Plants

The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) is uniquely positioned in the Colorado River Basin to provide sound information, specialized expertise, and innovative tools to support the management and sustained use of natural resources on public and Tribal lands in the Southwest U.S.

Scientific information is fundamental to understanding how proposed actions on public lands may impact the environment. Development of new science is occurring at rates that can make it challenging for biologists, resource managers, decision makers, private landowners, and other stakeholders to ensure they are using up-to-date, high-quality science information to inform their decisions. Further...

The goal of SBSC's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center’s (GCMRC) riparian vegetation monitoring program is to assess changes and trends in plant species composition and cover and relate those changes to river hydrology, climate, geomorphology, and the operations of Glen Canyon Dam.

Riparian plant communities, associated with rivers and streams, are ecologically and culturally important areas in the southwestern U.S. Despite covering less than 2% of the land area in the southwest, the resources provided by these communities make them valuable to wildlife, the public, scientists, and resource managers.

The United States is developing renewable energy resources, especially solar, at a rapid rate. Although renewable energy development is widely perceived by the public as “green technology,” construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of facilities all have known and potential negative impacts to natural resources, including plant communities and wildlife. This is especially...

The Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, a branch of the Southwest Biological Science Center, conducts scientific assessments of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, focused primarily on Lake Powell and the river ecosystem downstream of Glen Canyon Dam. On this page, we'd like to share related interactive tools and projects by other USGS Centers that cover science across the upper and lower...

The Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) seeks to assist U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other land management agencies in developing successful techniques for improving land condition in dryland ecosystems of the southwestern United States. Invasion by non-native species, wildfire, drought, and other disturbances are growing rapidly in extent and...

Land managers face challenges in the future as heat-related aridification alters the abundance, distribution, and interactions of plant species. These challenges will be daunting in the southwestern US, which is experiencing increased temperatures and prolonged droughts, resulting in reduced soil moisture in an already water-limited environment.

The Rio Grande/Rio Bravo (hereafter referred to as the Rio Grande) in the Big Bend region of Texas, USA, and Chihuahua and Coahuila, Mexico, has substantially narrowed since the early 1900s. This narrowing has been caused by the construction and operation of dams and irrigation diversions in upstream reaches of the Rio Grande in the U.S. and the Rio Conchos in Mexico that has reduced flows without...

The Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) conducts and provides scientific information as part of our mission and Federal Trust Responsibility to strengthen relationships and build partnerships with sovereign tribal nations. Here, we highlight a few examples of projects with tribal partners.

USGS Southwest Biological Science Center's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center provided scientific expertise to evaluate potential effects of reservoir management on various resources in Lake Powell and Grand Canyon. This information, published in a cooperator report, was requested and used by the Bureau of Reclamation for decision-making on water flows from Glen Canyon Dam.

In drylands, short-term extreme droughts can have profound ecosystem effects, depending on the timing (seasonality) of drought and the sensitivities of the dominant plants and plant functional types. Past work suggests that cool season drought may disproportionately impact regionally important grass and shrub species. In this study, we are examining the impacts of extreme seasonal drought on...