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, Ph.D.
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: June 4, 2020
Status: Active Vernal Pool Inundation Models
Attribution: Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center
Date published: January 1, 2020
Status: Active Climate- and Land-Cover-Induced Shifts in the Distribution and Abundance of Invasive Fish and Their Impacts on Native Fish Communities in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins
The climate of the Southeast is changing rapidly. As streams warm and streamflow dynamics change due to climate and land-cover changes, previously unsuitable habitats may become hospitable for invasive species. Warmwater and large-river adapted invasive species such as Asian carps may move upstream as habitats that were previously too cold or had too little flow become welcoming environments...
Contacts: Jacob LaFontaine, Jennifer M Cartwright, Ph.D.
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
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, Ph.D.
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, Ph.D.
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, Ph.D.
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Year Published: 2020
Topographic, soil, and climate drivers of drought sensitivity in forests and shrublands of the Pacific Northwest, USA
Climate change is anticipated to increase the frequency and intensity of droughts, with major impacts to ecosystems globally. Broad-scale assessments of vegetation responses to drought are needed to anticipate, manage, and potentially mitigate climate-change effects on ecosystems. We quantified the drought sensitivity of vegetation in the Pacific...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Littlefield, Caitlin E; Michalak, Julia; Lawler, Joshua J.; Dobrowski, Solomon
Year Published: 2020
Stressor identification framework of biological impairment in Mississippi streams to support watershed restoration and TMDL development
The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires States to identify waters that are impaired for designated uses. These waters are published through a State’s §303(d) list. The CWA also requires that a total maximum daily load (TMDL) be completed for each water body to calculate the maximum amount of contaminants that can be present in that water body and still...
Hicks, Matthew B.; Cartwright, Jennifer 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
View Citation
Hicks, M.B., and Cartwright, J.M., 2020, Stressor identification framework of biological impairment in Mississippi streams to support watershed restoration and TMDL development: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2020–5098, 42 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20205098.
Year Published: 2020
Legacy effects of hydrologic alteration in playa wetland responses to droughts
Wetland conservation increasingly must account for climate change and legacies of previous land-use practices. Playa wetlands provide critical wildlife habitat, but may be impacted by intensifying droughts and previous hydrologic modifications. To inform playa restoration planning, we asked: (1) what are the trends in playa inundation? (2) what...
Russell, Micah T.; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Collins, Gail H.; Long, Ryan A.; Eitel, Jan H.
Year Published: 2020
A guidebook to spatial datasets for conservation planning under climate change in the Pacific Northwest
This guidebook provides user-friendly overviews of a variety of spatial datasets relevant to conservation and management of natural resources in the face of climate change in the Pacific Northwest, United States. Each guidebook chapter was created using a standardized template to summarize a spatial dataset or a group of closely related datasets....
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Belote, Travis; Blasch, Kyle W.; Campbell, Steve; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Chambers, Jeanne C.; Davis, Raymond J.; Dobrowski, Solomon; Dunham, Jason B.; Gergel, Diana; Isaak, Daniel; Jaeger, Kristin; Krosby, Meade; Langdon, Jesse; Lawler, Joshua J.; Littlefield, Caitlin E; Luce, Charles H; Maestas, Jeremy D; Martinez, Anthony; Meddens, Arjan J.H.; Michalak, Julia; Parks, Sean A.; Peterman, Wendy; Popper, Ken; Ringo, Chris; Sando, Thomas R.; Schindel, Michael; Stralberg, Diana; Theobald, David M.; Walker, Nathan; Wilsey, Chad; Yang, Zhiqiang; Yost, Andrew
Year Published: 2020
Climate‐change refugia: Biodiversity in the slow lane
Climate‐change adaptation focuses on conducting and translating research to minimize the dire impacts of anthropogenic climate change, including threats to biodiversity and human welfare. One adaptation strategy is to focus conservation on climate‐change refugia (that is, areas relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time that...
Morelli, Toni Lyn; Barrows, Cameron W.; Ramirez, Aaron R.; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Ackerly, David D.; Eaves, Tatiana D.; Ebersole, Joseph L.; Krawchuk, Meg A.; Letcher, Benjamin; Mahalovich, Mary Frances; Meigs, Garrett; Michalak, Julia; Millar, Constance I.; Quinones, Rebecca M.; Stralberg, Diana; Thorne, James H.
Year Published: 2020
Oases of the future? Evaluating springs as potential hydrologic refugia in drying climates
Springs in water-limited landscapes are biodiversity hotspots and keystone ecosystems, disproportionately influencing surrounding landscapes despite their often small areas. Some springs served as evolutionary refugia during previous climate drying, supporting relict species in isolated habitats. Understanding whether springs will provide...
Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Dwire, Kathleen A.; Freed, Zach; Hammer, Samantha J.; McLaughlin, Blair; Misztal, Louise W.; Schenk, Edward J.; Spencer, John R.; Springer, Abraham E.; Stevens, Lawrence E.
Year Published: 2020
Combining physical and species‐based approaches improves refugia identification
Climate‐change refugia – locations likely to facilitate species persistence under climate change – are increasingly important components of conservation planning. Recent approaches for identifying refugia at broad scales include identifying regions that are projected to experience less severe changes (climatic exposure), that contain a diversity...
Michalak, Julia; Stralberg, Diana; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Lawler, Joshua J.
Year Published: 2020
Disturbance refugia within mosaics of forest fire, drought, and insect outbreaks
Disturbance refugia – locations that experience less severe or frequent disturbances than the surrounding landscape – provide a framework to highlight not only where and why these biological legacies persist as adjacent areas change but also the value of those legacies in sustaining biodiversity. Recent studies of disturbance refugia in forest...
Krawchuk, Meg A.; Meigs, Garrett; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Coop, Jonathan D.; Davis, Raymond J.; Holz, Andres; Kolden, Crystal A.; Meddens, Arjan J.H.
Year Published: 2020
Species richness responses to water withdrawal scenarios and minimum flow levels: Evaluating presumptive standards in the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins
Water resource managers are challenged to balance growing water demand with protecting aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity. Management decisions can benefit from improved understanding of water withdrawal impacts on hydrologic regimes and ecological assemblages. This study used Ecological Limit Functions for fish groups within the Tennessee and...
Driver, Lucas; Cartwright, Jennifer M.; Knight, Rodney; Wolfe, William J.
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
View Citation
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
Pre-USGS Publications
Date published: September 25, 2020
Unfamiliar Territory: Emerging Themes for Ecological Drought Research and Management
Novel forms of drought are emerging globally, due to climate change, shifting teleconnection patterns, expanding human water use, and a history of human influence on the environment that increases the probability of transformational ecological impacts.