Southwest Biological Science Center
Publications
Micro-geographic variation in burrow use of Agassiz’s desert tortoises in the Sonoran Desert of California
Little has been published regarding the burrowing habits of Agassiz’s desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) in the Sonoran Desert of California. We monitored the interactions of tortoises with their burrows, and other tortoises, via radio-telemetry at two nearby sites between the Cottonwood and Orocopia Mountains, from 2015-2018. We examined how...
Cummings, Kristy L.; Lovich, Jeffrey E.; Puffer, Shellie R.; Arundel, Terence R.; Brundige, Kathleen D. Water balance as an indicator of natural resource condition: Case studies from Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Managing climate impacts to natural resources in protected areas can be hampered by lack of monitoring data, poor understanding of natural resource responses to climate, or lack of timely condition assessments that can inform management actions. Here we demonstrate the utility of water balance as a tool for understanding natural resource responses...
Thoma, David P.; Tercek, Michael T.; Schweiger, E. William; Munson, Seth M.; Gross, John E.; Olliff, S. Tom 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. An integrative ecological drought framework to span plant stress to ecosystem transformation
Droughts have increased globally in the twenty-first century and are expected to become more extreme and widespread in the future. Assessments of how drought affects plants and ecosystems lack consistency in scope and methodology, confounding efforts to mechanistically interpret structural and functional impacts and predict future transformations...
Munson, Seth M.; Bradford, John B.; Hultine, Kevin R. Ecohydrological responses to surface flow across borders: Two decades of changes in vegetation greenness and water use in the riparian corridor of the Colorado River Delta
Hydrological and bioclimatic processes that lead to drought may stress plants and wildlife, restructure plant community type and architecture, increase monotypic stands and bare soils, facilitate the invasion of non‐native plant species and accelerate soil erosion. Our study focuses on the impact of a paucity of Colorado River surface flows from...
Nagler, Pamela L.; Barreto-Muñoz, Armando; Chavoshi Borujeni, Sattar; Jarchow, Christopher J.; Gómez‐Sapiens, Marth M.; Nouri, Hamideh; Herrmann, Stefanie M.; Didan, Kamel Wildfire risk and hazardous fuel reduction treatments along the US-Mexico border: A review of the science (1985-2019)
The ecosystems along the border between the United States and Mexico are at increasing risk to wildfire due to interactions among climate, land-use, and fuel loads. A wide range of fuel treatments have been implemented to mitigate wildfire and its threats to valued resources, yet we have little information about treatment effectiveness. To fill...
Laushman, Katherine Mary; Munson, Seth M.; Titus, Timothy N. Changes in prey, turbidity, and competition reduce somatic growth and cause the collapse of a fish population
Somatic growth exerts strong control on patterns in the abundance of animal populations via effects on maturation, fecundity, and survival rates of juveniles and adults. In this paper, we quantify abiotic and biotic drivers of rainbow trout growth in the Colorado River, AZ, and the resulting impact on spatial and temporal variation in abundance....
Korman, Josh; Yard, Mike; Dzul, Maria C.; Yackulic, Charles; Dodrill, Michael; Deemer, Bridget; Kennedy, Theodore Nitrogen enrichment reduces nitrogen and phosphorus resorption through changes to species resorption and plant community composition
Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition has affected plant community composition and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. This includes changes to the way plants use and recycle nutrients, including effects on nutrient resorption, which is a key process through which plants recover nutrients from tissue during senescence. Nutrient...
Lü, Xiao-Tao; Hou, Shuang-Li; Reed, Sasha; Yin, Jiang-Xia; Hu, Yan-Yu; Wei, Hai-Wei; Zhang, Zhi-Wei; Yang, Guo-Jiao; Liu, Zhuo-Yi; Han, Xing-Guo Post-fire growth of seeded and planted big sagebrush - Strategic designs for restoring Greater Sage-grouse nesting habitat
Wildfires change plant community structure and impact wildlife habitat and population dynamics. Recent wildfire‐induced losses of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) in North American shrublands are outpacing natural recovery and leading to substantial losses in habitat for sagebrush‐obligate species such as Greater Sage‐grouse. Managers are...
Pyke, David A.; Shriver, Robert K.; Arkle, Robert; Pilliod, David; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Coates, Peter S.; Germino, Matthew; Heinrichs, Julie Arlene; Ricca, Mark A.; Shaff, Scott A hybrid approach for predictive soil property mapping using conventional soil survey data
Soil property maps are important for land management and earth systems modeling. A new hybrid point-disaggregation predictive soil property mapping strategy improved mapping in the Colorado River Basin, and can be applied to other areas with similar data (e.g. conterminous United States). This new approach increased sample size ~6-fold over past...
Nauman, Travis W.; Duniway, Michael C. Forest density intensifies the importance of snowpack to growth in water-limited pine forests
Warming climate and resulting declines in seasonal snowpack have been associated with drought stress and tree mortality in seasonally snow‐covered watersheds worldwide. Meanwhile, increasing forest density has further exacerbated drought stress due to intensified tree‐tree competition. Using a uniquely detailed dataset of population‐level forest...
Gleason, Kelly Erika; Bradford, John; D'Amato, Anthony W.; Fraver, Shawn; Palik, Brian J.; Battaglia, Michael A. Macroinvertebrate oviposition habitat selectivity and egg-mass desiccation tolerances: Implications for population dynamics in large regulated rivers
Aquatic insects exhibit complex life cycles that include egg, larval, adult, and, in some instances, pupal stages. Disturbances at any of these life stages can affect overall population dynamics. Yet, efforts to understand the effects of disturbances, such as hydrologic alterations, overwhelmingly focus on the larval life stage of aquatic insects...
Miller, Scott W.; Schroer, Matt; Fleri, Jesse R.; Kennedy, Theodore A.