Sagebrush steppe is a type of shrub-steppe, a plant community characterized by the presence of

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tree ...

s, and usually dominated by sagebrush, any of several species in the genus '' Artemisia''.Sagebrush steppe.
National Park Service. This ecosystem is found in the Intermountain West in the United States.Sagebrush Steppe Conservation Project /ID National Lab.
Wildlife Conservation Society. The most common sagebrush species in the sagebrush steppe in most areas is

big sagebrush ''Artemisia tridentata'', commonly called big sagebrush,MacKay, Pam (2013), ''Mojave Desert Wildflowers'', 2nd ed., , p. 264. Great Basin sagebrush or (locally) simply sagebrush, is an aromatic shrub from the family Asteraceae, which grows in ari ...

(''Artemisia tridentata''). Others include three-tip sagebrush (''Artemisia tripartita'') and low sagebrush (''Artemisia arbuscula''). Sagebrush is found alongside many species of grasses. Sagebrush steppe is a diverse habitat, with more than 350 recorded vertebrate species. It is also open rangeland for livestock, a recreation area, and a source of water in otherwise arid regions.McIver, J. D., et al. 2010
The Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP): a test of state-and-transition theory.
Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-237. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. It is key habitat for declining flora and fauna species, such as

greater sage-grouse The greater sage-grouse (''Centrocercus urophasianus''), also known as the sagehen, is the largest grouse (a type of bird) in North America. Its range is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canad ...

(''Centrocercus urophasianus'') and

pygmy rabbit The pygmy rabbit (''Brachylagus idahoensis'') is a rabbit species native to the United States. It is also the only native rabbit species in North America to dig its own burrow. The pygmy rabbit differs significantly from species within either ...

(''Brachylagus idahoensis'').Davies, G. M., et al. (2012)
Trajectories of change in sagebrush steppe vegetation communities in relation to multiple wildfires.
''Ecological Applications'', 22(5), 1562-77. Sagebrush steppe is a threatened ecosystem in many regions. It was once very widespread in the regions that form the Intermountain West, such as the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted fo ...

and

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area o ...

. It has become fragmented and degraded by a number of forces. Steppe has been overgrown with

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

and has changed to an ecosystem resembling pine and juniper woodland. This has changed the

fire regime A fire regime is the pattern, frequency, and intensity of the bushfires and wildfires that prevail in an area over long periods of time. It is an integral part of fire ecology, and renewal for certain types of ecosystems. A fire regime describes th ...

of the landscape, increasing fuel loads and increasing the chance of unnaturally severe wildfires.Sagebrush Steppe: A Story of Encroachment and Invasion.
''Fire Science Brief'' Issue 27. December, 2008.

Cheatgrass ''Bromus tectorum'', known as downy brome, drooping brome or cheatgrass, is a winter annual grass native to Europe, southwestern Asia, and northern Africa, but has become invasive in many other areas. It now is present in most of Europe, south ...

(''Bromus tectorum'') is also an important introduced plant species that increases fire risk in this ecosystem. Other forces leading to these habitat changes include

fire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated ...

and

overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature res ...

of livestock. Besides severe fire, consequences of the breakdown of sagebrush steppe include increased

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...

of the land and sedimentation in local waterways, decreased water quality, decreased quality of forage available for livestock, and degradation of habitat for wildlife and game animals.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sagebrush Steppe Deserts and xeric shrublands in the United States Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands in the United States Plant communities of the Western United States Plant communities of California * * * * * * * * Sagebrush steppe * * Grasslands of Canada Grasslands of the United States Grasslands of California Ecoregions of the United States Plants by habitat Basin and Range Province