Publications
Below are publications associated with the Southwest Biological Science Center's research.
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Filter Total Items: 1512
Gaps and hotspots in the state of knowledge of pinyon-juniper communities Gaps and hotspots in the state of knowledge of pinyon-juniper communities
Pinyon-juniper (PJ) plant communities cover a large area across North America and provide critical habitat for wildlife, biodiversity and ecosystem functions, and rich cultural resources. These communities occur across a variety of environmental gradients, disturbance regimes, structural conditions and species compositions, including three species of juniper and two species of pinyon. PJ
Authors
Jessica A. Hartsell, Stella M. Copeland, Seth M. Munson, Bradley J. Butterfield, John B. Bradford
Turtle biogeography: Global regionalization and conservation priorities Turtle biogeography: Global regionalization and conservation priorities
Defaunation in the Anthropocene has created a need to focus limited conservation resources on geographically-explicit areas with high conservation significance. Priority conservation areas are often defined as those with high biodiversity – hotspots. While these conservation areas are critical to securing global biodiversity, prevailing approaches for their delineation are often...
Authors
Joshua R. Ennen, Mickey Agha, Sarah C. Sweat, Wilfredo A. Matamoros, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Anders G.J. Rhodin, John B. Iverson, Christopher W. Hoagstrom
Grazing-induced changes to biological soil crust cover mediate hillslope erosion in a long-term exclosure experiment Grazing-induced changes to biological soil crust cover mediate hillslope erosion in a long-term exclosure experiment
Dryland ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to erosion generated by livestock grazing. Quantifying this risk across a variety of landscape settings is essential for successful adaptive management, particularly in light of a changing climate. In the Upper Colorado River Basin, there are nearly 25 000 km2 of rangelands with underlying soils derived from Mancos Shale, an erodible and...
Authors
Stephen E. Fick, Jayne Belnap, Michael C. Duniway
Book review of rattlesnakes of the Grand Canyon, by Schuett, G.W., Smith, C.F., and Ashley, B. Book review of rattlesnakes of the Grand Canyon, by Schuett, G.W., Smith, C.F., and Ashley, B.
No abstract available.
Authors
Erika M. Nowak, Charles A. Drost
Microsite enhancements for soil stabilization and rapid biocrust colonization in degraded drylands Microsite enhancements for soil stabilization and rapid biocrust colonization in degraded drylands
In dryland ecosystems, natural recovery of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) following disturbance may be slow or inhibited, necessitating active restoration practices. While biocrusts can be readily propagated under environmentally controlled conditions, rehabilitation in the field is complicated by environmental stresses which may be particularly acute in degraded, destabilized soils...
Authors
Stephen E. Fick, Natalie K. Day, Michael C. Duniway, Sean Lawrence Hoy-Skubik, Nichole N. Barger
Assessing plant production responses to climate across water-limited regions using Google Earth Engine Assessing plant production responses to climate across water-limited regions using Google Earth Engine
(Munson) Climate variability and change acting at broad scales can lead to divergent changes in plant production at local scales. Quantifying how production responds to variation in climate at local scales is essential to understand underlying ecological processes and inform land management decision-making, but has historically been limited in spatiotemporal scale based on the use of...
Authors
Erin L. Bunting, Seth M. Munson, John B. Bradford
Evolutionary history predicts high-impact invasions by herbivorous insects Evolutionary history predicts high-impact invasions by herbivorous insects
A long‐standing goal of invasion biology is to identify factors driving highly variable impacts of non‐native species. Although hypotheses exist that emphasize the role of evolutionary history (e.g., enemy release hypothesis & defense‐free space hypothesis), predicting the impact of non‐native herbivorous insects has eluded scientists for over a century. Using a census of all 58 non...
Authors
Angela M. Mech, Kathryn A. Thomas, Travis D. Marsico, Daniel A. Herms, Craig Allen, Matthew P. Ayres, Kamal J.K. Gandhi, Jessica Gurevitch, Nathan P. Havill, Ruth A. Hufbauer, Andrew M. Liebhold, Kenneth F. Raffa, Ashley N. Schulz, Daniel R. Uden, Patrick C. Tobin
Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect
Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using 13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive...
Authors
Felipe Bastida, Carlos M. Garcia, Noah Fierer, David J. Eldridge, Matthew A. Bowker, Sebastian R. Abades, Fernando D. Alfaro, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Nick A. Cutler, Antonio Gallardo, Laura Garcia-Velazquez, Stephen C. Hart, Patrick E. Hayes, Teresa Hernandez, Zeng-Yei Hseu, Nico Jehmlich, Martin Kirchmair, Hans Lambers, Sigrid Neuhauser, Victor M. Pena-Ramirez, Cecilia A. Perez, Sasha C. Reed, Fernanda Santos, Christina Siebe, Benjamin W. Sullivan, Pankaj Trivedi, Alfonso Vera, Mark Williams, Jose M. Moreno, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
Remote sensing of dryland ecosystem structure and function: Progress, challenges, and opportunities Remote sensing of dryland ecosystem structure and function: Progress, challenges, and opportunities
Drylands make up roughly 40% of the Earth's land surface, and billions of people depend on services provided by these critically important ecosystems. Despite their relatively sparse vegetation, dryland ecosystems are structurally and functionally diverse, and emerging evidence suggests that these ecosystems play a dominant role in the trend and variability of the terrestrial carbon sink...
Authors
William K. Smith, Matthew P. Dannenberg, Dong Yan, Stephanie Herrmann, Mallory L. Barnes, Greg A. Barron-Gafford, Joel A. Biederman, Scott Ferrenberg, Andrew M. Fox, Amy R. Hudson, John F. Knowles, Natasha MacBean, David J.P. Moore, Pamela L. Nagler, Sasha C. Reed, William A. Rutherford, Russell L. Scott, Xianfeng Wang, Julia Yang
Managing sand along the Colorado River to protect cultural sites downstream of Glen Canyon Dam Managing sand along the Colorado River to protect cultural sites downstream of Glen Canyon Dam
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona has greatly reduced the supply of sand to the Colorado River corridor through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Grand Canyon National Park, hereafter referred to as Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon, respectively. This deficit has strongly affected the natural sediment cycle in this iconic landscape and has lowered the...
Authors
Terri Cook, Amy E. East, Helen Fairley, Joel B. Sankey
Interactions of microhabitat and time control grassland bacterial and fungal composition Interactions of microhabitat and time control grassland bacterial and fungal composition
Dryland grasslands are vast and globally important and, as in all terrestrial ecosystems, soil microbial communities play fundamental roles in regulating dryland ecosystem function. A typical characteristic of drylands is the spatial mosaic of vascular plant cover surrounded by interspace soils, where biological soil crusts (biocrusts)—a complex community of organisms including bacteria...
Authors
Michaeline BN Albright, Rebecca C. Mueller, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Jayne Belnap, Sasha C. Reed, Cheryl R. Kuske
Viability of Razorback-Flannelmouth Sucker hybrids Viability of Razorback-Flannelmouth Sucker hybrids
Razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) and flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis) live in sympatry in the Colorado River basin. Although morphological intermediates have been described since 1889, hybrids were seemingly rare. Rarity of hybrids was likely attributed to razorback suckers' ability to find conspecific mates throughout the basin. Dams have segmented the Colorado River...
Authors
Pilar N. Wolters, David L. Rogowski, David Ward, Alice C. Gibb