Adaptive Management

The Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center develops and collaborates with other science centers to create online data applications that provide access to project data as it becomes available to the public. Some of these applications provide data in near real-time, while other project data are updated at some regular interval (annually, quarterly). Content listed here include applications that...

The Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center offers a collection of data resources and online tools -- including web maps, applications, and other content -- that convey scientific information related to on-going monitoring of the Colorado River. Some applications are a culmination of long-term monitoring work, while others are developed around more a specific set of information usually derived...

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Southwest Biological Science Center, and more specifically, its River Ecosystem Science branch which includes the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (GCMRC), is a preeminent science group that has more than 20 years of experience of providing high-quality, detailed science to resource managers and stakeholders primarily concerned with the effects of dam...

Glen Canyon Dam has altered flow and fine sediment (sand, silt, and clay) dynamics of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Before the dam, the Colorado River experienced highly variable flows and carried a large amount of sediment through Grand Canyon, which maintained sandbars (highly valued camping areas in Grand Canyon) and provided sand that protected archeological and cultural sites from...

The Colorado Plateau, centered around the four corners area of the Southwest, and includes much of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, is a large and important component of U.S. drylands. This important home to mountains, desert basins, dramatic canyons, arid woodlands, and grasslands is also one of North America’s most rapidly warming hot spots, with rates of warming of up to 2-3° C within...

The goal of Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center’s (part of the Southwest Biological Science Center) riparian vegetation monitoring program is to assess changes and trends in plant species composition and cover and relate those changes to Glen Canyon Dam operations, river hydrology, climate, and geomorphology. Monitoring is done by annual field-data collection on plant cover and diversity...

Riparian areas are conspicuous belts of dense, green vegetation along streams and rivers, and can be considered “ribbons of life”. Despite covering less than 2 percent of the land area in the southwestern U.S., riparian areas tend to have high species diversity and population density, making them valuable to managers, scientists, and the public. These unique ecosystems act as a link between dry...

The presence of top predators is considered an indication of ecosystem health and can play a vital role in ecosystem functioning by promoting biodiversity, and can contribute to regulating prey species abundance, and herbivory. In the intermountain west, the largest mammalian predator and obligate carnivore is the mountain lion, Puma concolor . This elusive and wide-ranging predator occupies a...

Starting in 2017, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers and land managers are co-producing a network of restoration field trial sites on Department of Interior (DOI) and surrounding lands in the southwestern U.S. The network systematically tests restoration treatments across a broad range of landscape, soil, and climate conditions. Each site in the network is used to test suitable seed mixes...

The objective of this interdisciplinary research effort is to 1) characterize agents of change important to land management decision makers on the Colorado Plateau; 2) identify and analyze relationships between agents of change and key landscape attributes and processes; 3) collectively assess the influence of agents of change and attributes and processes on the services provided by the ecosystem...

The overall goal of this project is to advance inter- and trans-disciplinary research coordination, focusing on the transformation of social-ecological systems by hydroelectric dam construction in the Amazon and the United States. The experience gained by Southwest Biological Science Center researchers working on the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon...

Although most introduced insects are relatively benign, some become high-impact pests causing widespread ecological and economic damage. Introduced insects that are specialists and feed on a single genus of plants can be high-impact as they can potentially eliminate an entire native plant genus over large areas. Luckily, most introduced insects with this feeding behavior do not become high-impact...