Publications
Below are publications associated with the Southwest Biological Science Center's research.
If you are unable to access or download a product after you've clicked through the links below, email mhartwell@usgs.gov with your request. Please include the citation in your email and/or a link to the product. Note that each product has several link options once you click on the title.
Filter Total Items: 1332
Greenhouse gas emissions from an arid-zone reservoir and their environmental policy significance: Results from existing global models and an exploratory dataset
Reservoirs in arid regions often provide critical water storage but little is known about their greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. While there is growing appreciation of the role reservoirs play as GHG sources, there is a lack of understanding of GHG emission dynamics from reservoirs in arid regions and implications for environmental policy. Here we present initial GHG emission measurements from Lake
Authors
Sarah Waldo, Bridget Deemer, Lucas S. Bair, Jake J. Beaulieu
Lampropeltis californiae (California kingsnake) behavior, male-male combat
There are few published descriptions of male-male combat in Lampropeltis spp. under natural conditions. Shaw (1951. Herpetologica 7:149-168) briefly described aggressive interactions between two captive male L. annulata (Mexican Milksnakes) that appeared to be associated with feeding, and Moehn (1967. Copeia 1967:480–481) described the "combat dance" between two male L. calligaster (Prairie Kingsn
Authors
S. Starr, Charles A. Drost, A.T. Holycross
Partial migration and spawning movements of humpback chub in the Little Colorado River are better understood using data from autonomous PIT tag antennas
Choosing whether or not to migrate is an important life history decision for many fishes. Here we combine data from physical captures and detections on autonomous passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag antennas to study migration in an endangered fish, the humpback chub (Gila cypha). We develop hidden Markov mark-recapture models with and without antenna detections and find that the model fit wi
Authors
Maria C. Dzul, William Louis Kendall, Charles Yackulic, Dana L. Winkelman, David Randall Van Haverbeke, Mike Yard
Only sun-lit leaves of the uppermost canopy exceed both air temperature and photosynthetic thermal optima in a wet tropical forest
Tropical forests have evolved under relatively narrow temperature regimes, and therefore may be more susceptible to climatic change than forests in higher latitudes. Recent evidence shows that lowland tropical forest canopies may already be exceeding thermal maxima for photosynthesis. Height can strongly influence both the microclimate and physiology of forest canopy foliage, yet vertical trends i
Authors
Benjamin D. Miller, Kelsey R. Carter, Sasha C. Reed, Tana E. Wood, Molly A. Cavaleri
Seasonal precipitation and soil moisture relationships across forests and woodlands in the southwestern United States
Precipitation [P: mm] controls forest and woodland dynamics in the southwestern United States (SWUS) by altering soil moisture [θ: mm3 mm−3] availability, but the influence of P on θ is complex, varying across space and time. We evaluated seasonal P and θ relationships at shallow (0‐20 cm) and intermediate (50 cm) soil depths for 9 semiarid forest and woodland sites (56 total years), which compris
Authors
C.R. Koehn, M.D. Petrie, John B. Bradford, M.E. Litvak, S. Strachan
Coexistence of multiple leaf nutrient resorption strategies in a single ecosystem
Leaf resorption is critical for considerations of how plants use and recycle nutrients, but fundamental unknowns remain regarding the controls over plant nutrient resorption. Empirical studies suggest at least three basic types of resorption control, including (i) stoichiometric control, (ii) nutrient limitation control, and (iii) nutrient concentration control strategies. However, which strategie
Authors
Chen Hao, Sasha C. Reed, Xiaotao Lü, Kongcao Xiao, Kelin Wang, Dejun Li
Future regulated flows of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon foretell decreased areal extent of sediment and increases in riparian vegetation
Sediment transfer, or connectivity, by aeolian processes between channel-proximal and upland deposits in river valleys is important for the maintenance of river corridor biophysical characteristics. In regulated river systems, dams control the magnitude and duration of discharge. Alterations to the flow regime driven by dams that increase the inundation duration of sediment, or which drive the enc
Authors
Alan Kasprak, Joel B. Sankey, Bradley J. Butterfield
Improving Landsat predictions of rangeland fractional cover with multitask learning and uncertainty
Operational satellite remote sensing products are transforming rangeland management and science. Advancements in computation, data storage and processing have removed barriers that previously blocked or hindered the development and use of remote sensing products. When combined with local data and knowledge, remote sensing products can inform decision‐making at multiple scales.We used temporal conv
Authors
Brady W. Allred, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Chad S. Boyd, Christopher Brown, Kirk W. Davies, Michael C. Duniway, Lisa M. Ellsworth, Tyler A. Erickson, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Timothy V. Griffiths, Vincent Jansen, Matthew O. Jones, Jason W. Karl, Anna C Knight, Jeremy D. Maestas, Jonathan J. Maynard, Sarah E. McCord, David E. Naugle, Heath D. Starns, Dirac Twidwell, Daniel R. Uden
Field evaluation of a compact, polarizing topo‐bathymetric lidar across a range of river conditions
This paper summarizes field trials to evaluate the performance of a prototype compact topo‐bathymetric lidar sensor for surveying rivers. The sensor uses a novel polarization technique to distinguish between laser returns from the water surface and streambed and its size and weight permit deployment from a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) or a boat. Field testing was designed to identify the ra
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul Grams
A reporting format for leaf-level gas exchange data and metadata
Leaf-level gas exchange data support the mechanistic understanding of plant fluxes of carbon and water. These fluxes inform our understanding of ecosystem function, are an important constraint on parameterization of terrestrial biosphere models, are necessary to understand the response of plants to global environmental change, and are integral to efforts to improve crop production. Collection of t
Authors
Kim S. Ely, Alistair Rogers, Deborah A. Agarwal, Elizabeth A. Ainsworth, Loren Albert, Ashehad Ali, Jeremiah Anderson, Michael J. Aspinwall, Chandra Bellasio, Carl Bernacchi, Steve Bonnage, Thomas N. Buckley, James Bunce, Angela C. Burnett, Florian A. Busch, Amanda Cavanagh, Lucas A. Cernusak, Robert Crystal-Ornelas, Joan Damerow, Kenneth J. Davidson, Martin G. De Kauwe, Michael C. Dietze, Tomas F. Domingues, Mirindi Eric Dusenge, David S. Ellsworth, John R. Evans, Paul P.G. Gauthier, Bruno O. Gimenez, Elizabeth P. Gordon, Christopher M. Gough, Aud H. Halbritter, David T. Hanson, Mary A. Heskel, J. Aaron Hogan, Jason R. Hupp, Kolby Jardine, Jens Kattge, Trevor F. Keenan, Johannes Kromdijk, Dushan P. Kumarathunge, Julien Lamour, Andrew D.B. Leakey, David S. LeBauer, Qianyu Li, Marjorie R. Lundgren, Nate McDowell, Katherine Meacham-Hensold, Belinda E. Medlyn, David J.P. Moore, Robinson Negrón-Juárez, Ülo Niinemets, Colin P. Osborne, Alexandria L. Pivovaroff, Hendrik Poorter, Sasha C. Reed, Youngryel Ryu, Alvaro Sanz-Saez, Stephanie C. Schmiege, Shawn P. Serbin, Thomas D. Sharkey, Martijn Slot, Nicholas G. Smith, Balasaheb V. Sonawane, Paul F. South, Daisy S. Souza, Joseph Ronald Stinziano, Ellen Stuart-Haëntjens, Samuel H. Taylor, Mauricio D. Tejera, Johan Uddling, Vigdis Vandvik, Charuleka Varadharajan, Anthony P. Walker, Berkley J. Walker, Jeffrey M. Warren, Danielle A. Way, Brett T. Wolfe, Jin Wu, Stan D. Wullschleger, Chonggang Xu, Zhengbing Yan, Dedi Yang
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. In this study, we investigated the influence of 7
Authors
Michala Lee Phillips, Daniel E. Winkler, Robin H. Reibold, Brooke Bossert Osborne, Sasha C. Reed
Monitoring the results of stream corridor restoration
Often overlooked and underfunded, ecological monitoring is an essential component of stream-restoration work. It helps practitioners to identify successful restoration practices, detect ineffective ones, and adjust their adaptive-management activities to improve efficacy (Bernhardt and Palmer 2011). Monitoring, along with research and modeling, are the three legs of the scientific stool that suppo
Authors
Daniel Bunting, Andrew M. Barton, Brooke M. Bushman, Barry Chernoff, Kelon Crawford, David Dean, Eduardo Gonzalez, Jeanmarie Haney, O. Hinojosa-Huerta, Helen M. Poulos, J Renfrow, Holly E. Richter, Carlos A. Sifuentes Lugo, Juliet C. Stromberg, Dale S. Turner, K. Urbanczyk, Mark K. Briggs