Sagebrush

Changes in average temperature, precipitation, weather patterns, and frequency of disturbance are all climate related factors that affect the resilience of sagebrush ecosystems following a fire. These changes can cause sagebrush ecosystems to transition to a new alternate stable state. For example, historically dry areas in the Great Basin may become drier with climate change. The drier conditions increase the chances of ignition and may increase the fire frequency. Also if there is less available water, the sagebrush seeds may not be able to germinate as quickly, allowing more drought tolerant species to establish. In these drier than normal areas, recovery of sagebrush and sagebrush-relying species would be slow or improbable. On the other hand, there could be areas within the Great Basin that receive more precipitation than normal, in which you could see an improvement of sagebrush resilience.
Cheatgrass is one of the biggest threats because it is well adapted to disturbance and drought. Cheatgrass has an early growing season and produces a lot of long-lived seeds. Cheatgrass will probably do well in areas with low resilience. The longer a sagebrush ecosystem takes to re-establish a native plant community, the more time invasive species have to be introduced. Another issue with cheatgrass is that it increases the continuity and fuel load of the understory, which increases the fire frequency and reduces the fires complexity. Increasing the fire frequency would reduce he sagebrush population and may allow cheatgrass to further spread. Invasive species are known to reduce biodiversity and would greatly harm many living organisms within the sagebrush ecosystem.