Drought

Migratory wildlife need to balance the benefits of migration and reproduction with the physiological costs. This is particularly challenging in dynamic environments like wetlands, where food levels can vary greatly from year to year. For shorebirds in the Great Basin region, saline or terminal lakes provide essential habitats during their annual life cycle. To understand how changes in hydrology...

There is a growing and urgent need to develop and implement innovative strategies to research, monitor, and manage freshwater resources as societal demands escalate simultaneously with climate-driven changes in water availability.

The western bumble bee was historically one of the most common bumble bees across the western U.S. and Canada. However, our research and others found it has declined substantially across its range and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering it for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and other land managers need information to inform...

Southern Arizona’s semi-desert grasslands provides habitat for flora and fauna, regulates rainfall infiltration and overland flow, mitigates surface erosion and dust production, and sequesters carbon. Sustainable management is important to maintain these ecological services and is of concern for the managers, ranchers, and other people associated with the grassland.

Wildlife issues drive many federal and state land management decisions, either because of litigation or mandates to protect habitat and limit extinction risks. We conduct applied research to meet this need, particularly related to the effects of natural (disease, predation) and anthropogenic (habitat loss, invasive species) stressors on wildlife populations and communities. Research on the effects...

Special status species and habitats are often sentinels of accelerated ecosystem change and, by definition, are priorities for protection, restoration, or focused management.

Landscape ecology has only a short history as a recognized discipline, but it has transformed our thinking about the interplay between pattern and process. We now understand that many smaller-scale phenomena are driven by spatial processes, such as the proximity of different habitats to one another, the ability of organisms to move through landscapes, and the dynamics of natural disturbance such...

Turtles are among the most recognizable and iconic of animals. Any animal with a shell and a backbone is a turtle whether they are called turtles, tortoises, or terrapins. In fact, terrapin is an Algonquian Native American name for turtle. Worldwide there are 356 turtle species on all continents except for Antarctica. The United States has more species than any other country with about 62...

Freshwater wetlands provide critical habitat for a diverse array of organisms, including many amphibians. Yet, under the threat of climate change, these habitats are among the most imperiled ecosystems on Earth.