Southwest Biological Science Center
Publications
Vertical movement of soluble carbon and nutrients from biocrusts to subsurface mineral soils
Dryland ecosystems can be constrained by low soil fertility. Within drylands, the soil nutrient and organic carbon (C) cycling that does occur is often mediated by soil surface communities known as biological soil crusts (biocrusts), which cycle C and nutrients in the top ca. 0–2 cm of soil. However, the degree to which biocrusts are...
Young, Kristina E.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Reibold, Robin H.; Reed, Sasha; Swenson, Tami; Northen, Trent; Darrouzet-Nardi, Anthony Carbon and ecohydrological priorities in managing woody encroachment: An UAV perspective 63 years after a control treatment
Woody encroachment, including both woody species expansion and density increase, is a globally observed phenomenon that deteriorates arid and semi-arid rangeland health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Mechanical and chemical control treatments are commonly performed to reduce woody cover and restore ecohydrologic function. While the...
Sankey, Temuulen T.; Leonard, Jackson; Moore, Margaret; Sankey, Joel B.; Belmonte, Adam Tree mortality response to drought-density interactions suggests opportunities to enhance drought resistance
The future of dry forests around the world is uncertain given predictions that rising temperatures and enhanced aridity will increase drought-induced tree mortality. Using forest management and ecological restoration to reduce density and competition for water offers one of the few pathways that forests managers can potentially minimize drought-...
Bradford, John; Shriver, Robert K; Robles, Marcos D.; McCauley, Lisa A; Andrews, Caitlin M.; Crimmins, Michael A.; Bell, David M. A greener future for the Galapagos: Forecasting ecosystem productivity by finding climate analogs in time
Forecasting ecosystem response to climate change is critical for guiding policymaking but challenging due to: complicated relationships between microclimates and regional climates; species’ responses that are driven by extremes rather than averages; the multifaceted nature of species’ interactions; and the lack of historical analogs to future...
Browning, Dawn M; Charney, Noah D.; Bastille-Rousseau, Guillaume; Yackulic, Charles; Blake, Stephen; Gibbs, James P. A common garden super-experiment: An impossible dream to inspire possible synthesis
Global change threatens plant diversity and disrupts its interrelationship with ecosystem structure and function. This disruption in turn undermines confidence in the knowledge ecologists produce, and whether it will translate into multidisciplinary research settings or guide the effective management of natural lands.To address this challenge,...
Huxman, Travis E.; Winkler, Daniel E.; Mooney, Kailen A. Making research relevant: Sharing climate change research with rangeland advisors to transform results into drought resilience
On the Ground• Public programs, strategies, and incentives to implement rangeland climate adaptation are more effective if they are tailored to local drought exposures, sensitivities, and adaptation opportunities. As such, local rangeland advisers who aid in climate adaptation are pivotal to the development of these resources.• We hosted a virtual...
Dinan, Maude; Adler, Peter B.; Bradford, John; Brunson, Mark; Elias, Emile; Felton, Andrew J; Greene, Christina; James, Jeremy J.; Suding, Katharine; Thacker, Eric Sampling design workflows and tools to support adaptive monitoring and management
On the Ground• Adaptive land management requires monitoring of resource conditions, which requires choices about where and when to monitor a landscape.• Designing a sampling design for a monitoring program can be broken down in to eight steps: identifying questions, defining objectives, selecting reporting units, deciding data collection methods,...
Stauffer, Nelson G.; Duniway, Michael C.; Karl, Jason W.; Nauman, Travis W. Staggered-entry analysis of breeding phenology and occupancy dynamics of Arizona toads from historically occupied habitats of New Mexico, USA
For species with variable phenology, it is often challenging to produce reliable estimates of population dynamics or changes in occupancy. The Arizona Toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) is a southwestern USA endemic that has been petitioned for legal protection, but status assessments are limited by a lack of information on population trends. Also,...
Forzley, MJ; Ryan, Mason J.; Latella, IM; Giermakowski, JT; Muths, Erin L.; Sigafus, Brent H.; Hossack, Blake R.
Economic assessment of surface water in the Harney Basin, Oregon
Executive SummaryThe Harney Basin is a closed river basin in southeastern Oregon. Surface water in the basin is used for a variety of social, economic, and ecological benefits. While some surface water uses compete with one another, others are complementary or jointly produce multiple beneficial outcomes. The objective of this study is to conduct...
Bair, Lucas S.; Flyr, Matthew; Huber, Christopher Drought resistance and resilience: The role of soil moisture–plant interactions and legacies in a dryland ecosystem
In many regions of the world, climate change is projected to reduce water availability through changes in the hydrological cycle, including more frequent and intense droughts, as well as seasonal shifts in precipitation. In water-limited ecosystems, such as drylands, lower soil water availability may exceed the adaptive capacity of many organisms...
Hoover, Dave; Pfennigwerth, Alix A.; Duniway, Michael C. USGS RAMPS (Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest) newsletter – Summer 2021 edition
No abstract available.
Munson, Seth M.; Mccormick, Molly Integrating airborne and mobile lidar data with UAV photogrammetry for rapid assessment of changing forest snow depth and cover
Forest structure and topography can influence the ecohydrologic function and resiliency to drought and changing climate. It is, therefore, important to understand how forest restoration treatments alter snowpack distribution and design the treatments accordingly. We use a combination of aerial lidar, multi-temporal terrestrial...
Donager, Jonathon; Sankey, Temuulen; Sanchez-Meador, Andrew; Sankey, Joel B.; Springer, Abraham E.