Publications
Below are publications associated with the Southwest Biological Science Center's research.
Trying to access a publication? Or looking for a GCMRC/GCES historical report? Reach out to Meredith Hartwell: mhartwell@usgs.gov with your request.
Filter Total Items: 1512
Dryland soil recovery after disturbance across soil and climate gradients of the Colorado Plateau Dryland soil recovery after disturbance across soil and climate gradients of the Colorado Plateau
Drylands impacted by energy development often require costly reclamation activities to reconstruct damaged soils and vegetation, yet little is known about the effectiveness of reclamation practices in promoting recovery of soil quality due to a lack of long-term and cross-site studies. Here, we examined paired on-pad and adjacent undisturbed off-pad soil properties over a 22-year...
Authors
Kathryn Delores Eckhoff, Sasha C. Reed, John B. Bradford, Nikita C. Daly, Keven Griffen, Robin H. Reibold, Randi Lupardus, Seth M. Munson, Aarin Sengsirirak, Miguel L. Villarreal, Michael C. Duniway
Combining terrestrial lidar with single line transects to investigate geomorphic change: A case study on the Upper Verde River, Arizona Combining terrestrial lidar with single line transects to investigate geomorphic change: A case study on the Upper Verde River, Arizona
The Upper Verde River in northern Arizona, USA is a vital resource for the wildlife and humans that rely on its waters. We characterize the riparian corridor topography using terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data from 2021 to 2022. We also quantify geomorphic changes associated with human and climate-driven alterations in river flow and vegetation changes by combining the contemporary...
Authors
Lauren Lynn Tango, Temuulen Ts. Sankey, Jackson Leonard, Joel B. Sankey, Alan Kasprak
Biological soil crusts are more prevalent in warmer and drier environments within the Great Basin ecoregion: Implications for managing annual grass invasion Biological soil crusts are more prevalent in warmer and drier environments within the Great Basin ecoregion: Implications for managing annual grass invasion
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) can thrive under environmental conditions that are stressful for vascular plants such as high temperatures and/or extremely low moisture availability. In these settings, and in the absence of disturbance, cover of biocrusts commonly exceeds cover of vascular plants. Arid landscapes are also typically slow to recover from disturbance and prone to altered
Authors
Lea A. Condon, John B. Bradford, Peter S. Coates
A toolbox for improving reclamation success: Joint USGS-BLM report establishes best management practices for oil and gas operations, monitoring methods, and standards A toolbox for improving reclamation success: Joint USGS-BLM report establishes best management practices for oil and gas operations, monitoring methods, and standards
The U. S. Geological Survey, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, recently published an oil and gas reclamation techniques and methods report that provides land managers and oil and gas operators specific guidance and best management practices for development impacts, successfully reclaiming disturbed lands during and after oil and gas activities. Resource inventory...
Authors
Michael C. Duniway, Meredith A. Hartwell
Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands
Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in drylands, remain virtually unknown. Here we...
Authors
David J. Eldridge, Jingyi Ding, Josh Dorrough, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Osvaldo E. Sala, Nicolas Gross, Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Max Mallen-Cooper, Hugo Saiz, Sergio Asensio, Victoria Ochoa, Beatriz Gozalo, Emilio Guirado, Miguel García-Gómez, Enrique Valencia, Jaime Martinez-Valderrama, Cesar Plaza, Mehdi Abedi, Negar Ahmadian, Rodrigo J. Ahumada, Julio M. Alcantara, Fateh Amghar, Luisa Azevedo, Farah Ben Salem, Miguel Berdugo, Niels Blaum, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Matthew A. Bowker, Donaldo Bran, Chongfeng Bu, Rafaella Canessa, Andrea P. Castillo-Monroy, Ignacio Castro, Patricio Castro-Quezada, Simone Cesarz, Roukaya Chibani, Abel Augusto Conceicao, Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, Yvonne C. Davila, Balazs Deak, Paloma Diaz-Martinez, David A. Donoso, Andrew David Dougill, Jorge Duran, Nico Eisenhauer, Hamid Ejtehadi, Carlos Ivan Espinosa, Alex Fajardo, Mohammad Farzam, Ana Foronda, Jorgelina Franzese, Lauchlan H. Fraser, Juan J. Gaitan, Katja Geissler, Sofia Laura Gonzalez, Elizabeth Gusman-Montalvan, Rosa Mary Hernandez, Norbert Holzel, Frederic Mendes Hughes, Oswaldo Jadan, Anke Jentsch, Mengchen Ju, Kudzai F. Kaseke, Melanie Kobel, Anika Lehmann, Pierre Liancourt, Anja Linstadter, Michelle A. Louw, Quanhui Ma, Mancha Mabaso, Gillian Maggs-Kolling, Thulani P. Makhalanyane, Oumarou Malam Issa, Eugene Marais, Mitchel P McClaran, Betty J. Mendoza, Vincent Mokoka, Juan P. Mora, Gerardo Moreno, Seth M. Munson, Alice Nunes, Gabriel Oliva, Gastón R. Oñatibia, Brooke B. Osborne, Guadalupe Peter, Margerie Pierre, Yolanda Pueyo, R. Emiliano Quiroga, Sasha C. Reed, Ana Rey, Pedro J. Rey, Victor Manuel Reyes Gomez, Víctor Rolo, Matthias C. Rillig, Peter C. le Roux, Jan Christian Ruppert, Ayman Salah, Phokgedi Julius Sebei, Anarmaa Sharkhuu, Ilan Stavi, Colton R. A. Stephens, Alberto L. Teixido, Andrew David Thomas, Katja Tielborger, Silvia Torres Robles, Samantha K. Travers, Orsolya Valko, Liesbeth van den Brink, Frederike Velbert, Andreas von Hessberg, Wanyoike Wamiti, Deli Wang, Lixin Wang, Glenda M. Wardle, Laura Yahdjian, Eli Zaady, Yuanming Zhang, Xiaobing Zhou, Fernando T. Maestre
Modeling the impacts of Glen Canyon Dam operations on Colorado River resources Modeling the impacts of Glen Canyon Dam operations on Colorado River resources
At the time of this report, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is writing two supplemental Environmental Impact Statements (sEIS ) and a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will analyze the effects of changing water flow out of Glen Canyon Dam (GCD) (U.S. Department of Interior, 2024). These actions have the potential to affect downstream resources, including threatened...
Authors
Charles Yackulic, Lucas Bair, Drew Elliot Eppehimer, Gerard Lewis Salter, Bridget Deemer, Bradley J. Butterfield, Alan Kasprak, Joshua Caster, Helen C. Fairley, Paul E. Grams, Bryce Anthony Mihalevich, Emily C. Palmquist, Joel B. Sankey
Fishes move to transient local refuges, not persistent landscape refuges during river drying experiment Fishes move to transient local refuges, not persistent landscape refuges during river drying experiment
Anthropogenically driven flow intermittency is increasing in freshwater streams, with important implications for the management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems. Because most freshwater fishes are mobile, they are expected to emigrate from intermittent reaches, but this may not be true in streams transitioning from perennial to intermittent. Here, we attempt to determine if...
Authors
Thomas P Archdeacon, Eric J. Gonzales, Charles Yackulic
Estimating migration timing and abundance in partial migratory systems by integrating continuous antenna detections with physical captures Estimating migration timing and abundance in partial migratory systems by integrating continuous antenna detections with physical captures
Many populations migrate between two different habitats (e.g. wintering/foraging to breeding area, mainstem–tributary, river–lake, river–ocean, river–side channel) as part of their life history. Detection technologies, such as passive integrated transponder (PIT) antennas or sonic receivers, can be placed at boundaries between habitats (e.g. near the confluence of rivers) to detect...
Authors
Maria C. Dzul, William L. Kendall, Charles Yackulic, D.R. Van Haverbeke, P. Mackinnon, K. Young, M. Pillow, Joseph E Thomas
Inoculated biocrust cover and functions diverged over a gradient of soil textures and water availability Inoculated biocrust cover and functions diverged over a gradient of soil textures and water availability
Restoring biological crust (biocrust) in disturbed drylands is challenging due to the difficult environmental conditions, such as limited soil moisture, low soil nutrients, and extreme temperatures, that impede growth. Understanding how the key components of biocrust—mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria—react to different environmental factors informs the optimal timing, locations, and...
Authors
Kristina E. Young, Sasha C. Reed, Michael Morton, Matthew A. Bowker
Multiple stressors mediate the effects of warming on leaf decomposition in a large regulated river Multiple stressors mediate the effects of warming on leaf decomposition in a large regulated river
Predicting how increasing temperatures interact with other global change drivers to influence the structure and dynamics of Earth's ecosystems is a primary challenge in ecology. Our study made use of multiple simultaneous “natural experiments” to examine how rapid warming, declining nutrients, invasive consumers, and riparian invasive species management interact to influence leaf...
Authors
Eric Arthur Scholl, Kyle R. Hanus, Tyler Gardner, Theodore Kennedy
Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States, published from 1969 through 2020 Annotated bibliography of scientific research relevant to oil and gas reclamation best management practices in the western United States, published from 1969 through 2020
Integrating recent scientific knowledge into management decisions supports effective natural resource management and can lead to better resource outcomes. However, finding and accessing scientific knowledge can be time consuming and costly. To assist in this process, the U.S. Geological Survey has created a series of annotated bibliographies on topics of management concern for lands in...
Authors
Rebecca K. Mann, Molly L. McCormick, Seth M. Munson, Hillary F. Cooper, Lee C. Bryant, Jared K. Swenson, Laura A. Johnston, Savannah L. Wilson, Michael C. Duniway
Estimating multivariate ecological variables at high spatial resolution using a cost-effective matching algorithm Estimating multivariate ecological variables at high spatial resolution using a cost-effective matching algorithm
Simulation models are valuable tools for estimating ecosystem response to environmental conditions and are particularly relevant for investigating climate change impacts. However, because of high computational requirements, models are often applied over a coarse grid of points or for representative locations. Spatial interpolation of model output can be necessary to guide decision-making...
Authors
Rachel R. Renne, Daniel Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Kyle A. Palmquist, William K. Lauenroth, John B. Bradford