Publications

Dixie Meadows, Nevada, is a system of geothermal springs and seeps that feed a complex of marshes and wetland meadows that are located within lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Defense (DOD). A previous U.S. Geological Survey report documented variability in satellite imagery-based land cover classifications for seven wetland complexes at near...

Dryland degradation from unsustainable land use and increasing aridity often manifests as bare, interconnected areas that facilitate the loss or redistribution of resources (soil, seeds, and nutrients) through wind and run-off. Physical structures like branches and stick bundles, which disrupt these pathways and retain resources, are crucial for rehabilitation and restoration...

No abstract available.

Dryland organisms exhibit varied responses to changes in precipitation, including event size, frequency, and soil moisture duration, influencing carbon uptake and reserve management strategies. This principle, central to the pulse-reserve paradigm, has not been thoroughly evaluated in biological soil crusts (biocrusts), essential primary producers on dryland surfaces. We conducted two...

Rising temperatures are predicted to further limit dryland water availability as droughts become more intense and frequent and seasonal precipitation patterns shift. Vegetation drought stress may increase mortality and cause declines and delays in phenological events, thereby impacting species' capacity to persist and recover from extreme drought conditions. We compare phenological...

Technology for the acoustic detection of animals has advanced rapidly over the past few decades. Due to ease of use, consistency, and safety, acoustic methods are particularly useful for science applications that engage the public. In this study, we evaluated the technological and educational trade-offs between 2 acoustic bat detectors in a participatory science application along the...

An ecological threshold is the point at which a comparatively small environmental change triggers an abrupt and disproportionately large ecological response. In the face of accelerating climate change, there is concern that abrupt ecosystem transformations will become more widespread as critical ecological thresholds are crossed. There has been ongoing debate, however, regarding the...

Increasing hydrologic volatility—more extreme rain, and larger variations between wet and dry years—has become apparent in some regions, but few data exist to determine how intensifying hydrologic extremes affect sedimentary systems. Using uniquely high-resolution records of fluvial suspended sediment and coastal morphology, we quantify sedimentary responses from a steep, 357-km2...

Evaluating progress toward achieving freshwater conservation and sustainability goals requires transforming diverse types of data into useful information for scientists, managers, and other interest groups. Despite substantial increases in the volume of freshwater data collected worldwide, many regions and ecosystems still lack sufficient data collection and/or data access. We illustrate...

1. Decomposition controls the release of carbon and nutrients from decaying plant litter into soils or the atmosphere. In most biomes decomposition rates can be accurately predicted with simple mathematical models, but these models have long under-predicted decomposition in globally- extensive drylands. 2. We posit that the exposed surface conditions characteristic of drylands makes...

Survival is a key life history parameter that can inform management decisions and basic life history research. Because true survival is often confounded with emigration from the study area, many studies are forced to estimate apparent survival (i.e., probability of surviving and remaining inside the study area), which can be much lower than true survival for highly mobile species. One...

In May 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center acquired airborne multispectral high-resolution data for the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The image data, which consist of four spectral bands (red, band 1; green, band 2; blue, band 3; and near infrared, band 4) with a ground resolution of 20 centimeters, are available as 16-bit...