Sullivan, B.W., Alvarez-Clare, S., Castle, S.C., Porder, S., Reed, S.C., Schreeg, L., Townsend, A.R. and Cleveland, C.C., 2014. Assessing nutrient limitation in complex forested ecosystems: alternatives to large‐scale fertilization experiments. Ecology, 95(3), pp.668-681.
Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Dr. Sasha Reed is an ecologist focused on understanding how our planet's ecosystems work and what factors determine the services they provide. The study sites and methods Sasha uses are diverse, and with each of her projects she strives to provide scientific information that helps our nation address challenges, solve problems, and maximize opportunities.
Biography
Sasha seeks to provide useful information for land managers, policy-makers, and the general public. Sasha uses both basic and applied scientific approaches to improve our understanding of the fundamental controls over ecosystems, to determine how these systems respond to change, and to explore solutions for addressing relevant problems. Sasha works closely with a range of collaborators - including federal agency partners (BLM, NPS, DOE, DoD, BIA, USFS, USFWS) - in designing research studies, conducting information and technology transfer, and performing outreach activities. Some of her primary research interests include understanding how drought and increasing temperatures affect ecosystems, exploring a diversity of energy options for meeting national demand, assessing the consequences of exotic plant invasion and ways to combat them, and establishing novel management options for increased effectiveness and efficiency in restoration and reclamation. Sasha attempts to conduct research that is innovative, collaborative, and useful.
Education
Ph.D. in Biogeochemistry, the University of Colorado at Boulder (August 2002-May 2008)
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR), Boulder, CO.
Co-advised by Alan R. Townsend and Steve K. Schmidt.
B.A. in Organic Chemistry, Colgate University (August 1993-May 1997)
Department of Chemistry, Hamilton, NY. Graduated magna cum laude.
Advised by David A. Modarelli.
Professional Experience
Research Ecologist, USGS, Moab, UT, May 2008-present.
Research Ecologist, USGS-SCEP Program, Moab, UT, 2005-2007 summers only.
Fellow, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Awarded April 2003; deferred until September 2005-May 2008.
Fellow, NSF IGERT Fellowship, Carbon Climate and Society Initiative (CCSI). August 2003-August 2005.
Honors and Fellowships
Elected Member-At-Large, Ecological Society of America (ESA). Elected by the members of the ESA to help lead the Society. August 2020-August 2022.
Ecological Society of America (ESA) Early Career Fellow. ESA nominates and selects early career fellows for making and showing promise of continuing to make outstanding contributions to the ecological sciences. March 2016.
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers in the early stages of their research careers. October 2011.
Star Award, received for outstanding work with the Department of the Interior. October 2010, May 2000.
Graduate Student Research and Creative Works Award, University of Colorado at Boulder. One of two of the University’s graduating Ph.D. students whose dissertation was selected by faculty members from all disciplines as representing outstanding research and creative work. May 2008.
USGS Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) Fellowship. Supported in creating a research project to model how soil gas fluxes in dryland ecosystems will vary under altered climate regimes. June-August of 2006 & 2007.
Student Policy Award, Ecological Society of America (ESA). Graduate student chosen and funded by ESA to meet with members of Congress regarding national scientific funding. September 2006.
AAAS Program for Excellence in Science. Nominated by the University of Colorado Vice Chancellor of Research to participate in a program rewarding praiseworthy graduate students working in the life sciences. August 2006.
Lawrence Award, awarded to one student annually for superior performance in organic chemistry. April 1996.
Phi Ea Sigma University Honor Society Awarded Membership, chosen for academic excellence. April 1994-May 1997.
Phi Eta Sigma Aid Committee Selected Board Member, elected for superior research to a board that selected student grant applications for funding. September 1995-May 1997.
Barry Goldwater Award Nominee, nationally nominated by Colgate University for academic distinction. November 1994.
PUBLICATIONS (scroll down to the publications tab and for a most current list, please see Sasha's google scholar page).
2020
2019
2012
Reed, SC, AR Townsend, CC Cleveland, EA Davidson (2012). Stoichiometric patterns in foliar nutrient resorption across multiple scales. New Phytologist 196: 173-180.
Reed, SC, ¢KK Coe, JP Sparks, DC Housman, ¥TJ Zelikova, J Belnap (2012) Changes to dryland rainfall results in rapid moss mortality and altered fertility in a dryland ecosystem. Nature Climate Change 2:752-755.
¢Smith, WK, CC Cleveland, SC Reed, NL Miller, SW Running (2012) Bioenergy potential of the United States constrained by satellite observations and existing productivity. Environmental Science & Technology 46: 3536-3544.
Science and Products
Date published: October 1, 2020
Status: Active Using a multi-scale approach to synthesize measurements and models of C4 photosynthesis
Plants convert carbon dioxide into sugars for food during photosynthesis, and this provides food for all animal life. However, photosynthesis is inhibited when a plant’s enzymes use oxygen instead of carbon dioxide. To avoid this use of oxygen, some plants developed a photosynthetic adaptation – called C4 photosynthesis – to concentrate carbon dioxide around the enzymes. While less than 5% of...
Contacts: Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: April 20, 2020
Status: Active GrassCast: A multi-agency tool using remote sensing, modeling, and on-the-ground science to forecast grassland productivity in the Southwest
Rangeland ecosystems are one of the largest single providers of agro-ecological services in the U.S. The plant growth of these rangelands helps determine the amount of forage available for our livestock and for wildlife, as well as information about fire likelihood and restoration opportunities. However, every spring, ranchers and other rangeland managers face the same difficult challenge —...
Contacts: Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: Community for Data Integration (CDI)
Date published: January 1, 2020
Status: Active Learning From the Past and Planning for the Future: Experience-Driven Insight Into Managing for Ecosystem Transformations Induced by Drought and Wildfire
Drought and wildfire pose enormous threats to the integrity of natural resources that land managers are charged with protecting. Recent observations and modeling forecasts indicate that these stressors will likely produce catastrophic ecosystem transformations, or abrupt changes in the condition of plants, wildlife, and their habitats, in regions across the country in coming decades. In...
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers
Date published: May 8, 2019
Status: Active Implementing a Grassland Productivity Forecast Tool for the U.S. Southwest
Rangeland systems are some of our nation’s largest providers of agro-ecological services, sustaining plant productivity that is highly variable across seasons and years. Although the ability to predict the upcoming growing season’s rangeland productivity would have enormous economic and management value – such as for making decisions about cattle stocking rates, fire, restoration, and wildlife...
Contacts: Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: Community for Data Integration (CDI)
Date published: September 16, 2018
Status: Active Long-Term Vegetation Change on the Colorado Plateau
Drylands comprise ~35% of Earth’s terrestrial biomes, with over 1 billion people depending on these landscapes for their livelihoods. In the U.S., drylands comprise ~40% of the landmass and 83% of Department of Interior (DOI)-managed lands (excluding Alaska). Due to their vast extent nationally and globally, changes to these landscapes have the potential to affect global climate regulation. A...
Contacts: Jayne Belnap, Mike Duniway, Ph.D., Sasha C Reed, Ph.D., Erika Geiger, Ph.D., Edmund E Grote, Terry Fisk, Matt Van Scoyoc
Attribution: Ecosystems, Southwest Biological Science Center
Date published: June 5, 2018
Status: Active Novel multi‐scale synthesis of nitrogen fixation rates and drivers across the terrestrial biosphere
Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is a critical biogeochemical process that converts inert atmospheric N2 gas into biologically usable forms of the essential nutrient nitrogen. A variety of free-living and symbiotic organisms carry out BNF, and in most regions worldwide, BNF is the largest source of nitrogen that fuels terrestrial ecosystems. As a result, BNF has far reaching effects on...
Contacts: Steven S Perakis, Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: February 28, 2017
Status: Active Southwest Energy Development and Drought (SWEDD)
Deserts of the southwestern US are replete with oil and gas deposits as well as sites for solar, wind, and geothermal energy production. In the past, many of these resources have been too expensive to develop, but increased demand and new technologies have led to an increase in exploration and development. However, desert ecosystems generally have low resilience to disturbance. More frequent,...
Date published: December 30, 2016
Southwestern Riparian Zones, Tamarisk Plants, and the Tamarisk Beetle
Introductions of bio-control beetles (genus Diorhabda) are causing defoliation and dieback of exotic Tamarix spp. in riparian zones across the western U.S., yet the factors that determine the plant communities that follow Tamarix decline are poorly understood. In particular, Tamarix-dominated soils are often higher in nutrients, organic matter, and salts than nearby soils, and these soil...
Attribution: Southwest Biological Science Center
Date published: December 30, 2016
Status: Active Biofuels in the Southwest
Concerns about energy security and rising greenhouse gas emissions have stimulated an unprecedented increase in the push for alternative energy use, including the use of plant biomass as a source of renewable energy (bioenergy). However, meeting alternative energy goals, while also meeting food demands and mitigating potential detrimental effects of industrialized agriculture, has emerged as a...
Contacts: Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: Energy & Wildlife, Southwest Biological Science Center
Date published: December 9, 2016
How Increasing Temperatures Affect Tropical Forests
Tropical forests take in and store more carbon than any other biome in the world, but increasing temperatures may pose a threat to this invaluable service. This research aims to explore how temperature affects key tropical forest functions, such as plant photosynthesis and soil respiration. To do this, the Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE) project will use infrared...
Contacts: Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: Southwest Biological Science Center
Date published: June 29, 2016
Status: Active Completing the dryland puzzle: creating a predictive framework for biological soil crust function and response to climate change
Drylands are integral to the Earth system and the present and future of human society. Drylands encompass more than 40% of the terrestrial landmass and support 34% of the world’s human population. Biocrusts are the “living skin” of Earth’s drylands, sometimes dominating the ground cover and figuring prominently in ecosystem structure and function. Biocrusts are a biological aggregate of...
Contacts: Jayne Belnap, Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: October 22, 2013
Status: Active Integrating modeling and empirical approaches to improve predictions of tropical forest responses to global warming
Tropical forests contain > 50% of the world’s known species (Heywood 1995), 55% of global forest biomass (Pan et al. 2011), and exchange more carbon (C), water and energy with the atmosphere than any other ecosystem type (e.g., Saugier et al. 2001). Despite their importance, there is more uncertainty associated with predictions of how tropical forests will respond to warming than for any...
Contacts: Sasha C Reed, Ph.D.
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Year Published: 2021
Muted responses to chronic experimental nitrogen deposition on the Colorado Plateau
Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is significantly altering both community structure and ecosystem processes in terrestrial ecosystems across the globe. However, our understanding of the consequences of N deposition in dryland systems remains relatively poor, despite evidence that drylands may be particularly vulnerable to increasing N inputs...
Phillips, Michala Lee; Winkler, Daniel E.; Reibold, Robin H.; Osborne, Brooke Bossert; Reed, SashaAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
Forward-looking dryland restoration in an age of change
Drought, wildfires, and invasive species are among the many challenges practitioners face in achieving restoration goals in drylands. In this article, we highlight relevant restoration research and programs that pursue actionable information and resource management goals for the Intermountain West. In the context of international restoration...
Winkler, Daniel E.; Massatti, Robert; Reed, SashaAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
Editorial: Plant-soil interactions under changing climate
The health and well-being of plants and soil is crucial for all life on Earth. It is well-known that vegetation cover follows climatic zones, and plants respond to climatic drivers such as temperature and precipitation (Seddon et al., 2016; Kattge et al., 2020). It is also well-known that plant health depends on the properties and health of...
Sevanto, Sanna; Grossiord, Charlotte; Klein, Tamir; Reed, SashaAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
Riparian plant communities remain stable in response to a second cycle of Tamarix biocontrol defoliation
Reduced abundance of non-native Tamarix shrubs in western U.S. riparian systems following biological control by a defoliating beetle has led to concerns that replacement plant communities could be dominated by other invasive species and/or not provide some of the ecosystem services that Tamarix was providing. In previous...
Eduardo Gonzalez; Shafroth, Patrick B.; Lee, Steven R.; Reed, Sasha; Belnap, Jayne
Year Published: 2020
Modest residual effects of short-term warming, altered hydration, and biocrust successional state on dryland soil heterotrophic carbon and nitrogen cycling
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) on the Colorado Plateau may fuel carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling of soil heterotrophic organisms throughout the region. Late successional moss and lichen biocrusts, in particular, can increase soil C and N availability, but some data suggest these biocrust types will be replaced by early successional...
Tucker, Colin; Ferrenberg, Scott; Reed, SashaAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
From pools to flow: The PROMISE framework for new insights on soil carbon cycling in a changing world
Soils represent the largest terrestrial reservoir of organic carbon, and the balance between soil organic carbon (SOC) formation and loss will drive powerful carbon‐climate feedbacks over the coming century. To date, efforts to predict SOC dynamics have rested on pool‐based models, which assume classes of SOC with internally homogenous...
Waring, Bonnie G.; Sulman, Benjamin N.; Reed, Sasha; Smith, A. Peyton; Averill, Colin; Creamer, Courtney; Cusack, Daniela F.; Hall, Steven J.; Jastrow, Julie; Kemner, Kenneth M.; Kleber, Markus; Liu, Xiao-Jun Allen; Pett-Ridge, Jennifer; Schulz, Marjorie S.Attribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
Experimental warming changes phenology and shortens growing season of the dominant invasive plant Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass)
Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) has successfully invaded and established throughout the western United States. Bromus tectorum grows early in the season and this early growth allows B. tectorum to outcompete native species, which has led to dramatic shifts in ecosystem function and plant community composition after B....
Howell, Armin J.; Winkler, Daniel E.; Phillips, Michala Lee; McNellis, Brandon; Reed, SashaAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
Photosynthetic and respiratory acclimation of understory shrubs in response to in situ experimental warming of a wet tropical forest
Despite the importance of tropical forests to global carbon balance, our understanding of how tropical plant physiology will respond to climate warming is limited. In addition, the contribution of tropical forest understories to global carbon cycling is predicted to increase with rising temperatures, however, in situ warming studies of...
Carter, Kelsey R.; Wood, Tana E; Reed, Sasha; Schwartz, Elsa C.; Reinsel, Madeline B.; Yang, XiAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
Nitrogen enrichment reduces nitrogen and phosphorus resorption through changes to species resorption and plant community composition
Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition has affected plant community composition and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. This includes changes to the way plants use and recycle nutrients, including effects on nutrient resorption, which is a key process through which plants recover nutrients from tissue during senescence. Nutrient...
Lü, Xiao-Tao; Hou, Shuang-Li; Reed, Sasha; Yin, Jiang-Xia; Hu, Yan-Yu; Wei, Hai-Wei; Zhang, Zhi-Wei; Yang, Guo-Jiao; Liu, Zhuo-Yi; Han, Xing-GuoAttribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Year Published: 2020
The pervasive and multifaceted influence of biocrusts on water in the world’s drylands
The capture and use of water are critically important in drylands, which collectively constitute Earth's largest biome. Drylands will likely experience lower and more unreliable rainfall as climatic conditions change over the next century. Dryland soils support a rich community of microphytic organisms (biocrusts), which are critically important...
Eldridge, David J.; Reed, Sasha; Travers, Samantha K.; Bowker, Matthew A.; Maestre, Fernando T.; Ding, Jingyi; Havrilla, Caroline Ann; Rodriguez-Caballero, Emilio; Barger, Nichole N.; Weber, Bettina; Antoninka, Anita; Belnap, Jayne; Chaudhary, Bala V.; Faist, Akasha M.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth; Issa, Oumarou M; Zhao, Y.
Year Published: 2020
Seasonal and individual event-responsiveness are key determinants of carbon exchange across plant functional types
Differentiation in physiological activity is a critical component of resource partitioning in resource-limited environments. For example, it is crucial to understand how plant physiological performance varies through time for different functional groups to forecast how terrestrial ecosystems will respond to change. Here, we tracked the seasonal...
Winkler, Daniel E.; Belnap, Jayne; Duniway, Michael C.; Hoover, David; Reed, Sasha; Yokum, Hannah; Gill, Richard
Year Published: 2020
Tropical understory herbaceous community responds more strongly to hurricane disturbance than to experimental warming
The effects of climate change on tropical forests may have global consequences due to the forests’ high biodiversity and major role in the global carbon cycle. In this study, we document the effects of experimental warming on the abundance and composition of a tropical forest floor herbaceous plant community in the Luquillo Experimental Forest,...
Kennard, Deborah K.; Matlaga, David; Sharpe, Joanne; King, Clay C.; Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M.; Reed, Sasha; Cavaleri, Molly A.; Wood, Tana E.Attribution: Southwest Biological Science Center, Ecosystems
Pre-USGS Publications
Cleveland, C.C., Houlton, B.Z., Smith, W.K., Marklein, A.R., Reed, S.C., Parton, W., Del Grosso, S.J. and Running, S.W., 2013. Patterns of new versus recycled primary production in the terrestrial biosphere. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(31), pp.12733-12737.
Reed, S.C., Cleveland, C.C. and Townsend, A.R., 2013. Relationships among phosphorus, molybdenum and free-living nitrogen fixation in tropical rain forests: results from observational and experimental analyses. Biogeochemistry, 114(1-3), pp.135-147.
Wickings, K., Grandy, A.S., Reed, S.C. and Cleveland, C.C., 2012. The origin of litter chemical complexity during decomposition. Ecology Letters, 15(10), pp.1180-1188.
Reed, S.C., 2008. Scaling from molecules to ecosystems: controls over free-living nitrogen fixation in terrestrial ecosystems. ProQuest.
Sattin, S.R., Cleveland, C.C., Hood, E., Reed, S.C., King, A.J., Schmidt, S.K., Robeson, M.S., Ascarrunz, N. and Nemergut, D.R., 2009. Functional shifts in unvegetated, perhumid, recently-deglaciated soils do not correlate with shifts in soil bacterial community composition. The Journal of Microbiology, 47(6), pp.673-681.
Costello, E.K., Halloy, S.R., Reed, S.C., Sowell, P. and Schmidt, S.K., 2009. Fumarole-supported islands of biodiversity within a hyperarid, high-elevation landscape on Socompa Volcano, Puna de Atacama, Andes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 75(3), pp.735-747.
Freeman, K.R., Pescador, M.Y., Reed, S.C., Costello, E.K., Robeson, M.S. and Schmidt, S.K., 2009. Soil CO2 flux and photoautotrophic community composition in high‐elevation,‘barren’soil. Environmental Microbiology, 11(3), pp.674-686.
Schmidt, S.K., Reed, S.C., Nemergut, D.R., Grandy, A.S., Cleveland, C.C., Weintraub, M.N., Hill, A.W., Costello, E.K., Meyer, A.F., Neff, J.C. and Martin, A.M., 2008. The earliest stages of ecosystem succession in high-elevation (5000 metres above sea level), recently deglaciated soils. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 275(1653), pp.2793-2802.
Reed, S.C., Cleveland, C.C. and Townsend, A.R., 2008. Tree species control rates of free-living nitrogen fixation in a tropical rain forest. Ecology, 89(10), pp.2924-2934.
Reed, S.C., Cleveland, C.C. and Townsend, A.R., 2007. Controls over leaf litter and soil nitrogen fixation in two lowland tropical rain forests. Biotropica, 39(5), pp.585-592.
Schmidt, S.K., Costello, E.K., Nemergut, D.R., Cleveland, C.C., Reed, S.C., Weintraub, M.N., Meyer, A.F. and Martin, A.M., 2007. Biogeochemical consequences of rapid microbial turnover and seasonal succession in soil. Ecology, 88(6), pp.1379-1385.
Reed, S.C., Seastedt, T.R., Mann, C.M., Suding, K.N., Townsend, A.R. and Cherwin, K.L., 2007. Phosphorus fertilization stimulates nitrogen fixation and increases inorganic nitrogen concentrations in a restored prairie. Applied Soil Ecology, 36(2), pp.238-242.
Cleveland, C.C., Reed, S.C. and Townsend, A.R., 2006. Nutrient regulation of organic matter decomposition in a tropical rain forest. Ecology, 87(2), pp.492-503.
Bowker, M.A., Reed, S.C., Belnap, J. and Phillips, S.L., 2002. Temporal variation in community composition, pigmentation, and Fv/Fm of desert cyanobacterial soil crusts. Microbial Ecology, 43(1), pp.13-25.
Reed, S.C., Capitosti, G.J., Zhu, Z. and Modarelli, D.A., 2001. Photochemical generation and matrix-isolation detection of dimethylvinylidene. The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 66(1), pp.287-299.
Reed, S.C. and Modarelli, D.A., 1996. Conformational effects on the excited state 1, 2-hydrogen migration in alkyldiazomethanes. Tetrahedron Letters, 37(40), pp.7209-7212.