Southwest Biological Science Center
Publications
Testing which axes of species differentiation underlie covariance of phylogeographic similarity among montane sedge species
Co‐distributed species may exhibit similar phylogeographic patterns due to shared environmental factors or discordant patterns attributed to the influence of species‐specific traits. Although either concordant or discordant patterns could occur due to chance, stark differences in key traits (e.g., dispersal ability) may readily explain differences...
Hodel, Richard G.J.; Massatti, Robert; Bishop, Sasha G.D.; Knowles, L. Lacey Movement ecology
(Yackulic) At first glance, the decision to study movement in Galapagos tortoises seems curious. Given the slow speed of tortoises and tendency to forage and rest as they move, it seems implausible that tortoises would string their slow bursts of activity together to accomplish large-scale movements. Nonetheless, as early as 1815 (Porter 1815),...
Blake, Stephen; Yackulic, Charles B.; Cabrera, Freddy; Deem, Sharon L.; Ellis-Soto, Diego; Gibbs, James P.; Kummeth, Franz; Wikelski, Martin; Bastille-Rousseau, Guillaume A watershed moment: Analysis of sub-basins refocuses the geography of turtle conservation across the globe
Conservation planners use a variety of decision-making tools, many of which require identifying and prioritizing spatial units based on their biodiversity and levels of imperilment. Turtles are highly imperiled, but present schemes for determining global priority areas are focused mostly on broad regional scales. We conduct the first global...
Ennen, Joshua R.; Agha, Mickey; Sweat, Sarah C.; Matamoros, Wildredo A.; Lovich, Jeffrey E.; Iverson, John B.; Rhodin, Anders G.J.; Thomson, Robert C.; Shaffer, H. Bradley; Hoagstrom, Christopher W. Assessing the hydrologic and physical conditions of a drainage basin
An assessment of a drainage basin and its stream corridor will provide the data and information needed to understand current biophysical conditions and trends. Developing an understanding of the drivers of change is the next essential step for restoration success (Osterkamp and Toy, 1997; Corenbilt et al., 2007; Briggs and Osterkamp, 2003),...
Osterkamp, Waite; Briggs, Mark K.; Dean, David; Rodriquez, Alfredo Quantifying plant-soil-nutrient dynamics in rangelands: Fusion of UAV hyperspectral-LiDAR, UAV multispectral-photogrammetry, and ground-based LiDAR-digital photography in a shrub-encroached desert grassland
Rangelands cover 70% of the world's land surface, and provide critical ecosystem services of primary production, soil carbon storage, and nutrient cycling. These ecosystem services are governed by very fine-scale spatial patterning of soil carbon, nutrients, and plant species at the centimeter-to-meter scales, a phenomenon known as “islands of...
Sankey, Joel B.; Sankey, Temuulen T.; Li, Junran; Ravi, Sujith; Wang, Guan; Caster, Joshua; Kasprak, Alan Net-spinning caddisfly distribution in large regulated rivers
Most of the world's large rivers are dammed for the purposes of water storage, flood control, and power production. Damming rivers fundamentally alters water temperature and flows in tailwater ecosystems, which in turn affects the presence and abundance of downstream biota.We collaborated with more than 200 citizen scientists to collect 2,194...
Metcalfe, Anya; Muehlbauer, Jeffrey; Kennedy, Theodore; Yackulic, Charles; Dibble, Kimberly L.; Marks, Jane C. Forward-looking dryland restoration in an age of change
Drought, wildfires, and invasive species are among the many challenges practitioners face in achieving restoration goals in drylands. In this article, we highlight relevant restoration research and programs that pursue actionable information and resource management goals for the Intermountain West. In the context of international restoration...
Winkler, Daniel E.; Massatti, Robert; Reed, Sasha Water storage decisions will determine the distribution and persistence of imperiled river fishes
Managing the world’s freshwater supply to meet societal and environmental needs in a changing climate is one of the biggest challenges for the 21st century. Dams provide water security, however, the allocation of dwindling water supply among reservoirs could exacerbate or ameliorate the effects of climate change on aquatic communities. Here,...
Dibble, Kimberly L.; Yackulic, Charles; Kennedy, Theodore; Bestgen, Kevin R.; Schmidt, John C. The roles of flood magnitude and duration in controlling channel width and complexity on the Green River in Canyonlands, Utah, USA
Predictions of river channel adjustment to changes in streamflow regime based on relations between mean channel characteristics and mean flood magnitude can be useful to evaluate average channel response. However, because these relations assume equilibrium sediment transport, their applicability to cases where streamflow and sediment transport are...
Grams, Paul; Dean, David; Walker, Alexander E.; Kasprak, Alan; Schmidt, John C. Genetically-informed seed transfer zones for Cleome lutea and Machaeranthera canescens across the Colorado Plateau and adjacent regions
Genetically-based seed transfer zones are described herein for two priority restoration species on and adjacent to the Colorado Plateau (Massatti 2020). Species include Cleome lutea Hook. (Capparaceae; commonly called yellow spiderflower or yellow beeplant; synonym Peritoma lutea (Hook.) Raf.) and Machaeranthera canescens (Pursh) A. Gray (...
Massatti, Robert Non-analog increases to air, surface, and belowground temperature extreme events due to climate change
Air temperatures (Ta) are rising in a changing climate, increasing extreme temperature events. Examining how Ta increases are influencing extreme temperatures at the soil surface and belowground in the soil profile can refine our understanding of the ecological consequences of rising temperatures. In this paper, we validate surface and soil...
Petrie, M.D.; Bradford, John; Lauenroth, W.K.; Schlaepfer, D.R.; Andrews, Caitlin M.; Bell, D.M. Water temperature controls for regulated canyon-bound rivers
Many canyon‐bound rivers have been dammed and downstream flow and water temperatures modified. Climate change is expected to cause lower storage in reservoirs and warmer release temperatures, which may further alter downstream flow and thermal regimes. To anticipate potential future changes, we first need to understand the dominant heat transfer...
Mihalevich, Bryce A.; Neilson, Bethany; Buahin, Caleb A.; Yackulic, Charles; Schmidt, John C.