Cartwright, J. 2014. Soil ecology of a rock outcrop ecosystem: Abiotic stresses, soil respiration, and microbial community profiles in limestone cedar glades. Ph.D. dissertation, Tennessee State University
Jennifer M Cartwright
Biography
Jennifer Cartwright is an ecologist and geographer at the Tennessee office of the Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center. She investigates the abiotic drivers of biodiversity across a range of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Recent work has included remote-sensing analysis of drought patterns, studies of inundation patterns in seasonal wetlands, assessments of springs as potential ecohydrologic refugia from climate change, and studies of climate-sensitive ecosystems supporting endemic plant species. Techniques include landscape-level geospatial investigations, climate-change analysis of specialized ecosystems, and ecological applications of remote-sensing technologies.
Current projects
Identifying and Evaluating Refugia from Drought and Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest
Mapping Climate Change Resistant Vernal Pools in the Northeastern U.S.
Science and Products
Date published: January 1, 2018
Status: Active Clarifying Science Needs for Southeastern Grasslands
Grasslands are plant communities that have few or no trees, or have open canopies that allow for the development of a grassy groundcover. Grasslands in the southeastern U.S. support rare plant and animal species and in some cases qualify as global or regional hotspots of biodiversity. Yet the Southeast’s grasslands have been reduced by approximately 90% since European settlement, as the result...
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Date published: January 1, 2018
Status: Active Climate Refugia and Resilience Atlas: Identifying Priority Areas for Conserving Species of Concern in a Changing Climate
Climate change threatens many wildlife species across the Pacific Northwest. As the climate continues to change, wildlife managers are faced with the ever-increasing challenge of allocating scarce resources to conserve at-risk species, and require more information to prioritize sites for conservation. However, climate change will affect species differently in different places. In fact, some...
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Date published: June 12, 2017
Status: Active Webinar: Drought Refugia: Remote Sensing Approaches and Management Applications
View this webinar to learn how scientists are working to identify drought refugia in the Pacific Northwest.
Contacts: Jennifer M Cartwright
Date published: January 1, 2017
Status: Active Mapping Climate Change Resistant Vernal Pools in the Northeastern U.S.
Vernal pools are small, seasonal wetlands that provide critically important seasonal habitat for many amphibian species of conservation concern. Natural resource managers and scientists in the Northeast, as well as the Northeast Refugia Research Coalition, coordinated by the Northeast CSC, recently identified vernal pools as a priority ecosystem to study, and recent revisions to State Wildlife...
Contacts: Evan Grant, Ph.D.
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Date published: January 1, 2016
Status: Completed Identifying and Evaluating Refugia from Drought and Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest
Warmer temperatures and less precipitation in the western U.S. related to climate change are harming many important natural resources, including forests, rivers, and many fish and wildlife species. Climate refugia provide a potential opportunity for conserving resources and biodiversity in the face of climate change. These refugia are places where the climate will likely change less than the...
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Date published: February 19, 2014
Status: Active Webinar: Climate-sensitive, Insular Ecosystems of the Southeastern U.S.: The State of the Science and a Case Study of Limestone Cedar Glades in the Central Basin of Tennessee
View this webinar to learn more about climate-related changes taking place in the Central Basin of Tennessee.
Contacts: Jennifer M Cartwright
Date published: January 1, 2012
Status: Completed Assessing Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems in the Southeastern U.S.
The southeastern U.S. contains a unique diversity of ecosystems that provide important benefits, including habitat for rare wildlife and plants, improved water quality, and recreation opportunities. Understanding how climate change will affect these ecosystems is vital for knowing how best to protect them and the services they supply. The goal of this project was to assess the climate change...
Contacts: Jennifer M Cartwright
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Year Published: 2019
Ecological islands: Conserving biodiversity hotspots in a changing climate
For decades, botanists have recognized that rare plants are clustered into ecological “islands”: small and isolated habitat patches produced by landscape features such as sinkholes and bedrock outcrops. Insular ecosystems often provide unusually stressful microhabitats for plant growth (eg because of thin soils, high temperatures, extreme pH, or...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.
Year Published: 2018
Landscape topoedaphic features create refugia from drought and insect disturbance in a lodgepole and whitebark pine forest
Droughts and insect outbreaks are primary disturbance processes linking climate change to tree mortality in western North America. Refugia from these disturbances—locations where impacts are less severe relative to the surrounding landscape—may be priorities for conservation, restoration, and monitoring. In this study, hypotheses concerning...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.
Year Published: 2018
Springs as hydrologic refugia in a changing climate? A remote sensing approach
Spring‐fed wetlands are ecologically important habitats in arid and semi‐arid regions. Springs have been suggested as possible hydrologic refugia from droughts and climate change; however, springs that depend on recent precipitation or snowmelt for recharge may be vulnerable to warming and drought intensification. Springs that are expected to...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Johnson, Henry M.Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 4: Mississippi Basin
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Cartwright, J., and H. M. Johnson. 2018. Springs as hydrologic refugia in a changing climate? A remote‐sensing approach. Ecosphere 9(3):e02155. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2155
Year Published: 2017
Putting flow-ecology relationships into practice: A decision-support system to assess fish community response to water-management scenarios
This paper presents a conceptual framework to operationalize flow–ecology relationships into decision-support systems of practical use to water-resource managers, who are commonly tasked with balancing multiple competing socioeconomic and environmental priorities. We illustrate this framework with a case study, whereby fish community responses to...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Caldwell, Casey; Nebiker, Steven; Knight, RodneyAttribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 4: Mississippi Basin
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Cartwright, J.; Caldwell, C.; Nebiker, S.; Knight, R., 2017, Putting Flow-Ecology Relationships into Practice: A Decision-Support System to Assess Fish Community Response to Water-Management Scenarios. Water: 9(3), 196
Year Published: 2017
Automated identification of stream-channel geomorphic features from high‑resolution digital elevation models in West Tennessee watersheds
High-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from light detection and ranging (lidar) enable investigations of stream-channel geomorphology with much greater precision than previously possible. The U.S. Geological Survey has developed the DEM Geomorphology Toolbox, containing seven tools to automate the identification of sites of...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Diehl, Timothy H.Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 4: Mississippi Basin
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Cartwright, J.M., and Diehl, T.H., 2017, Automated identification of stream-channel geomorphic features from high‑resolution digital elevation models in West Tennessee watersheds: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016–5141, 44 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20165141.
Year Published: 2016
Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States
Two recent investigations of climate-change vulnerability for 19 terrestrial, aquatic, riparian, and coastal ecosystems of the southeastern United States have identified a number of important considerations, including potential for changes in hydrology, disturbance regimes, and interspecies interactions. Complementary approaches using geospatial...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Costanza, JenniferAttribution: Biology and Ecosystems, Land Resources, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Land Resources, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 4: Mississippi Basin
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Cartwright, J.M., and Costanza, Jennifer, 2016, Ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the southeastern United States: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2016–3052, 4 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20163052.
Year Published: 2016
Insular ecosystems of the southeastern United States—A regional synthesis to support biodiversity conservation in a changing climate
In the southeastern United States, insular ecosystems—such as rock outcrops, depression wetlands, high-elevation balds, flood-scoured riparian corridors, and insular prairies and barrens—occupy a small fraction of land area but constitute an important source of regional and global biodiversity, including concentrations of rare and...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Wolfe, William J.Attribution: Biology and Ecosystems, Land Resources, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Land Resources, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 4: Mississippi Basin
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Cartwright, J.M., and Wolfe, W.J., 2016, Insular ecosystems of the southeastern United States—A regional synthesis to support biodiversity conservation in a changing climate: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1828, 162 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/pp1828.
Year Published: 2016
Soil microbial community profiles and functional diversity in limestone cedar glades
Rock outcrop ecosystems, such as limestone cedar glades (LCGs), are known for their rare and endemic plant species adapted to high levels of abiotic stress. Soils in LCGs are thin (< 25 cm), soil-moisture conditions fluctuate seasonally between xeric and saturated, and summer soil temperatures commonly exceed 48 °C. The effects of these...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Dzantor, E. Kudjo; Momen, BahramAttribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 4: Mississippi Basin
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Cartwright, J., Dzantor, E., and Momen, B. 2016. Soil microbial community profiles and functional diversity in limestone cedar glades. Catena 147: 216-224.
Year Published: 2015
Soil respiration patterns and controls in limestone cedar glades
Aims Drivers of soil respiration (Rs) in rock outcrop ecosystems remain poorly understood. We investigated these drivers in limestone cedar glades, known for their concentrations of endemic plant species and for seasonal hydrologic extremes (xeric and saturated conditions), and compared our findings to those in temperate grasslands and semi-arid...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Hui, DafengAttribution: , Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Water Resources, Region 4: Mississippi Basin, Region 6: Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas-Gulf
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Cartwright, J.M., and Hui, D., 2015, Soil respiration patterns and controls in limestone cedar glades: Plant and Soil, v. 389, no. 1-2, p.157-169.
Year Published: 2015
Soil ecology of a rock outcrop ecosystem: Abiotic stresses, soil respiration, and microbial community profiles in limestone cedar glades
Limestone cedar glades are a type of rock outcrop ecosystem characterized by shallow soil and extreme hydrologic conditions—seasonally ranging from xeric to saturated—that support a number of plant species of conservation concern. Although a rich botanical literature exists on cedar glades, soil biochemical processes and the ecology of soil...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Advised by Dzantor, E. KudjoAttribution: , Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, Water Resources, Region 4: Mississippi Basin, Region 6: Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas-Gulf
View Citation
Cartwright, Jennifer M. Soil ecology of a rock outcrop ecosystem: Abiotic stresses, soil respiration, and microbial community profiles in limestone cedar glades. PhD. Dissertation. Tennessee State University, 2014.