Post‐fire restoration of foundation plant species, particularly non‐sprouting shrubs, is critically needed in arid and semi‐arid rangeland, but is hampered by low success. Expensive and labor‐intensive methods, including planting seedlings, can improve restoration success. Prioritizing where these more intensive methods are applied may improve restoration efficiency. Shrubs in arid and semi‐arid environments can create resource islands under their canopies that may remain after fire. Seedlings planted post‐fire in former canopy and between canopies (interspace) may have different survival and growth. We compared planting Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young) seedlings post‐fire in former sagebrush canopy and interspace microsites at five locations. Four growing seasons after planting, seedling survival was 46 and 7% in canopy and interspace microsites, respectively. Sagebrush cover was 5.8 times greater in canopy compared to interspace microsites. Sagebrush survival and cover were likely greater because of less competition from herbaceous vegetation as well as benefiting from resource island effects in canopy microsites. Initially, post‐fire abundance of exotic annual grasses was less in canopy microsites, but by the third year post‐fire it was substantially greater in canopy microsites, indicating that resource availability to seedlings was greater, at least initially, in canopy microsites. These results suggest microsites with greater likelihood of success should be identified and then utilized to improve restoration success and efficiency. This is important as the need for restoration greatly exceeds resources available for restoration.

中文翻译：

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通过微地点选择提高修复成功：以野火后种植鼠尾草幼苗为例

干旱和半干旱牧场迫切需要基础植物种类的火后恢复，特别是非萌芽灌木，但由于成功率低而受到阻碍。昂贵且劳动强度大的方法（包括种苗）可以提高修复成功率。优先考虑在何处应用这些更密集的方法可以提高恢复效率。干旱和半干旱环境中的灌木丛会在其冠层下形成资源孤岛，这些孤岛可能在火灾后仍然存在。在前冠层和冠层之间（间隔）的火后播种的幼苗可能具有不同的存活和生长。我们比较了种植怀俄明州大山艾树（蒿三齿纳特。SSP。wyomingensis在5个位置的前鼠尾草冠层和空间微型站点中射击后的甲壳虫和幼苗）。种植后四个生长季节，在冠层和空间微地点的幼苗存活率分别为46％和7％。与空间微型站点相比，鼠尾草冠层的覆盖率高5.8倍。由于与草木植被的竞争较少，并且受益于冠层微地点的资源岛效应，因此鼠尾草的存活率和覆盖率可能更高。最初，冠层微地点的外来年生禾草在火后的丰度较低，但到火后第三年，冠层微地点的苗木资源却大大增加，这表明，至少在最初，冠层微地点的苗木资源利用率更高。这些结果表明，应该确定具有更大成功可能性的微型站点，然后将其用于提高修复成功率和效率。这很重要，因为恢复的需求大大超过了可恢复的资源。