Jayne Belnap, Ph.D.
Over the past 30 years, Dr. Belnap’s work has focused on dryland and rangeland ecosystems. Because many types of land uses can reduce the fertility and stability of these ecosystems, her research focus on how these lands can be managed sustainably. Specifically, her work highlights the central role biological soil crusts play in dryland ecosystems.
She has also been actively engaged in studies on how climate change will affect drylands ecosystems and in developing adaptation options for people using and managing these lands. Dr. Belnap has been involved in many creative, successful, and cost-effective restoration efforts aimed at reducing soil erosion and restoring plant productivity using local materials and labor. Her research efforts have been conducted around the world, including Iceland, Australia, China, Mongolia, Antarctica, the western U.S., Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. She has led many large interdisciplinary teams and excels at bringing people together, having published over 260 peer-reviewed articles and has had over 300 collaborators during her career. She travels extensively throughout the world, training federal, state, and private land managers/pastoralists on best management practices for dryland ecosystems. She has served on National Academy panels and participates in many other professional capacities as well. In 2008, she was recognized by the ESA as one of the most outstanding ecologists in the United States. In 2010 and 2013, she received awards as one of the outstanding women in science award from the US Department of Interior. In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of ESA.
Membership/Participation in Professional Societies
American Bryological and Lichenological Society
American Institute for Biological Sciences
Ecological Society of America (past Chair, Soil Ecology Section)
Ecological Society of America Governing Board
Soil Ecology Society (past President)
Soil Science Society of America
Professional Experience
NSF Fellow, Assistant, Stanford University
Research Associate, Brigham Young University
Research Biologist, USDI, Moab, Utah
Education and Certifications
B.A. Biology, U California, Santa Cruz 1980
B.A. Natural History, U California, Santa Cruz 1980
M.S. Ecology, Stanford University 1983
Ph.D. Botany, Brigham Young University 1991
Science and Products
Towards a global terrestrial species monitoring program
C3 and C4 plant responses to increased temperatures and altered monsoonal precipitation in a cool desert on the Colorado Plateau, USA
A multiscale, hierarchical model of pulse dynamics in arid-land ecosystems
Biological soil crusts across disturbance-recovery scenarios: effect of grazing regime on community dynamics
Editors are editors, not oracles
Extracellular enzyme kinetics scale with resource availability
Climate change and plant community composition in national parks of the southwestern US: forecasting regional, long-term effects to meet management needs
Controls on sediment production in two U.S. deserts
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) as a model system in community, landscape and ecosystem ecology
Pedological and geological relationships with soil lichen and moss distribution in the eastern Mojave Desert, CA, USA
Disturbance to desert soil ecosystems contributes to dust-mediated impacts at regional scales
Common and distinguishing features of the bacterial and fungal communities in biological soil crusts and shrub root zone soils
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Towards a global terrestrial species monitoring program
Introduction: The Convention for Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 envisions that “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.” Although 193 parties have adopted these goals, there is little infrastructure in place to monitor gAuthorsDirk S. Schmeller, Romain Julliard, Peter J. Bellingham, Monika Böhm, Neil Brummitt, Alessandro Chiarucci, Denis Couvet, Sarah Elmendorf, David M. Forsyth, Jaime García Moreno, Richard D. Gregory, William E. Magnusson, Laura J. Martin, Melodie A. McGeoch, Jean-Baptiste Mihoub, Henrique M. Pereira, Vânia Proença, Chris A.M. van Swaay, Tetsukazu Yahara, Jayne BelnapC3 and C4 plant responses to increased temperatures and altered monsoonal precipitation in a cool desert on the Colorado Plateau, USA
Dryland ecosystems represent >40 % of the terrestrial landscape and support over two billion people; consequently, it is vital to understand how drylands will respond to climatic change. However, while arid and semiarid ecosystems commonly experience extremely hot and dry conditions, our understanding of how further temperature increases or altered precipitation will affect dryland plant communitiAuthorsTimothy M. Wertin, Sasha C. Reed, Jayne BelnapA multiscale, hierarchical model of pulse dynamics in arid-land ecosystems
Ecological processes in arid lands are often described by the pulse-reserve paradigm, in which rain events drive biological activity until moisture is depleted, leaving a reserve. This paradigm is frequently applied to processes stimulated by one or a few precipitation events within a growing season. Here we expand the original framework in time and space and include other pulses that interact witAuthorsScott L. Collins, Jayne Belnap, N. B. Grimm, J. A. Rudgers, Clifford N. Dahm, P. D'Odorico, M. Litvak, D. O. Natvig, Douglas C. Peters, W. T. Pockman, R. L. Sinsabaugh, B. O. WolfBiological soil crusts across disturbance-recovery scenarios: effect of grazing regime on community dynamics
Grazing represents one of the most common disturbances in drylands worldwide, affecting both ecosystem structure and functioning. Despite the efforts to understand the nature and magnitude of grazing effects on ecosystem components and processes, contrasting results continue to arise. This is particularly remarkable for the biological soil crust (BSC) communities (i.e., cyanobacteria, lichens, andAuthorsL. Concostrina-Zubiri, E. Huber-Sannwald, I. Martínez, J. L. Flores Flores, J. A. Reyes-Agüero, A. Escudero, Jayne BelnapEditors are editors, not oracles
Farji-Brener and Kitzberger (2014; hereafter FBK) resurrect the issues of Farji-Brener (2007) concerning manuscripts that are submitted to journals but that are not sent out for peer review: a process we call “reject following editorial review” (RFER). We thank FBK for reviving discussion about this important topic as new challenges, including new publication outlets, peer-review models, and an inAuthorsDave Schimel, Donald R. Strong, Aaron M. Ellison, Debra P. C. Peters, Sue Silver, Edward A. Johnson, Jayne Belnap, Aimee T. Classen, Timothy E. Essington, Andrew O. Finley, Brian D. Inouye, Emily H. StanleyExtracellular enzyme kinetics scale with resource availability
Microbial community metabolism relies on external digestion, mediated by extracellular enzymes that break down complex organic matter into molecules small enough for cells to assimilate. We analyzed the kinetics of 40 extracellular enzymes that mediate the degradation and assimilation of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus by diverse aquatic and terrestrial microbial communities (1160 cases). RegressiAuthorsRobert L. Sinsabaugh, Jayne Belnap, Stuart G. Findlay, Jennifer J. Follstad Shah, Brian H. Hill, Kevin A. Kuehn, Cheryl Kuske, Marcy E. Litvak, Noelle G. Martinez, Daryl L. Moorhead, Daniel D. WarnockClimate change and plant community composition in national parks of the southwestern US: forecasting regional, long-term effects to meet management needs
The National Park Service (NPS) faces tremendous management challenges in the future as climates alter the abundance and distribution of plant species. These challenges will be especially daunting in the southwestern U.S., where large increases in aridity are forecasted. The expected reduction in water availability will negatively affect plant growth and may result in shifts of plant community comAuthorsSeth M. Munson, Jayne Belnap, Robert H. Webb, J. Andrew Hubbard, M. Hildegard Reiser, Kirsten GalloControls on sediment production in two U.S. deserts
Much of the world’s airborne sediment originates from dryland regions. Soil surface disturbances in these regions are ever-increasing due to human activities such as energy and mineral exploration and development, recreation, suburbanization, livestock grazing and cropping. Sediment production can have significant impacts to human health with particles potentially carrying viruses such as Valley FAuthorsJayne Belnap, Beau J. Walker, Seth M. Munson, Richard A. GillBiological soil crusts (biocrusts) as a model system in community, landscape and ecosystem ecology
Model systems have had a profound influence on the development of ecological theory and general principles. Compared to alternatives, the most effective models share some combination of the following characteristics: simpler, smaller, faster, general, idiosyncratic or manipulable. We argue that biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have unique combinations of these features that should be more widelyAuthorsMatthew A. Bowker, Fernando T. Maestre, David Eldridge, Jayne Belnap, Andrea Castillo-Monroy, Cristina Escolar, Santiago SoliveresPedological and geological relationships with soil lichen and moss distribution in the eastern Mojave Desert, CA, USA
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are ubiquitous in drylands globally. Lichens and mosses are essential biocrust components and provide a variety of ecosystem services, making their conservation and management of interest. Accordingly, understanding what factors are correlated with their distribution is important to land managers. We hypothesized that cover would be related to geologic and pedoloAuthorsJayne Belnap, David M. Miller, David R. Bedford, Susan L. PhillipsDisturbance to desert soil ecosystems contributes to dust-mediated impacts at regional scales
This review considers the regional scale of impacts arising from disturbance to desert soil ecosystems. Deserts occupy over one-third of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, and biological soil covers are critical to stabilization of desert soils. Disturbance to these can contribute to massive destabilization and mobilization of dust. This results in dust storms that are transported across inter-contiAuthorsStephen B. Pointing, Jayne BelnapCommon and distinguishing features of the bacterial and fungal communities in biological soil crusts and shrub root zone soils
Soil microbial communities in dryland ecosystems play important roles as root associates of the widely spaced plants and as the dominant members of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) colonizing the plant interspaces. We employed rRNA gene sequencing (bacterial 16S/fungal large subunit) and shotgun metagenomic sequencing to compare the microbial communities inhabiting the root zones of the dominantAuthorsBlaire Steven, La Verne Gallegos-Graves, Chris Yeager, Jayne Belnap, Cheryl R. Kuske - News