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Welcome to the Southwest Biological Science Center

River Ecosystem Science

Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center

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Terrestrial Systems: Ecology, Biology, and Restoration

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High-Flow Experiments on the Colorado River

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SBSC Tribal Partnerships

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Southwest Biological Science Center

Welcome to the Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC)! We conduct quality, objective research on the terrestrial and aquatic systems of the Colorado Plateau, Colorado River and its tributaries, drylands across the larger Southwest US, and beyond.

Terrestrial Dryland Ecology (TDE)

Grassland nestled between red rock mesas and cliffs at Capital Reef National Park during a rainstorm.

The Terrestrial Dryland Ecology (TDE) Branch of the SBSC studies the biology, ecology,and processes of semi-arid and arid lands (known as drylands). TDE researchers study plant-soil-water relationships and the wildlife found in drylands.

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GCMRC, River Ecosystem Science & Lake Powell Research

Boats along a beach on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon

The River Ecosystem Science (RES) Branch of the SBSC, which includes the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC), studies the biology, ecology, and processes of rivers in the western United States, with an emphasis on the Southwest.

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Quick Links

News

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3 Cool Ways USGS is Studying Bats in National Parks

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RAMPS Newsletter - Fall 2023

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A long-term assessment of ecosystem resilience in a protected grassland in the southwest US Canyonlands

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Publications

Oil and gas reclamation—Operations, monitoring methods, and standards

This publication provides broad guidance for surface management of oil and gas development with a focus on promoting successful reclamation. Successful reclamation depends on sound best management practices, clear standards and expectations, defensible monitoring for effectiveness, and management of production facilities to minimize surface disturbance. This publication provides specific guideline
Authors
Randi C. Lupardus, Janna Simonsen, Gordon Toevs, Barbara Sterling, Zachary H. Bowen, Zoe Davidson, Steven E. Hanser, Emily Kachergis, Alexander Laurence-Traynor, Nika Lepak, Rebecca K. Mann, Aleta Nafus, David S. Pilliod, Michael C. Duniway
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

Combining resilience and resistance with threat-based approaches for prioritizing management actions in sagebrush ecosystems

The sagebrush biome is a dryland region in the western United States experiencing rapid transformations to novel ecological states. Threat-based approaches for managing anthropogenic and ecosystem threats have recently become prominent, but successfully mitigating threats depends on the ecological resilience of ecosystems. We used a spatially explicit approach for prioritizing management actions t
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Jeanne C. Chambers, Jessi L. Brown, John B. Bradford, Kevin Doherty, Michele R. Crist, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Alexandra K. Urza, Karen Short
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center

Crop water use dynamics over arid and semi-arid croplands in the lower Colorado River Basin

Numerous studies have evaluated the application of Remote Sensing (RS) techniques for mapping actual evapotranspiration (ETa) using Vegetation-Index-based (VI-based) and surface energy balance methods (SEB). SEB models computationally require a large effort for application. VI-based methods are fast and easy to apply and could therefore potentially be applied at high resolution; however, the accur
Authors
Neda Abbasi, Hamideh Nouri, Pamela L. Nagler, Kamel Didan, Sattar Chavoshi Borujeni, Armando Barreto-Muñoz, Christian Opp, Stefan Siebert
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center
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Science

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Drill rig in the distance off a dirt road in a semi-aid system.

Southwest Energy Exploration, Development, and Reclamation (SWEDR)

Approximately 35% of the US and approximately 82% of DOI lands are “drylands” found throughout the western US. These lands contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of operating and abandoned wells across the West. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Species Management Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center, Western Geographic Science Center
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Southwest Energy Exploration, Development, and Reclamation (SWEDR)

Approximately 35% of the US and approximately 82% of DOI lands are “drylands” found throughout the western US. These lands contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of operating and abandoned wells across the West. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities...
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A person looks out over a panorama of Canyonlands National Park, Utah

New Tools for Modern Land Management Decisions

In an era of rapid land use changes and shifting climates, it is imperative that land managers and policymakers have actionable and current information available for decision processes. In this work, we seek to meet these needs through new data products and decision support tools built on digital soil mapping, new vegetation cover maps, agency inventory and monitoring data sets, and cutting-edge...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Management Research Program, Southwest Biological Science Center, Western Geographic Science Center, Wildland Fire Science
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New Tools for Modern Land Management Decisions

In an era of rapid land use changes and shifting climates, it is imperative that land managers and policymakers have actionable and current information available for decision processes. In this work, we seek to meet these needs through new data products and decision support tools built on digital soil mapping, new vegetation cover maps, agency inventory and monitoring data sets, and cutting-edge...
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Bats flying in a blue sky with clouds at dusk

Bat foraging ecology along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park is a hotspot for bat diversity. Twenty-two bat species have been documented in the Park, more than any other national park unit.
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Southwest Biological Science Center
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Bat foraging ecology along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park is a hotspot for bat diversity. Twenty-two bat species have been documented in the Park, more than any other national park unit.
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