Priority Landscapes: Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation
Approximately 35% of the US and ~82% of DOI lands are “drylands” and found throughout the Western US. The Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation PES conducts research to inform the restoration of drylands impacted by energy exploration and development. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities that are resistant to decadal fluctuations in precipitation and temperatures. However, because they are relatively resource-limited they are not very resilient and small perturbations often have large and long-term ecological effects. Very few anthropogenic impacts in a dryland are temporary. These lands also contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of abandoned and current wells across the West.
Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation Research
Explore our research using the data below.
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation publications is available from the button below.
Does restoration of plant diversity trigger concomitant soil microbiome changes in dryland ecosystems?
Vertical movement of soluble carbon and nutrients from biocrusts to subsurface mineral soils
Drought resistance and resilience: The role of soil moisture–plant interactions and legacies in a dryland ecosystem
Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts
Shrub influence on soil carbon and nitrogen in a semi-arid grassland is mediated by precipitation and largely insensitive to livestock grazing
Biotic vs abiotic controls on temporal sensitivity of primary production to precipitation across North American drylands
Incorporating biogeochemistry into dryland restoration
Muted responses to chronic experimental nitrogen deposition on the Colorado Plateau
Broader impacts for ecologists: Biological soil crust as a model system for education
Forward-looking dryland restoration in an age of change
Performance of the ecosystem demography model (EDv2.2) in simulating gross primary production capacity and activity in a dryland study area
Literature reviewed estimates of riparian consumptive water use in the drylands of Northeast Arizona, USA
Approximately 35% of the US and ~82% of DOI lands are “drylands” and found throughout the Western US. The Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation PES conducts research to inform the restoration of drylands impacted by energy exploration and development. These arid and semi-arid lands have unique soil and plant communities that are resistant to decadal fluctuations in precipitation and temperatures. However, because they are relatively resource-limited they are not very resilient and small perturbations often have large and long-term ecological effects. Very few anthropogenic impacts in a dryland are temporary. These lands also contain oil, gas, oil shale, shale oil, and tar sand deposits and the exploration for and extraction of these resources has resulted in hundreds of thousands of abandoned and current wells across the West.
Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation Research
Explore our research using the data below.
Recent publications (2020-2022) related to USGS Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation research are listed below. A complete listing of USGS Southwest Energy Development and Reclamation publications is available from the button below.