes our experimental manipulation unique and enhances our ability to understand the interactive effects of drought and grazing in a controlled experimental framework, while also including a high level of realism relative to regional grazing management practices.Management Response to Drought Assessment - During the first two years of the experiment, we will assess current rancher philosophies concerning grazing strategies during and after multi-year drought. Our approach throughout the project will be multi-faceted, including stakeholder and producer statewide surveys in Wyoming and Montana and stakeholder/producer meetings.Field Sampling Design - We will monitor forage quality and quantity, as well as soil abiotic factors and soil microbial and plant communities throughout the two years of drought, as well as the three recovery years following drought. Within each 2×2m sampling plot, each of four 1×1m subplots will be utilized for different types of measurements (i.e., two for destructive sampling above ground, one for belowground, one for plant community assessment).Summary of data to be gathered (Years 1-5):Plant production (above- and below-ground)Plant tissue quality (e.g., N:C ratio, crude protein, silica content)Plant species composition (cover and stem density)Soil microbial community (composition, enzyme activity, decomposition rates)Soil abiotic factors (e.g., soil water transport, soil N and P availability)Current drought management strategies used by producersProducer and stakeholder needs for a drought management toolPromoting Stakeholder Implementation of Research Findings - A major goal of the project is to provide information and strategies for drought management that can be utilized by livestock producers. During the resiliency stage of the experiment, we will promote the implementation of our findings to stakeholders through a multi-faceted approach. Producer-based meetings will be conducted during years 3 to 5. Additionally, in years 4-5, we will host "Drought & Rangeland Resiliency" workshops, which will incorporate our findings as well as other scientific literature that remains potentially untapped by stakeholders to present information on multi-year drought and rangeland resiliency of multiple ecosystem functions. In year 5, these workshop topics will be turned into a webinar series to disseminate and promote implementation of the research results to a much broader audience outside of the immediate research areas of southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming.Additionally, we will implement research findings into a user-interfaced web based tool designed for easy usability by land managers experiencing drought.

Progress 05/01/23 to 04/30/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our primary target audience is the stakeholders in Montana and Wyoming. This includes any person involved in the cattle ranching industry but primarily the ranchers themselves. We worked with stakeholder focus groups. Additionally, we target the scientific community (via presentations at scientific meetings and seminars), students (via courses in formal university settings), and the general public (via popular media and outreach). Changes/Problems:In Spring 2024, we requested and were granted a 6-month no cost extension to the grant. This extension will allow us to finish processing all remaining samples and gather our team together for writing workshops in order to push out publications. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development opportunities have been plentiful this year. All technicians and graduate students participate as contributing members, taking part in the bi-weekly meetings, and observing and helping with all stages of the project from administration to data collection. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During this reporting period we completed the fifth of five years of treatment data collection, as well as many hours of sample processing that are still ongoing. While some published manuscripts have appeared, the bulk are still to come. However, our team has been actively communicating with numerous target audiences, obtaining feedback and input, as well as sharing our experiences and what we have learned thus far. All together we have given 11 presentations about our project to stakeholders and/or the scientific community, where we asked for feedback and ideas. In total we estimate we have spoken to nearly 400 people about our project this past year. In addition, Co-PDs Koerner and Wilcox routinely use this project in numerous classes to talk about plant communities, disturbance, climate change, and food security. Excitingly, we now have three published manuscripts, have another two submitted, and are also in progress on four more manuscripts that are in full draft form. We expect 12 manuscripts total to come from the project over the next 2 years. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the coming 6 months, we will (1) process the large amount of samples and (2) write manuscripts. Project management and communication will continue with year round monthly Zoom meetings. Likewise, our PDs, graduate students, and technicians will continue to present our findings at stakeholder and scientific meetings, seminars, and in the classroom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project has many specific scientific and extension objectives, the overarching goal is to integrate scientists and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study. As the project began, we achieved integration early and designed, built, and implemented our experiment. Now, in our 6th year of the project (5th and final of treatment implementation), the project ran smoothly. In all, we have successfully achieved our three core goals and 6 supporting objectives. First, we have been busy with our treatment manipulations. While the drought treatments are over, Summer 2023 saw the fifth year of cattle manipulations. This required extensive planning and organization again. In Thunder Basin, a private rancher brings her cows to our fences, while in Fort Keogh the cattle are run and owned by the research station. However, both take many hands to achieve. We closely monitor the off take (multiple times a day) and move the cattle once the desired grazing intensity occurs. The ~2 weeks over which this occurs are an all hands on deck situation with ~5 team members working full time. Second, we collected our fifth season of experimental data. We collected data on plant production above- and below-ground, plant phenology, plant composition, plant traits, forage quality, soil nutrients, and more. One of our major accomplishments over the winter was process ALL years of root data in the lab, catching up on a large backload from COVID shutting down the labs. Third, this past reporting year in June we hosted our Field Days at each of the two sites. We have members from the community, state agencies, media, and policy come to our two field days. At each field day we started in a meeting room with some very brief presentations, followed by a social lunch, and then a 2 hour field trip to the field site to discuss findings from our experiment. Importantly, we also created color copied pamphlets with the major findings in layman's terms which were given to every attendee and those that expressed interest but were unable to attend. Fourth, we are actively working to disseminate our findings. Peer-reviewed publications are beginning to be published, with three manuscripts published or in press, two in review, and five in preparation in full draft form with several more with analyses in the works. Additionally, our team members presented at conferences, universities, and stakeholder meetings, both in person and virtually. We had 11 organized opportunities to talk to people about our project reaching over 200 scientists and >100 stakeholders. Overall, we have had a very successful and productive year, implementing the experimental manipulations and collecting our fourth year of treatment data.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Field Days Grazing Management for Drought Resilience. June 2023. ~15 ranchers, media, and politicians attended each field tour a the two different sites. We gave presentations AND toured the experiment for a half day.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2024 Citation: Frost, M. et al. Variations in plant, insect, and soil microbial communities with annual brome invasion in northern mixed-grass prairies. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual Meeting. ~50 stakeholders. February 2024.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2024 Citation: Wilcox, K. et al. Recovery of plant production after an extreme two year drought in northern US rangelands. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual Meeting. ~50 stakeholders. February 2024.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Reinhart, K. Lead tour on grazing management for drought resilience project (~12 Clemson University students and instructor), June 26, 2023.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Reinhart, K. Lead tour on grazing management for drought resilience project (NRCS employee and 5 MSU extension agents), June 27, 2023.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2024 Citation: Reinhart, K. Lead tour on grazing management for drought resilience project (35 person group consisting of a mixture of college students from Miles City Community College, Dawson Community College, Dickinson State University, and Williston College), April 9, 2024.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bloodworth, K.J*, Komatsu, K.J., Porensky, L.M., Reinhart, K.O., Wilcox, K.R., Koerner, S.E. Functional redundancy in mixed-grass prairie rangeland plant communities experiencing multi-year droughts. ~25 scholars. August 2023. Ecological Society of America 108th Meeting. Portland, Oregon. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2024 Citation: Bloodworth, K.J*, The role of disturbance in Great Plains grassland community dynamics. ~50 scholars, students, and general audience. UNCG Biology PhD Defense. November 2024. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Koerner, S.E., K.J. Bloodworth*, M.D.T. Frost*, K.J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, M. von Emon, and K.R. Wilcox. August 2023. Legacy effects of multi-year drought in mixed grass prairie are determined by grazing management decisions during the drought. Ecological Society of America 108th Meeting. Portland, Oregon.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Frost*, M.D.T., K.J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, K.R. Wilcox, Z. Bunch?, A. Jolin?, K. Johnston?, G. Trimas?, and S.E. Koerner. 2024. Plant, insect, and soil microbial communities vary across brome invasion gradients in northern mixed-grass prairies. Oikos. DOI: 10.1111/oik.10515.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Frost*, M.D.T., L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, and S.E. Koerner. Invasive annual grasses destabilize plant communities in a northern mixed-grass prairie. Accepted at Ecosphere (ECS24-0413).

Progress 05/01/22 to 04/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Our primary target audience is the stakeholders in Montana and Wyoming. This includes any person involved in the cattle ranching industry but primarily the ranchers themselves. We worked primarily with stakeholder focus groups. Additionally, we target the scientific community (via presentations at scientific meetings and seminars), students (via courses in formal university settings), and the general public (via popular media and outreach). Changes/Problems:We received funding for a five year field project;however, the money was not available until May of our first year, meaning we missed the ability to implement drought (as the shelters need to be up in April). Thus from the very beginning our whole experiment was delayed a year. In Spring 2023, we requested and were granted a 1 year no cost extension to the grant. This extension will allow us to complete our fifth year of experimental treatments and sampling and to finish all proposed objectives. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development opportunities have been plentiful this year. All technicians and graduate students participate as contributing members, taking part in the bi-weekly meetings, and observing and helping with all stages of the project from administration to data collection. Three graduate students also spent 2 weeks in June/July conducting research. UNCG undergraduate student (Kaysa Vaarre-Lamoureux) and undergraduate researcher (Gracen Trimas) also spent 10 days in MT in June helping conduct field work. This was both students first experience with field work. Three UNCG undergraduate researchers were trained on insect identification in the lab and two on plant traits in the lab, with two writing a small grant and presenting at a UNCG undergraduate Research Expo and another presenting at a national conference and winning the best presentation award. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have just completed the fourth of five years of treatment data collection, so results are still pending the many hours of sample processing that are in progress. However, our team has been actively communicating with numerous target audiences, obtaining feedback and input, as well as sharing our experiences and what we have learned thus far. All together we have given 11 presentations about our project to stakeholders and/or the scientific community, where we asked for feedback and ideas. In total we estimate we have spoken to nearly 400 people about our project this past year not including our social media campaign. In addition, Co-PDs Koerner and Wilcox routinely use this project in numerous classes to talk about plant communities, disturbance, climate change, and food security. Excitingly, we have published two manuscripts, have another two submitted and are also in progress on three more manuscripts. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the coming year, we will be conducting our third and final year of drought recovery with continued grazing treatments (executed in June/July). As such our data collection will be in full swing measuring a subset of plant and soil characteristics described in the proposal. In addition over the summer, we will host field days at both sites, inviting ranchers to our experiment for a half day to learn about what we've done and found. In the fall and winter of next year we will (1) process the large amount of samples collected over the summer, (2) continue extension and communication with stakeholders, and (3) write manuscripts. Project management and communication will continue with year round monthly Zoom meetings. Likewise, our PDs, graduate students, and technicians will continue to present our findings at stakeholder and scientific meetings, seminars, field tours, and in the classroom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project has many specific scientific and extension objectives, the overarching goal is to integrate scientists and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study. As the project began, we achieved integration early and designed, built, and implemented our experiment. Now, in our 5th year of the project (4th of treatment implementation), much of the project is running smoothly and just needs more time for drought recovery to occur. In all, we are well on our way to achieving our three core goals and 6 supporting objectives. First, we have been busy with our treatment manipulations. While the drought treatments are over, Summer 2022 saw the fourth year of cattle manipulations. This required extensive planning and organization again. In Thunder Basin, a private rancher brings her cows to our fences, while in Fort Keogh the cattle are run and owned by the research station. However, both take many hands to achieve. We closely monitor the off take (multiple times a day) and move the cattle once the desired grazing intensity occurs. The ~2 weeks over which this occurs are an all hands on deck situation with ~5 team members working full time. Second, we collected our fourth season of experimental data. We collected data on plant production above- and below-ground, plant phenology, plant composition, plant traits, forage quality, soil nutrients, soil microbial community, soil enzyme activity, and more. For some measurements such as soil microbial enzyme activity and soil microbial DNA, this was the last year of sampling do to the time intensive post collection processing. One of our major accomplishments over the winter was to extract and run all enzyme assays and to extract DNA from our soil sample which were sent off for sequencing at the end of this reporting year. Third, this past reporting year in April and May we conducted our large scale survey of stakeholders. This survey was assembled carefully to obtain information about drought preparation and rancher decision making. In April and May the survey was distributed widely. Fourth, we are actively working to disseminate our findings. Peer-reviewed publications are beginning to be published, with two manuscripts published or in press, two in review, and three in preparation in full draft form. We are active on twitter, showcasing our team, experiments, and findings to a broad audience (#droughtontherange and #ranchingunderdrought). Additionally, our team members presented at conferences, universities, and stakeholder meetings, both in person and virtually. We had 11 organized opportunities to talk to people about our project reaching over 300 scientists and >50 stakeholders. Overall, we have had a very successful and productive year, implementing the experimental manipulations and collecting our fourth year of treatment data.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: **Vaarre-Lamoureux, K, Bloodworth, KJ, Koerner, SE. Assessing the effect of cattle grazing intensity on mixed-grass prairie arthropod communities. Association of Southeastern Biologists . ~40 scholars. March 2023. (**Undergraduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: **Vaarre-Lamoureux, K, Bloodworth, KJ, Koerner, SE. Assessing the effect of cattle grazing intensity on mixed-grass prairie arthropod communities. UNCG Undergraduate Research Exposition (Poster Presentation). ~40 students and faculty. April 2023. (**Undergraduate Student)
Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Reinhart talked with Joseph Lesar (Montana PBS producer) about grazing management for drought resilience project, May 11, 2022.
Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Press release about survey https://www.montana.edu/news/22791/beef-cattle-producers-invited-to-complete-survey-about-drought-impacts
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Reinhart, K. Grazing management for drought resilience (12 person group consisting of a mixture of ranchers, NRCS employees, and Miles City Community College students and faculty), October 12, 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Reinhart, K. How do we do grazing management for drought resilience? (17 participants: 8 were CFG, 6 were MSU, 2 were congressional staffers, and 1 was ARS national programs leader) at our annual customer focus group meeting, September 7, 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: **Tuider, F, Bloodworth, KJ, Koerner, SE. The Effect of Grazing Intensity on Specific Leaf Area of a Common Grass and Forb Species at Two Mixed-Grass Prairie Sites. UNCG Undergraduate Research Exposition. ~40 students and faculty. April 2023. (**Undergraduate Student)
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bunch^, Z., Frost*, M., Koerner, S. Impact of invasion on the insect communities of Montana rangelands. Y Draig Goch: An Interdisciplinary Honors Journal. 2023; 1(4):106. (^Undergraduate Student; *Graduate Student).
Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Dupuis*, A., S.E. Koerner, K.J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K.O. Reinhart, K.R. Wilcox. Interactive effects of herbivory provide resistance of sagebrush to extreme drought. In preparation for Ecology.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Frost*, M., Trimas^, G., Johnston^, K., Bunch^, Z., Jolin^, A., Koerner, S. Drought advantage of native plant species over introduced species is negated by additional global change drivers: a grassland meta-analysis. In submission to Global Change Biology. Manuscript ID GCB-23-0948. (^Undergraduate Student; *Graduate Student).
Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Frost*, M., Bunch^, Z., Jolin^, A., Johnston^, K., Trimas^, G., Komatsu, K., Porensky, L., Reinhart, K., Wilcox, K., Koerner, S. Plant, insect, and soil microbial community responses to invasion abundance in northern mixed-grass prairies. In preparation for submission to Ecology. (^Undergraduate Student; *Graduate Student).
Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Frost*, M., Porensky, L., Reinhart, K., Koerner, S. Invasive annual grasses destabilize plant communities in a northern mixed-grass prairie. In submission to Ecology. Manuscript ID ECY23-0173. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2023 Citation: Frost*, M., Komatsu, K., Porensky, L., Reinhart, K., Wilcox, K., Koerner, S. Consequences of rainfall manipulations for invasive annual grasses vary across grazed northern mixed-grass prairie sites. Accepted with minor revisions at Rangeland Ecology and Management. Manuscript # REMA-D-22-00109R1. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Komatsu, KJ et al. Spatial variation in soil microbial function in northern mixed-grass prairie. In prep for Landscape Ecology.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Reinhart, Komatsu, Vermeire. 2022. Effects of mowing season and intensity, spring precipitation, soil nutrients and enzymes on grassland productivity. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.20320
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Bloodworth*, K., K. Reinhart, S.E. Koerner. August 2022. Low levels of cattle grazing result in the highest arthropod abundance in mixed-grass prairie rangeland. Ecological Society of America 107th Meeting. Montr�al, Quebec, Canada. August 2022. Cancelled Covid. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Frost*, M.D.T., K.J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, K.R. Wilcox, and S.E. Koerner. Mixed effects of rainfall manipulations on invasive annual grasses at two grazed Northern mixed-grass prairie sites. Ecological Society of America 107th Meeting. Montr�al, Quebec, Canada. ~40 scholars. August 2022. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Frost*, M. Dissertation Defense. Understanding the consequences of invasive plant species for native rangeland communities in the context of global climate change. ~50 scholars. February 2023. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Koerner, S.E. Grasslands in the Anthropocene. Invited Seminar Speaker at Department of Biology at Louisiana State University. Virtual. ~40 scholars. October 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Koerner, S.E. Grasslands in the Anthropocene. Tenure Talk at Department of Biology at University of North Carolina Greensboro. Virtual. ~60 scholars. August 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Koerner, S.E., M.D.T. Frost*, K.J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, K.R. Wilcox. February 2023. Decisions during drought influence recovery when rain returns. The Thunder Basin Research Initiative and the Thunder Basin Grasslands Prairie Ecosystem Association Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~60 stakeholders and scientists. February 2023.

Progress 05/01/21 to 04/30/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Our primary target audience is the stakeholders in Montana and Wyoming. This includes any person involved in the cattle ranching industry but primarily the ranchers themselves. We worked primarily with stakeholder focus groups. Additionally, we target the scientific community (via presentations at scientific meetings and seminars), students (via courses in formal university settings), and the general public (via popular media and outreach).? Changes/Problems:COVID19 has continued to be a challenge mainly impacting our stakeholder outreach activities Our state-wide surveys of stakeholders are still on hold due to COVID19, and is now planned for next year or as soon as possible. We must work within the confines of the state surveys. While a disappointing delay, we believe that the data will still be obtained early enough in the project to complete all project objectives in a timely manner. In addition, both USDA ARS offices have had strict no visitors policies, limiting our ability to conduct tours of our sites and experiments for stakeholders. We had planned field days where we could interact with stakeholders which have been impossible to conduct. Similarly, the USDA ARS on site housing has been closed. While we were permitted on site (outside at our experiment - not in the research facilities) we were not allowed to stay in the research housing ($5/person/night). Instead, we stayed in an AirBnB ($50/person/night). This cost (nearly $2000 more than planned) with the increase in plane tickets as well as needed to ship samples off to labs to be processed (as USDA ARS facilities were closed), has stretched the budget thin as we borrowed money from future years. Data is being analyzed now in order to determine which sample variables have already recovered from the two year drought. Those will not be sampled in subsequent years to save costs. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development opportunities have been plentiful this year. All technicians and graduate students participate as contributing members, taking part in the bi-weekly meetings, and observing and helping with all stages of the project from administration to data collection. Three graduate students also spent 2 weeks in June/July conducting research. UNCG undergraduate student (William Mann) also spent 10 days in MT in June helping conduct field work. This was Will's first experience with field work. Additionally, co-PD Wilcox took 10 University of Wyoming undergraduate students in October 2021 to both sites on a weekend field trip to show them the experiments and allow them a hands-on experience in root sampling of a large-scale experiment as part of their course-work. Six UNCG undergraduate researchers were trained on insect identification in the lab, with 1 writing a small grant and presenting at the honors symposium and at a UNCG undergraduate Research Expo. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have just completed the third of four years of treatment data collection, so results are still pending the many hours of sample processing that are in progress. However, our team has been actively communicating with numerous target audiences, obtaining feedback and input, as well as sharing our experiences and what we have learned thus far. For example, we led an organized symposium at the annual rangeland meeting, bringing together experts on stakeholder engagement. All together we have given 18 presentations about our project to stakeholders and/or the scientific community, where we asked for feedback and ideas. In total we estimate we have spoken to nearly 600 people about our project this past year not including our social media campaign. In addition, Co-PDs Koerner and Wilcox routinely use this project in numerous classes to talk about plant communities, disturbance, climate change, and food security. Excitingly, we are also in progress on two manuscripts led by graduate students Ashely Jolin (U Wyo) and Morgan Frost (UNCG) as well as one led by technician Sarah Alley (SERC). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the coming year, we will be conducting our second year of drought recovery with continued grazing treatments (executed in June/July). As such our data collection will be in full swing measuring the whole suite of plant and soil characteristics described in the proposal. In the fall and winter of next year we will (1) send out the large-scale (>1000 participants) stakeholder survey, (2) continue extension and communication with stakeholders, and (3) process the large amount of samples collected over the summer. In addition, we plan to publish the three manuscripts which have been started as well as start new manuscripts. Project management and communication will continue with year round monthly Zoom meetings. Likewise, our PDs, graduate students, and technicians will continue to present our findings at stakeholder and scientific meetings, seminars, field tours, and in the classroom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project has many specific scientific and extension objectives, the overarching goal is to integrate scientists and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study. As the project began, we achieved integration early and designed, built, and implemented our experiment. Now, in our 4th year of the project (3rd of treatment implementation), much of the project is running smoothly and just needs more time for the treatments to occur. In all, we are well on our way to achieving our three core goals and 6 supporting objectives. First, we continue to build an amazing team of researchers, ranchers, and students to work on this project. In addition to the 6 co-PDs on this project, we have 2 full time technicians to maintain the two different sites' infrastructure and a half time technician to process microbial samples. John Deitrich (based in Fort Collins, CO) has continued on throughout the year, but Mark Shepard (based in Miles City, MT) moved on to another position. Therefore, we advertised, interviewed, and hired a new Miles City, MT based permanent technician, Allison Klocke. Allison started with the team in June 2021. Allison got quickly up to speed and is an integral member of our team, bringing years of field experience with him. Additionally, we continue to cultivate relationships with ranchers in the area. We have worked with our two stakeholder focus groups, meeting with them multiple times throughout the past year. Lastly, our graduate students on the project have continued to conduct excellent work. Morgan Trimas Frost (UNCG started in Aug 2018) and Kathryn Bloodworth (UNCG started Aug 2019) are working on projects directly related to the core project but also collect additional, complementary, free-standing data. Overall, we have maintained our team over the last year and our bi-weekly conference calls continue to consist of >10 people. Second, we have been busy with our treatment manipulations. While the drought treatments are over, Summer 2021 saw the third year of cattle manipulations. This required extensive planning and organization again. In Thunder Basin, a private rancher brings her cows to our fences, while in Fort Keogh the cattle are run and owned by the research station. However, both take many hands to achieve. We closely monitor the off take (multiple times a day) and move the cattle once the desired grazing intensity occurs. The ~2 weeks over which this occurs are an all hands on deck situation with ~5 team members working full time. Third, we collected our third season of experimental data. We collected data on plant production above- and below-ground, plant phenology, plant composition, plant traits, forage quality, soil nutrients, soil microbial community, soil enzyme activity, and more. Additionally, graduate student Morgan Frost collected complementary data looking at how invasion by native bromes influences plant, insect, and microbial communities. Altogether, data collection in summer 2021 was extremely successful. On top of this, our team has received >$5000 in the last year from small grants at the various universities to support additional data collection and projects that are related and tied to the overall project but were not included in scope of the grant. Our team has used the strength of this platform to expand the project. Fourth, while still limited with COVID, our outreach increased dramatically this year. We are active on twitter, showcasing our team, experiments, and findings to as broad of an audience as our team can get. We use #droughtontherange and #ranchingunderdrought. Additionally, our team members presented at conferences, universities, and stakeholder meetings, both in person and virtually. We had 18 organized opportunities to talk to people about our project reaching over 500 scientists and >250 stakeholders. Overall, we have had a very successful and productive year, implementing the experimental manipulations and collecting our third year of treatment data.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dupuis*, A. M.S. Thesis Defense. Drought and herbivory impacts on Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyominingensis in Eastern Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe. University of Wyoming, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Laramie, WY. ~30 scholars. July 2021.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: Komatsu, K. Oral presentation and discussion about community-engagement in research for Smithsonian Research Experience for Undergraduate Students. Edgewater, MD and virtual participation. ~35 student scholars. July 2021.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: Reinhart, K. Led field tours of drought � grazing management experiment for ranchers, FFA instructor, and NRCS. Miles City, MT. 6 stakeholders. August 2021.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wilcox, K., et al. Oral Presentation. Assessing grazing strategies to cope with multi-year drought in northern mixed prairie. Ecological Society of America 106th Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~70 scholars. August 2021.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Frost*, M.D.T., S.E. Koerner. Oral Presentation. Impacts of an invasive brome grass across multiple trophic levels of rangelands. Ecological Society of America 106th Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~ 25 scholars. August 2021. (*Graduate student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Bloodworth*, KJ, Reinhart, KO, Koerner, SE. Poster Presentation. The effects of cattle grazing intensity on the arthropod community in a mixed-grass prairie rangeland. ~25 scholars. August 2021. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Komatsu, K. Oral presentation. From communities to ecosystems: Examining grassland plant responses to multiple global change drivers. Research seminar at University of Utah. ~80 scientists. January 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Komatsu, K. Oral presentation. From communities to ecosystems: Examining grassland plant responses to multiple global change drivers. Research seminar at University of North Carolina Greensboro. ~60 scientists. February 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Dupuis*, A., Porensky, L., Wilcox, K. Poster presentation. Drought and herbivory impacts on Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis in Eastern Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe. Society for Rangeland Management 75th Meeting. Albuquerque, NM. ~50 scholars and stakeholders. Februrary 2022. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Wilcox, K., Van Emon, M. Organized Symposium. Strengthening collaborations between researchers and stakeholders: linking data and management in rangelands. Society for Rangeland Management 75th Meeting. Albuquerque, NM. ~70 scholars and stakeholders. February 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Frost*, M.D.T., K. J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, K. Wilcox, S. E. Koerner. Oral Presentation. Invasive brome grasses remain unaffected by multi-year experimental drought and grazing conditions. Society for Rangeland Management 75th Meeting. Virtual. ~50 scholars. February 2022. (*Graduate student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Dupuis*, A., Koerner, S., Komatsu, K., Porensky, L., Reinhart, K., Van Emon, M., Wilcox, K. Oral Presentation. Combined effects of drought and heavy browsing on Wyoming big sagebrush. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~100 scholars and stakeholders. February 2022. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Frost*, M.D.T., K. J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K. Reinhart, K. Wilcox, S. E. Koerner. Oral Presentation. No impact of multi-year experimental drought and grazing conditions on invasive bromes. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~100 scholars and stakeholders. February 2022. (*Graduate student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Bloodworth*, KJ. PhD Dissertation Proposal. The role of disturbance in Great Plains grassland community dynamics. ~30 scholars. March 2022. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Bunch*, Z., M.D.T. Frost**, S.E. Koerner. Impacts of invasion on the insect communities of Montanan rangelands. 22nd Annual Undergraduate Honors Symposium. UNCG. Virtual. ~20 scholars. March 2022. (*Undergraduate mentee presenting on independent research project; **Graduate student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Bunch*, Z., M.D.T. Frost**, S.E. Koerner. Impacts of invasion on the insect communities of Montanan rangelands. 16th Annual Thomas Undergraduate Research and Creativity Exposition. UNCG. Virtual. ~20 scholars. April 2022. (*Undergraduate mentee presenting on independent research project; **Graduate student).
Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Frost M.D.T., K.J. Komatsu, L. Porensky, K.O. Reinhart, K.R. Wilcox, S.E. Koerner. Consequences of rainfall manipulations for invasive annual grasses vary across grazed northern mixed-grass prairie sites. In review at Rangeland Ecology and Management.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Wilcox, K., Komatsu, K., Porensky, L., Reinhart, K., Van Emon, Koerner, S. Oral Presentation. Searching for grazing management solutions to extreme drought in northern grasslands. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~100 scholars and stakeholders. February 2022.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Porensky, L., Komatsu, K., Reinhart, K., Van Emon, Wilcox, K., Koerner, S. Oral Presentation. Effects of multiyear drought and grazing on soil moisture and forage quality. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual Meeting. Virtual. ~100 scholars and stakeholders. February 2022.
Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Bennett, S. StoryMap https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9c6cc233d7954667b616e5ef15c1c6ff
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Wilcox, K. and University of Wyoming Range Ecosystems and Plants (REWM 2400) and Principles of Rangeland Management (REWM 2000) classes. Toured both field sites, explored plant species, experimental design, and belowground plant sampling techniques. 10 students. October 2022.
Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Dupuis*, A. M.S. Thesis. Drought and herbivory impacts on Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyominingensis in Eastern Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe. University of Wyoming. August 2021.

Progress 05/01/20 to 04/30/21

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Stake holders 2. Scientific community 3. Students (university) 4. General public (media & website) Our primary target audience is the stakeholders in Montana and Wyoming. This includes any person involved in the cattle ranching industry but primarily the ranchers themselves. We work extensively with stakeholder focus groups and conduct broad surveys at stakeholder meetings like Society for Range Management Meetings, mail surveys, and links to surveys on our website. Additionally, we target the scientific community (via presentations at scientific meetings and seminars), students (via courses in formal university settings), and the general public (via popular media). Changes/Problems:COVID19 has continued to be a challenge. In particular, PD Koerner and Komatsu were not allowed to travel to the field sites during this reporting period. However, the on site teams, as well as the two UNCG graduate students (who were granted permission to fly) were able to collect all of the data. This was challenging, and put much stress on those that were able to be on site, however, the team pulled together and got it done! We were able to achieve all desired sampling and experimental manipulations as planned. On top of the challenges presented with getting to sites, the team also experienced a significant increase in administrative paper work associated with all project travel and lab work. Lab work was slowed as teams were not allowed in the office, and we are still playing catch up to process all the data collected in summer 2020. However, we are still on time to finish our objectives. Additionally, our state-wide surveys of stakeholders are still on hold due to COVID19, and is now planned for next year or as soon as possible depending on COVID19. We must work within the confines of the state surveys. While a disappointing delay, we believe that the data will still be obtained early enough in the project to complete all project objectives in a timely manner. However, contingency plans, safety plans, and task priority lists have been created to ensure as little disruption as possible to the project while maintaining strict priority of safety and health of our team members. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development opportunities have been plentiful this year. Both technicians and all three graduate students participate as contributing members, taking part in the bi-weekly meetings, and observing and helping with all stages of the project from administration to data collection. Three graduate students also spent 3 weeks in June/July conducting research. Additionally, co-PD Wilcox took 8 University of Wyoming undergraduate students in October 2020 to both sites on a weekend field trip to show them the experiments and allow them a hands-on experience in root sampling of a large-scale experiment as part of their course-work. While a UNCG undergraduate student (Katielyn Johnstone) had planned to go to MT and WY to conduct field work, this was not allowed due to COVID restrictions. However, 10 undergraduate researchers were trained on insect identification in the lab, with 4 writing small grants, and 2 presenting posters at a UNCG undergraduate Research Expo. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have just completed the second of four years of treatment data collection, so results are still pending the many hours of sample processing that are in progress. However, our team has been actively communicating with numerous target audiences, obtaining feedback and input, as well as sharing our experiences and what we have learned thus far. For example, we have given 13 presentations (10 oral, 2 poster, 1 field tours) about our project to either ranchers (5 presentations) or the scientific community (10 presentations), where we asked for feedback and ideas. In total we estimate we have spoken to nearly 600 people about our project this past year not including our social media campaign. In addition, Co-PDs Koerner and Wilcox routinely use this project in numerous classes to talk about plant communities, disturbance, climate change, and food security. Excitingly, we are also in progress on two manuscripts led by graduate students Ashely Jolin (U Wyo) and Morgan Frost (UNCG) as well as one led by technician Sarah Alley (SERC). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the coming year, we will be conducting our first year of drought recovery with continue grazing treatments. Additionally we will continue all core sampling. This will require substantially less time to implement the treatments as we will not be required to put up, maintain, and take down the rainout roofs. In June/July we will be implementing our grazing treatments. Additionally, our data collection will be in full swing measuring the whole suite of plant and soil characteristics described in the proposal. Similarly, three of the graduate students will be implementing experimental treatments and sampling their own variables in summer 2021. In the fall and winter of next year we will (1) send out the large-scale (>1000 participants) stakeholder survey, (2) continue extension and communication with stakeholders, and (3) publish three manuscripts which have been started. Project management and communication will continue with year round monthly Zoom meetings. Likewise, our PDs, graduate students, and technicians will continue to present our findings at stakeholder and scientific meetings, seminars, field tours, and in the classroom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project has many specific scientific and extension objectives, the overarching goal is to integrate scientists and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study. We have made great strides in achieving this integration and in the design, building, and implementation of our experiment, all of which will lead to achieving our three core goals and 6 supporting objectives. First, we have continued to build an amazing team of researchers, ranchers, and students to work on this project over the last year. In addition to the 6 co-PDs on this project, we have 2 full time technicians to maintain the two different sites' infrastructure. John Deitrich (based in Fort Collins, CO) has continued on throughout the year, but Allison Stewart (based in Miles City, MT) moved on to another position. Therefore, we advertised, interviewed, and hired a new Miles City, MT based permanent technician, Mark Shepard. Mark started with the team in September 2020. Allison and Mark, along with a temporary fill in Amanda Williams overlapped for several weeks to help with the transition, and Mark got quickly up to speed and is an integral member of our team, bringing years of field experience with him. A full time lab technician was also hired at SERC, Sarah Alley who is here to help us process all the soil microbial data. Additionally, we continue to cultivate relationships with ranchers in the area. We have worked with our two stakeholder focus groups, meeting with them multiple times throughout the past year. Lastly, our graduate students on the project have continued to conduct excellent work. Morgan Trimas Frost (UNCG started in Aug 2018), Ashley Dupuis (UWyo started Jan 2018), and Kathryn Bloodworth (UNCG started Aug 2019) are working on projects directly related to the core project but also collect additional, complementary, free-standing data. Overall, our team has continued to grow over the last year. Our bi-weekly conference calls continue to routinely consist of >10 people. Second, we have been busy with our treatment manipulations. While fences and rainout shelters were built in the first reporting year, and the second summer of drought manipulation occurred in the second reporting year, in this third reporting year, we conducted our second year of drought. Frequent maintenance occurred, but we learned much from the previous year. And overall our rainouts fared much better having eliminated many of the weaknesses seen in the previous year. The time and effort that has gone into ensuring effect rainfall reduction was tremendous, particularly on the part of the two technicians and co-PDs Reinhart, Porensky, and Wilcox who have all contributed substantial personnel hours (>775 personnel hours) not funded by this grant. Third, summer 2020 also saw the second year of cattle manipulations. This required extensive planning and organization again. In Thunder Basin, a private rancher brings her cows to our fences, while in Fort Keogh the cattle are run and owned by the research station. However, both take many hands to achieve. We closely monitor the off take (multiple times a day) and move the cattle once the desired grazing intensity occurs. The ~2 weeks over which this occurs are an all hands on deck situation with ~5 team members working full time. Fourth, we collected our second season of experimental data. We collected data on plant production above- and below-ground, plant phenology, plant composition, plant traits, forage quality, soil nutrients, soil microbial community, soil enzyme activity, and more. Additionally, one graduate student, Morgan Frost, collected complementary data looking at how invasion by native bromes influences plant, insect, and microbial communities. Another graduate student, Ashley Dupuis collected data on shrub growth in response to the drought shelters and how browsing interacted with drought. Altogether, data collection in summer 2020 was extremely successful. On top of this, our team has received >$5000 in the last year from small grants at the various universities to support additional data collection and projects that are related and tied to the overall project but were not included in scope of the grant. Our team has used the strength of this platform to expand the project. Fifth, our protocols were refined and edited. In total we have 17 protocols, each associated with a different data type. Minor, but important updates were made to all protocols where needed. Protocols are posted in the shared Google Drive hosted by PD Koerner. All members of the team have access and editing ability. Long-term, these protocols will be stored on the project website, which is currently a work in progress. Sixth, we started a social media campaign in February 2020. Due to the overwhelming presence of COVID, our ability to converse in person with other scientists and our stakeholders was limited. We use #droughtontherange and #ranchingunderdrought. We are active on twitter, showcasing our team, experiments, and findings to as broad of an audience as our team can get. Overall, we have had a very successful and productive year, implementing the experimental manipulations and collecting our second year of treatment data. Our team continues to grow and broadening the scope of our work as graduate students ask unique questions with in our platform.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Frost, M*., Koerner, S. More effort needed to manage invasion: invasive brome grasses alter native plant and insect communities on rangelands. North Carolina Graduate Research and Policy Exposition. ~80 graduate students/scholars. April 2021. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Frost, M*., Koerner, S. Implications from soil to insect communities of an invasive brome grass in native rangeland communities. UNCGs Graduate Research and Creativity Exposition. ~50 viewers. April 2021. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Frost, M*. Koerner, S. Implications of invasive grasses for multiple trophic levels of rangelands. UNCGs Annual Webinars Worth Watching Competition. ~60 attendees. February 2021. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Frost, M*. Koerner, S. Implications of invasive grasses for multiple trophic levels of native rangelands. Society for Rangeland Management Meeting. ~30 viewers. February 2021. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Frost, M*. Koerner, S. Understanding the consequences of invasive grass species on various trophic levels of native rangelands. Ecological Society of Americas Annual Meeting. ~30 viewers. August 2020. (*Graduate Student).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dupuis*, A. and Wilcox, K. Drought and herbivory impacts on Artemisia tridentata in US sagebrush steppe. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, virtual. August 2020. ~ 20 students and researchers.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dupuis* A., Porensky, L., Wilcox, K. Drought and herbivory impacts on Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis in Eastern Wyoming Sagebrush Steppe. Society for Range Management Annual Meeting, virtual. February 2021. ~ 30 stakeholders, students, and researchers.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wilcox K. Searching for grazing management solutions to extreme drought in northern grasslands. Thunder Basin Research Initiative Annual meeting, virtual. January 2021. ~100 stakeholders, students, and researchers.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Wilcox K. et al. Assessing grazing strategies to cope with multi-year drought in northern mixed prairie. Society for Range Management Annual Meeting, virtual. February 2021. ~ 40 stakeholders, students, and researchers.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Komatsu, KJ, Porensky, L, Reinhart, K, van Emon, M, Wilcox, KR, Koerner, SE. Integrating science and stakeholder perspectives in promoting rangeland resilience to multi-year droughts. North American Congress of Conservation Biology. July 2020. ~25 scholars
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: Reinhart, K. led field tour of drought � grazing management experiment February 2021. ~25 Collegiate Stockgrowers at Montana State University.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Bloodworth, KJ*, Koerner, SE. University of North Carolina Graduate Schools Showcase of Scholarship. Plant community and trait responses to differing cattle grazing and insect herbivory intensities in a working rangeland. ~20 scholars. April 2020 (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Komatsu, KJ. From communities to ecosystems: Examining plant community responses to multiple global change drivers. University of California, Berkeley Departmental Seminar. March 2021. ~100 scholars, students.
Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Wilcox, K. University of Wyoming Range Ecosystems and Plants class (REWM 2400) and Principles of Rangeland Management (REWM 2000). Used results from experiment in drought effects lectures. 90 undergraduate students. October 2020.

Progress 05/01/19 to 04/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Our primary target audience is the stakeholders in Montana and Wyoming. This includes any person invovled in the cattle ranching industry but primarily the ranchers themselves. We workextensively with stakeholder focus groups and conduct broad surveys at stakeholder meetings like Society for Range Management Meetings, mail surveys, and links to surveys on our website. Additionally, we targetthe scientific communty (via presentations at scientific meetings and seminars), students (via courses in formal university settings), and the general public (via popular media). Changes/Problems:No major deviations from plans occurred this past year in terms of the experimental manipulation. We were able to achieve all desired sampling and experimental manipulations as planned. However, in spring 2020 we planned to conduct state-wide surveys of stakeholders. This survey was put on hold due to COVID19, and is now planned for next year or as soon as possible depending on COVID19. We must work within the confines of the state surveys. While a disappointing delay, we believe that the data will still be obtained early enough in the project to complete all project objectives in a timely manner. Likewise, COVID19 poseschallenges for data collection as many of our team members are out of state from the field sites. However, contingency plans, safety plans, and task priority lists have been created to ensure as little disruption as possible to the project while maintaining strict priority of safety and health of our team members. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training and professional development opportunities have been plentiful this year. Both technicians and all four graduate students participate as contributing members, taking part in the bi-weekly meetings, and observing and helping with all stages of the project from administration to data collection. Four graduate students also spent 2 weeks in June/July 2019 learning various sampling techniques in the field from PD Koerner and co-PDs Komatsu and Wilcox. Additionally, co-PD Wilcox took 8 University of Wyoming undergraduate students in October 2019 to both sites on a weekend field trip to show them the experiments and allow them a hands-on experience in root sampling of a large-scale experiment as part of their course-work. Morgan Frost and Kathryn Bloodworth (UNCG grad students) along with Katielyn Johnston (UNCG undergraduate) traveled to SERC in March 2020 to work and learn from co-PD Komatsu. There they were trained on DNA extraction from the soil samples, as well as on insect identification. The UNCG students spent a week learning and engaging with the Smithsonian scientists. This was a wonderful opportunity for them to network and gain new skills. Morgan Frost and Kathryn Bloodworth (UNCG grad students) along with Katielyn Johnston (UNCG undergraduate) all presented their research (all based on this project) at the UNCG Student Expo in April 2020 after going through rounds of revision with PD Koerner. Additionally, Jill Baty presented on the project to the Thunder Basin Stakeholder Group, with feedback on her presentation from the group prior to giving it to the stakeholders. Lastly, in April 2020, all four graduate students presented their proposed summer 2020 projects to the group via a virtual meeting in order to receive feedback and help from the broader team. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have just completed the first of four years of treatment data collection, so results are still pending the many hours of sample processing that are in progress. However, our team has been actively communicating with numerous target audiences, obtaining feedback and input, as well as sharing our experiences and what we have learned thus far. For example, we have given 13 presentations (4 oral, 3 poster, 1 booth, 5 field tours) about our project to either ranchers (8 presentations) or the scientific community (5 presentations), where we asked for feedback and ideas as well as passed out paper surveys. In total we estimate we have spoken to nearly 400 people about our project this past year. In addition, Co-PDs Koerner and Wilcox routinely use this project in numerous classes to talk about plant communities, disturbance, climate change, and food security. Finally, we continue to build the project website and have created short videos to communicate our work to a public audience. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the coming year, we will be conducting our second year of treatments and sampling. This will require substantial time to implement the treatments, as rainout shelters need constant maintenance. In June/July we will be implementing our grazing treatments. Additionally, our data collection will be in full swing measuring the whole suite of plant and soil characteristics described in the proposal. Similarly, three of the graduate students will be implementing experimental treatments and sampling their own variables in summer 2020. In the fall and winter of next year we will (1) send out the large-scale (>1000 participants) stakeholder survey, (2) complete our project website, (3) continue extension and communication with stakeholders. Project management and communication will continue with year round bi-weekly Webex meetings as we did this past year. Likewise, our PDs, graduate students, and technicians will continue to present our findings at stakeholder and scientific meetings, seminars, field tours, and in the classroom.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project has many specific scientific and extension objectives, the overarching goal is to integrate scientists and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study. We have made great strides in achieving this integration and in the design, building, and implementation of our experiment, all of which will lead to achieving our three core goals and 6 supporting objectives. First, we have continued to build an amazing team of researchers, ranchers, and students to work on this project over the last year. In addition to the 6 co-PDs on this project, we have 2 full time technicians to maintain the two different sites' infrastructure. Allison Stewart (based in Miles City, MT) has continued on throughout the year, but Jill Baty (based in Ft Collins, CO) moved on to another position. Therefore, we advertised, interviewed, and hired a new Ft. Collins, CO based permanent technician, John Dietrich. John started with the team in March. Jill and John overlapped for several weeks to help with the transition, and John got quickly up to speed and is an integral member of our team, bringing years of field and drought manipulation experience with him. Additionally, we continue to cultivate relationships with ranchers in the area. We have worked with our two stakeholder focus groups, meeting with them multiple times throughout the past year. Lastly, we have recruited and obtained excellent graduate students to work on the project. Morgan Trimas Frost (UNCG started in Aug 2018) and Ashley Dupuis (UWyo started Jan 2018) have now been joined by Kathryn Bloodworth (UNCG started Aug 2019) and Joseph Gazing Wolf (UNCG started Aug 2019). All four students will work on projects directly related to the core project but also collect additional, complementary, free-standing data. Overall, our team has continued to grow over the last year. Our bi-weekly conference calls now routinely consist of >15 people. Second, we have been busy with construction. While fences and rainout shelters were built in the previous reporting year, the first summer of drought manipulation occurred from May-September of 2019. This was an exciting time and a time of great learning. As the winds whipped across the plains, weaknesses in shelters were exposed. Frequent maintenance occurred, particularly in May of 2019. The time and effort that has gone into ensuring effect rainfall reduction was tremendous, particularly on the part of the two technicians and co-PDs Reinhart, Porensky, and Wilcox. Third, summer 2019 also saw the start of the cattle manipulations. This required extensive planning and organization. In Thunder Basin, a private rancher brings her cows to our fences, while in Fort Keogh the cattle are run and owned by the research station. However, both take many hands to achieve. We closely monitor the off take (multiple times a day) and move the cattle once the desired grazing intensity occurs. The ~2 weeks over which this occurs are an all hands on deck situation with ~5 team members working full time. Fourth, we collected our first season of experimental data. We collected data on plant production above- and below-ground, plant phenology, plant composition, plant traits, forage quality, soil nutrients, soil microbial community, soil enzyme activity, and more. Additionally, one graduate student, Morgan Frost, collected complementary data looking at how invasion by native bromes influences plant, insect, and microbial communities. Another graduate student, Ashley Dupuis collected data on shrub growth in response to the drought shelters and how browsing interacted with drought. Altogether, data collection in summer 2019 was extremely successful. On top of this, our team has received >$15,000 in the last year from small grants at the various universities to support additional data collection and projects that are related and tied to the overall project but were not included in scope of the grant. Our team has used the strength of this platform to expand the project. Fifth, our protocols for all data collection were put to the test in summer 2019. Based on field experiences, these protocols were fleshed out and updated in fall 2019. In total we have 17 protocols, each associated with a different data type. For example, we have one protocol which details how we collect species composition data, both aerial cover and basal cover. In total this a 3-page document, providing step by step instructions, as well as trouble shooting section and a hints section. These types of documents are invaluable for cross site, large team efforts as they will ensure data consistency throughout the years and between the sites. Protocols are posted in the shared Google Drive hosted by PD Koerner. All members of the team have access and editing ability. Long-term, these protocols will be stored on the project website, which is currently a work in progress. Overall, we have had a very successful and productive year, implementing the experimental manipulations and collecting our first year of treatment data. Our team continues to grow, perfecting our protocols, and broadening the scope of our work as graduate students ask unique questions with in our platform.

Publications

Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Frost*, M. Dissertation Proposal: Understanding the impacts of invasive plant species on native community dynamics of rangelands under drought. 40 scholars. April 2020. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Johnston*, K. and S.E. Koerner. Plant invasion effects on insect communities in mixed grass prairies in Wyoming. Poster at the University of North Carolina Greensboro Thomas Undergraduate Research and Creativity Virtual Expo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8H-akjkEn4. 31 views. April 2020. (* Undergraduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Bloodworth*, K. and S.E. Koerner. 2020. Interactive effects of insect herbivory and cattle grazing on working rangelands in western USA. UNCG Graduate Research and Creativity Expo. ~50 views. April 2020. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Frost*, M. and S.E. Koerner. 2020. Understanding the consequences of invasive grass species. UNCG Graduate Research and Creativity Expo. ~50 views. April 2020. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Dupuis*, A. Masters Thesis Proposal. Drought and herbivory impacts on Artemisia tridentata in US Sagebrush Steppe. ~20 scholars. March 2020. (*Graduate Student)
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Porensky, L. et al. Drought and grazing: Promoting long-term grassland resilience. Thunder Basin Grassland Prairie Ecosystem Association Annual Meeting. ~20 stakeholders. January 2020.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Porensky, L. et al. Drought and grazing: Promoting long-term grassland resilience. Flyers passed out at Wyoming Stockgrowers Annual Meeting. ~30 stakeholders. December 2019.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Baty, J. et al. Drought and grazing: Promoting long-term grassland resilience. Thunder Basin Grassland Prairie Ecosystem Association Agency Meeting. ~30 stakeholders. November 2019.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Reinhart, K. Led field tour of drought � grazing management experiment as part of the Annual Prairie County Range Tour. Miles City, MT, USA. 20 stakeholders and students. October 2019.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Reinhart, K. Discussed drought � grazing management experiment with Miles City Rotary Club. Miles City, MT, USA. 20 community members. October 2019.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Reinhart, K. Led field tour of drought � grazing management experiment with USDA-ARSs National Program leader Dr. Jeff Silverstein. Miles City, MT, USA. September 2019.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Reinhart, K. Led field tour of drought � management experiment to Fort Keoghs CFG. 7 stakeholders (6 MT ranchers, 1 SD rancher). September 2019.
Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Reinhart, K. Spoke to Montana Stock Growers during their ranch tour at Fort Keogh on NIFA drought � management experiment which addresses planning for more intense and multi-year droughts. 65 stakeholders. June 2019.

Progress 05/01/18 to 04/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Our primary target audience is the stakeholders in Montana and Wyoming. This includes any person invovled in the cattle ranching industry but primarily the ranchers themselves. We worked extensively with stakeholder focus groups and cunducting surveys more broadly this year. Additionally, we targeted the scientific communty (via presentations at scientific meetings), students (via courses in formal university settings), and the general public (via reaching out to media outlets). Changes/Problems:We have had slight logistical changes; however, the scope of the project has not been altered. Logistically, we had to push our treatment start date back a year. Originally, we proposed to have the treatments start April 2018; however, our funding did not come in until May 2018. Therefore, we utilized the whole past year to focus on stakeholders, collect pre-treatment data, and design and build the experiment. This push back proved incredibly beneficial, and we put the time to good use. A second logistical change deals with shifting funds around. Our rainout shelters proved to be more expensive than budgeted for. Therefore, we moved some money from the technician salary to supplies. To accommodate this, we waited 6 months before hiring the technicians, and the budget was only impacted in Year 1. Moving forward, this change should have no cascading effects. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In this first year of the project we have had one graduate student and two technicians join the team. They all participate as contributing members, taking part in the bi-weekly meetings, and observing and helping with all stages of the project from administration to data collection. Morgan Frost (UNCG grad student) also spent the past semester analyzing the pre-treatment community data to gain skills in R and community analysis. Additionally, Co-PD Wilcox took his Community Ecology course (at University of Wyoming) out to the site at Thunder Basin to show them the drought shelters and allow them a hands-on experience in implementing a large-scale experiment. In coming years, we see more opportunity for training and professional development as we gain two more graduate students, and they will all have opportunity to lead field crews, present at meetings, and develop related research projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have just completed the first year of pre-treatment data collection, so results are potentially still a few years off. However, our team has been actively communicating with numerous target audiences, obtaining feedback and input, as well as sharing our experiences and what we have learned thus far. For example, we have given 6 presentations (4 oral, 2 poster) about our project to either ranchers (4 presentations) or the scientific community (2 presentations), where we asked for feedback and ideas as well as passed out paper surveys. Additionally, both Co-PDs Koerner and Komatsu have presented (2 presentations) on the integration of stakeholders in research and the lessons we have learned from that. In total we estimate we have spoken to nearly 400 people about our project thus far. In addition, both Co-PD Koerner and Komatsu routinely give invited seminar talks where they mention this project, and Dr. Koerner has used this project in numerous classes at UNCG to talk about plant communities, disturbance, climate change, and food security. Finally, we have built a project website and have had coverage of our work by the media for a public audience. We plan to purse these outlets more in the coming year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the coming year, we will be conducting our first year of sampling with treatments being implemented. This will require substantial time to implement the treatments. While the rainout shelters are in place, they will need constant maintenance. Then in June/July we will be implementing our grazing treatments. Additionally, our data collection will be in full swing measuring the whole suite of plant and soil characteristics described in the proposal. In the Fall and Winter of next year we will also be working on a large-scale stakeholder survey which will go out to over a thousand individuals. Two new graduate students will start and work on the project. Additionally, we will finalize our protocols and we will complete our project website. Our extension and communication with stakeholders will continue. We will have the same number of meetings as we did this past year. Likewise, our PD will continue to present our findings at stakeholder and scientific meetings.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While this project has many specific scientific and extension objectives, the overarching goal is to integrate scientists and stakeholders to co-develop and implement an experimental drought and grazing management study. We have made great strides in achieving this integration and in the design and building of our experiment, all of which will lead to achieving our three core goals and 6 supporting objectives. First, we have assembled an amazing team of researchers, ranchers, and students to work on this project over the last year. In addition to the 6 co-PDs on this project, we have also hired 2 full time technicians to maintain the two different sites' infrastructure. Over the past year both Allison Stewart (based in Miles City, MT) and Jill Baty (based in Ft Collins, CO) have become integral members of our team, bringing years of field experience with them. Additionally, we have been cultivating relationships with ranchers in the area. Dave Pellatz, a native of the Thunder Basin area and director of the Thunder Basin Grazing Association, has also become a valuable member of our team, joining our biweekly conference calls and helping us navigate the area. His guidance and contribution to the project have been wonderful. In addition, we have worked with our two stakeholder focus groups, meeting with them multiple times throughout the past year. Lastly, we have recruited and obtained excellent graduate students to work on the project. Morgan Trimas Frost (UNCG started in Aug 2018) has a keen interest in sustainability and will focus her dissertation work on invasive species within the two project research areas. Kathryn Bloodworth (UNCG will start Aug 2019) is extremely well trained in all techniques the project is using, having been a full-time technician in Co-PD Komatsu's Lab at SERC for the last two years. She was an extremely competitive application and we are thrilled she has decided to join our team. And lastly, Joseph Gazing Wolf (UNCG will start Aug 2019) has a great interest in ranching sustainability in the region, having grown up at Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota and spending much of his life as a working rancher. Joseph was also an extremely competitive application, and this project in particular was what sold him on joining UNCG. Overall, our team has grown substantially over the last year. Our bi-weekly conference calls now routinely consist of >10 people and the number continues to grow. Second, we have designed our experiment with stakeholder input ensuring that our treatments are relevant and that the information we gain will be applicable to the ranching community in mixed grass prairie. We have done this by cultivating our relationships with stakeholder groups and by conducting surveys (both via in person paper handouts and online surveys advertised through ranching bulletins and newsletters). During various stakeholder meetings, we have pitched our general project idea, and asked for input on both the drought and grazing management strategies side of the experiment. Interestingly, when surveyed about the drought, ranchers overwhelmingly voted for extreme drought scenarios. They routinely wanted to know what happens when rainfall drops to 0%. Additionally, ranchers wanted to know what happens if we do nothing during a drought - if we just keep on grazing normally. Using our conversations as well as the survey data, we have designed an experiment that incorporates the ranchers needs as well as maintaining scientific rigor and replication. In the process both researchers and stakeholders have learned quite a bit, and the project is much stronger. Third, we have been busy with construction. The time and effort that has gone into this over the past year has been tremendous, particularly on the part of two technicians and Co-PDs Reinhart, Porensky, and Wilcox. Construction crews were hired to build the fences needed at each site so that we can manipulate cattle grazing. The structures for the rainouts were first tested by Co-PD Reinhart, and then we hired a welder to build the frames, while our team has been constructing the roofs, gutter system, and doing all infield assembly. Fourth, we have developed detailed protocols for all data collection. In total we have 17 protocols, each associated with a different data type. For example, we have one protocol which details how we collect species composition data, both aerial cover and basal cover. In total this a 3-page document, providing step by step instructions, as well as trouble shooting section and a hints section. These types of documents are invaluable for cross site, large team efforts as they will ensure data consistency throughout the years and between the sites. We will tweak and perfect these protocols over the summer sampling period (2019), and shortly after will post all protocols to the project website, which is currently a work in progress. Overall, we have had a very successful and productive year, initiating interactions with stakeholders through in person meetings and surveys, obtaining pre-treatment data for both sites, developing protocols, designing and implementing the experiment with stakeholder input, and building a team of excellent and skilled professionals to ensure future success.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Koerner, S, K. J. Komatsu*, K. R. Wilcox, K. Reinhart, M. von Emon, and L. Porensky. Identifying mechanisms of rangeland drought resilience: management strategies for sustainable ecosystem health. Poster at USDA PD Annual Investigator Meeting. Washington, D.C., USA. 100 scientists. December 2018. * formerly La Pierre
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Koerner, S, K. J. Komatsu*, K. R. Wilcox, K. Reinhart, M. von Emon, and L. Porensky. Identifying mechanisms of rangeland drought resilience: management strategies for sustainable ecosystem health. Poster at Wyoming Stockgrowers Annual Meeting. Casper, WY, USA. 100 stakeholders. December 2018. * formerly La Pierre
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Koerner, S, K. J. Komatsu*, K. R. Wilcox, K. Reinhart, M. von Emon, and L. Porensky. Response to Multiyear Drought: Facilitating Evidence Based Land Management. Invited Speaker in Organized Symposium at American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C., USA. 40 scientists, stakeholders, media, policy makers. February 2019. * formerly La Pierre
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Wilcox, K, and L. Porensky. Multiyear drought resilience under various grazing management scenarios. Thunder Basin Annual Meeting. Douglas, WY, USA. 30 stakeholders. February 2019.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Komatsu*, K. Engaging ranchers in scientific collaboration to prepare for multi-year droughts. Smithsonian Institution Conservation Commons Symposium. Washington, D.C., USA. 95 scientists. April 2019. * formerly La Pierre
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Von Emon, M. Drought Resilience Project. Transboundary Grassland Partnership Meeting. Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. 80 stakeholders and scientists. November? 2018.
Type: Websites Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Project Website. In progress. Developed by M. von Emon. http://animalrangeextension.montana.edu/beef/rangelanddroughtresilience.html
Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Roesler, S. Cattle producer survey to help with drought grazing management strategies. Prairie Star. https://www.agupdate.com/theprairiestar/news/livestock/cattle-producer-survey-to-help-with-drought-grazing-management-strategies/article_0260772e-f7de-11e8-97ae-abafc460fd53.html. December 2018.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Von Emon, M. Drought Resilience Project. Thunder Basin Grazing Association Board Meeting. Douglas, WY, USA. 10 stakeholders. September 2018.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Von Emon, M, and K. Reinhart. Drought Resilience Project. Fort Keogh Customer Focus Group Meeting. Miles City, MT, USA. 30 stakeholders. September 2018.