David A Pyke
I am a scientist emeritus at the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center. My research interests include population ecology of native and invasive plants in the Intermountain West, monitoring protocols for ecosystem integrity on wild lands, and restoration ecology of native plants on disturbed and invaded lands.
I am involved with a few of my former projects. I am completing the ten-year analysis of the SageSTEP sagebrush – cheatgrass sites. I plan to assist and continue to provide guidance to new scientists who are now leading this long-term project. I am providing guidance and insights for two other on-going projects - The Field of Sagebrush Dreams project and the Mojave grazing removal project. Field of Dreams is an attempt to transplant sagebrush and create patches of sagebrush that will be used by Greater Sage-grouse for nesting within 5 years of a fire removing sagebrush from former nesting sites. The Mojave project is examining vegetation changes after livestock grazing was removed from locations on the Mojave National Preserve 20 years ago. Amongst these interests, my wife and I plan to travel in our teardrop trailer and see other landscapes in the US and Canada and to travel internationally to enjoy new cultures. In addition, we plan to make regular visits to our home in Honolulu.
Professional Experience
1996 – 2021: Supervisory Research Ecologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR
1996 – 1999: Assistant Center Director, U.S. Geological Survey, Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR
1993 – 1996: Research Rangeland Ecologist, National Biological Survey/Service, Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, OR
1992 – 1993: Research Rangeland Ecologist, Bureau of Land Management, Pacific Forest & Basin Rangeland Systems Cooperative Research & Technology Unit, Corvallis, OR
1987 – 1992: Assistant Professor, Department of Range Science, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Botany, Washington State University, Pullman, WA (1983)
M.S., Forest and Range Management, Washington State University, Pullman, WA (1977)
B.S., Range Management (Wildlife option), Washington State University, Pullman, WA (1976)
Affiliations and Memberships*
Ecological Society of America
British Ecological Society
Society for Ecological Restoration
Society for Range Management
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 13
If you are unable to access or download a product, email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov a request, including the full citation, or call (541) 750-1030.
If you are unable to access or download a product, email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov a request, including the full citation, or call (541) 750-1030.
Filter Total Items: 113
Investigating Seed Longevity of Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)
The Intermountain West is dominated by big sagebrush communities (Artemisia tridentata subspecies) that provide habitat and forage for wildlife, prevent erosion, and are economically important to recreation and livestock industries. The two most prominent subspecies of big sagebrush in this region are Wyoming big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. wyomingensis) and mountain big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. vaseyana).
Authors
Upekala C. Wijayratne, David A. Pyke
A Chronosequence Feasibility Assessment of Emergency Fire Rehabilitation Records within the Intermountain Western United States - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program - Project 08-S-08
Department of the Interior (DOI) bureaus have invested heavily (for example, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spent more than $60 million in fiscal year 2007) in seeding vegetation for emergency stabilization and burned area rehabilitation of non-forested arid lands over the past 10 years. The primary objectives of these seedings commonly are to (1) reduce the post-fire dominance of non-na
Authors
Kevin C. Knutson, David A. Pyke, Troy A. Wirth, David S. Pilliod, Matthew L. Brooks, Jeanne C. Chambers
Fire rehabilitation effectiveness: a chronosequence approach for the Great Basin
Federal land management agencies have invested heavily in seeding vegetation for
emergency stabilization and rehabilitation (ES&R) of non-forested lands. ES&R projects are
implemented to reduce post-fire dominance of non-native annual grasses, minimize probability
of recurrent fire, quickly recover lost habitat for sensitive species, and ultimately result in plant
communities with desirable ch
Authors
David A. Pyke, David S. Pilliod, Jeanne C. Chambers, Matthew L. Brooks, James Grace
A spatial model to prioritize sagebrush landscapes in the intermountain west (U.S.A.) for restoration
The ecological integrity of Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Intermountain West (U.S.A.) has been diminished by synergistic relationships among human activities, spread of invasive plants, and altered disturbance regimes. An aggressive effort to restore Sagebrush habitats is necessary if we are to stabilize or improve current habitat trajectories and reverse declining population trends
Authors
C.W. Meinke, S.T. Knick, D.A. Pyke
Interactions among livestock grazing, vegetation type, and fire behavior in the Murphy Wildland Fire Complex in Idaho and Nevada, July 2007
A series of wildland fires were ignited by lightning in sagebrush and grassland communities near the Idaho-Nevada border southwest of Twin Falls, Idaho in July 2007. The fires burned for over two weeks and encompassed more than 650,000 acres. A team of scientists, habitat specialists, and land managers was called together by Tom Dyer, Idaho BLM State Director, to examine initial information from t
Authors
Karen Launchbaugh, Bob Brammer, Matthew L. Brooks, Stephen C. Bunting, Patrick Clark, Jay Davison, Mark Fleming, Ron Kay, Mike Pellant, David A. Pyke
Is Rangeland Health Relevant to Mongolia?
DOI: 10.2111/1551-501X(2008)30[25:IRHRTM]2.0.CO;2
Authors
Bolormaa Damdinsuren, J. E. Herrick, David A. Pyke, K. M. Havstad
Defoliation effects on Bromus tectorum seed production: Implications for grazing
Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) is an invasive annual grass that creates near-homogenous stands in areas throughout the Intermountain sagebrush steppe and challenges successful native plant restoration in these areas. A clipping experiment carried out at two cheatgrass-dominated sites in eastern Oregon (Lincoln Bench and Succor Creek) evaluated defoliation as a potential control method for cheatgr
Authors
K. Hempy-Mayer, D.A. Pyke
Western juniper and ponderosa pine ecotonal climate-growth relationships across landscape gradients in southern Oregon
Forecasts of climate change for the Pacific northwestern United States predict warmer temperatures, increased winter precipitation, and drier summers. Prediction of forest growth responses to these climate fluctuations requires identification of climatic variables limiting tree growth, particularly at limits of free species distributions. We addressed this problem at the pine-woodland ecotone usin
Authors
K.C. Knutson, D.A. Pyke
Biotic soil crusts in relation to topography, cheatgrass, and fire in the Columbia Basin, Washington
We studied lichen and bryophyte soil crust communities in a large public grazing allotment within a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in which the biotic soil crusts are largely intact. The allotment had been rested from grazing for 12 years, but experienced an extensive series of wildfires. In the 350, 4 x 0.5 m plots, stratified by topographic position, we found 60 species or species groups that can be
Authors
Jeanne Ponzetti, B. McCune, David A. Pyke
Monitoring post-fire vegetation rehabilitation projects: A common approach for non-forested ecosystems
Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ES&R) and Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) treatments are short-term, high-intensity treatments designed to mitigate the adverse effects of wildfire on public lands. The federal government expends significant resources implementing ES&R and BAER treatments after wildfires; however, recent reviews have found that existing data from monitoring and res
Authors
Troy A. Wirth, David A. Pyke
Multi-scale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve
Disturbances and ecosystem recovery from disturbance both involve numerous processes that operate on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated how gradients of disturbance intensity and ecosystem responses are distributed across multiple spatial resolutions and also how this relationship changes through time during recovery. We investigated how cover of non-native species
Authors
Erik A. Beever, Manuela M. P. Huso, David A. Pyke
Plant invaders, global change and landscape restoration
Modifications in land uses, technology, transportation and biogeochemical cycles currently influence the spread of organisms by reducing the barriers that once restricted their movements. We provide an overview of the spatial and temporal extent for agents of environmental change (land and disturbance transformations, biogeochemical modifications, biotic additions and losses) and highlight those t
Authors
D.A. Pyke, S.T. Knick
Non-USGS Publications**
Francis, M.G., Pyke, D.A., 1996, Crested wheatgrass-cheatgrass seedling competition in a mixed-density design: Journal of Range Management, v. 49, no. 5, p. 432-438.
Tanaka, J.A., Pyke, D.A., 1996, Introduction to the Sustaining Rangeland Ecosystems Symposium In Edge, W.D., Olson-Edge, S.L., eds., Proceedings of the Sustaining Rangeland Ecosystems Symposium: Special Report 953, Corvallis, OR, Oregon State University, Agricultural Experiment Station, p. 1-2.
Huber-Sannwald, E., Pyke, D.A., Caldwell, M.M., 1996, Morphological plasticity following species-specific recognition and competition in two perennial grasses: American Journal of Botany, v. 83, no. 7, p. 919-931.
Pyke, D.A., 1995, Population diversity with special reference to rangeland plants In West, N.E., ed., Biodiversity of Rangelands: Logan, Utah, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University, p. 21-32.
Pyke, D.A., Novak, S.J., 1994, Cheatgrass demography-establishment attributes, recruitment, ecotypes, and genetic variability: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station General Technical Report INT-GTR-313, p. 12-21.
Pyke, D.A., 1994, Ecological significance of seed banks with special reference to alien annuals: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, General Technical Report INT-GTR-313, p. 197-201.
Borman, M.M., Pyke, D.A., 1994, Successional theory and the desired plant community approach: Rangelands, v. 16, no. 2, p. 82-84.
Pyke, D.A., Borman, M.M., 1993, Problem analysis for the Vegetation Diversity Project - A research and demonstration program to restore and maintain native plant diversity on deteriorated rangelands of the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau: US, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office Technical Note OR-936-01, p. 100.
Pyke, D.A., Thompson, J.N., 1986, Statistical analysis of survival, and removal rate experiments: Ecology, no. 67, p. 240-245.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Filter Total Items: 19
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 13
If you are unable to access or download a product, email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov a request, including the full citation, or call (541) 750-1030.
If you are unable to access or download a product, email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov a request, including the full citation, or call (541) 750-1030.
Filter Total Items: 113
Investigating Seed Longevity of Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)
The Intermountain West is dominated by big sagebrush communities (Artemisia tridentata subspecies) that provide habitat and forage for wildlife, prevent erosion, and are economically important to recreation and livestock industries. The two most prominent subspecies of big sagebrush in this region are Wyoming big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. wyomingensis) and mountain big sagebrush (A. t. ssp. vaseyana).
Authors
Upekala C. Wijayratne, David A. Pyke
A Chronosequence Feasibility Assessment of Emergency Fire Rehabilitation Records within the Intermountain Western United States - Final Report to the Joint Fire Science Program - Project 08-S-08
Department of the Interior (DOI) bureaus have invested heavily (for example, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spent more than $60 million in fiscal year 2007) in seeding vegetation for emergency stabilization and burned area rehabilitation of non-forested arid lands over the past 10 years. The primary objectives of these seedings commonly are to (1) reduce the post-fire dominance of non-na
Authors
Kevin C. Knutson, David A. Pyke, Troy A. Wirth, David S. Pilliod, Matthew L. Brooks, Jeanne C. Chambers
Fire rehabilitation effectiveness: a chronosequence approach for the Great Basin
Federal land management agencies have invested heavily in seeding vegetation for
emergency stabilization and rehabilitation (ES&R) of non-forested lands. ES&R projects are
implemented to reduce post-fire dominance of non-native annual grasses, minimize probability
of recurrent fire, quickly recover lost habitat for sensitive species, and ultimately result in plant
communities with desirable ch
Authors
David A. Pyke, David S. Pilliod, Jeanne C. Chambers, Matthew L. Brooks, James Grace
A spatial model to prioritize sagebrush landscapes in the intermountain west (U.S.A.) for restoration
The ecological integrity of Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems in the Intermountain West (U.S.A.) has been diminished by synergistic relationships among human activities, spread of invasive plants, and altered disturbance regimes. An aggressive effort to restore Sagebrush habitats is necessary if we are to stabilize or improve current habitat trajectories and reverse declining population trends
Authors
C.W. Meinke, S.T. Knick, D.A. Pyke
Interactions among livestock grazing, vegetation type, and fire behavior in the Murphy Wildland Fire Complex in Idaho and Nevada, July 2007
A series of wildland fires were ignited by lightning in sagebrush and grassland communities near the Idaho-Nevada border southwest of Twin Falls, Idaho in July 2007. The fires burned for over two weeks and encompassed more than 650,000 acres. A team of scientists, habitat specialists, and land managers was called together by Tom Dyer, Idaho BLM State Director, to examine initial information from t
Authors
Karen Launchbaugh, Bob Brammer, Matthew L. Brooks, Stephen C. Bunting, Patrick Clark, Jay Davison, Mark Fleming, Ron Kay, Mike Pellant, David A. Pyke
Is Rangeland Health Relevant to Mongolia?
DOI: 10.2111/1551-501X(2008)30[25:IRHRTM]2.0.CO;2
Authors
Bolormaa Damdinsuren, J. E. Herrick, David A. Pyke, K. M. Havstad
Defoliation effects on Bromus tectorum seed production: Implications for grazing
Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) is an invasive annual grass that creates near-homogenous stands in areas throughout the Intermountain sagebrush steppe and challenges successful native plant restoration in these areas. A clipping experiment carried out at two cheatgrass-dominated sites in eastern Oregon (Lincoln Bench and Succor Creek) evaluated defoliation as a potential control method for cheatgr
Authors
K. Hempy-Mayer, D.A. Pyke
Western juniper and ponderosa pine ecotonal climate-growth relationships across landscape gradients in southern Oregon
Forecasts of climate change for the Pacific northwestern United States predict warmer temperatures, increased winter precipitation, and drier summers. Prediction of forest growth responses to these climate fluctuations requires identification of climatic variables limiting tree growth, particularly at limits of free species distributions. We addressed this problem at the pine-woodland ecotone usin
Authors
K.C. Knutson, D.A. Pyke
Biotic soil crusts in relation to topography, cheatgrass, and fire in the Columbia Basin, Washington
We studied lichen and bryophyte soil crust communities in a large public grazing allotment within a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in which the biotic soil crusts are largely intact. The allotment had been rested from grazing for 12 years, but experienced an extensive series of wildfires. In the 350, 4 x 0.5 m plots, stratified by topographic position, we found 60 species or species groups that can be
Authors
Jeanne Ponzetti, B. McCune, David A. Pyke
Monitoring post-fire vegetation rehabilitation projects: A common approach for non-forested ecosystems
Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ES&R) and Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) treatments are short-term, high-intensity treatments designed to mitigate the adverse effects of wildfire on public lands. The federal government expends significant resources implementing ES&R and BAER treatments after wildfires; however, recent reviews have found that existing data from monitoring and res
Authors
Troy A. Wirth, David A. Pyke
Multi-scale responses of soil stability and invasive plants to removal of non-native grazers from an arid conservation reserve
Disturbances and ecosystem recovery from disturbance both involve numerous processes that operate on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Few studies have investigated how gradients of disturbance intensity and ecosystem responses are distributed across multiple spatial resolutions and also how this relationship changes through time during recovery. We investigated how cover of non-native species
Authors
Erik A. Beever, Manuela M. P. Huso, David A. Pyke
Plant invaders, global change and landscape restoration
Modifications in land uses, technology, transportation and biogeochemical cycles currently influence the spread of organisms by reducing the barriers that once restricted their movements. We provide an overview of the spatial and temporal extent for agents of environmental change (land and disturbance transformations, biogeochemical modifications, biotic additions and losses) and highlight those t
Authors
D.A. Pyke, S.T. Knick
Non-USGS Publications**
Francis, M.G., Pyke, D.A., 1996, Crested wheatgrass-cheatgrass seedling competition in a mixed-density design: Journal of Range Management, v. 49, no. 5, p. 432-438.
Tanaka, J.A., Pyke, D.A., 1996, Introduction to the Sustaining Rangeland Ecosystems Symposium In Edge, W.D., Olson-Edge, S.L., eds., Proceedings of the Sustaining Rangeland Ecosystems Symposium: Special Report 953, Corvallis, OR, Oregon State University, Agricultural Experiment Station, p. 1-2.
Huber-Sannwald, E., Pyke, D.A., Caldwell, M.M., 1996, Morphological plasticity following species-specific recognition and competition in two perennial grasses: American Journal of Botany, v. 83, no. 7, p. 919-931.
Pyke, D.A., 1995, Population diversity with special reference to rangeland plants In West, N.E., ed., Biodiversity of Rangelands: Logan, Utah, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University, p. 21-32.
Pyke, D.A., Novak, S.J., 1994, Cheatgrass demography-establishment attributes, recruitment, ecotypes, and genetic variability: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station General Technical Report INT-GTR-313, p. 12-21.
Pyke, D.A., 1994, Ecological significance of seed banks with special reference to alien annuals: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, General Technical Report INT-GTR-313, p. 197-201.
Borman, M.M., Pyke, D.A., 1994, Successional theory and the desired plant community approach: Rangelands, v. 16, no. 2, p. 82-84.
Pyke, D.A., Borman, M.M., 1993, Problem analysis for the Vegetation Diversity Project - A research and demonstration program to restore and maintain native plant diversity on deteriorated rangelands of the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau: US, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office Technical Note OR-936-01, p. 100.
Pyke, D.A., Thompson, J.N., 1986, Statistical analysis of survival, and removal rate experiments: Ecology, no. 67, p. 240-245.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Filter Total Items: 19
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government