Publications
Below are publications associated with the Southwest Biological Science Center's research.
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Filter Total Items: 1332
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, Puerto Rico. This study was conducted within Tropical
Authors
Deborah K. Kennard, David Matlaga, Joanne Sharpe, Clay C. King, Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez, Sasha C. Reed, Molly A. Cavaleri, Tana E. Wood
Biological nitrogen fixation across major biomes in Latin America: Patterns and global change effects
Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) supports terrestrial primary productivity and plays key roles in mediating human-induced changes in global nitrogen (N) and carbon cycling. However, there are still critical uncertainties in our understanding of the amount of BNF occurring across terrestrial ecosystems, and of how terrestrial BNF will respond to global change. We synthesized BNF data from Latin A
Authors
Carla R. G. Reis, Felipe S. Pacheco, Sasha C. Reed, Graciela Tejada, Gabriela B. Nardoto, Maria C. Forti, Jean Ometto
RestoreNet: An emerging restoration network reveals controls on seeding success across dryland ecosystems
Drylands are Earth's largest terrestrial biome and support one‐third of the global population. However, they are also highly vulnerable to land degradation. Despite widespread demand for dryland restoration and rehabilitation, little information is available to help land managers effectively re‐establish native perennial vegetation across drylands.RestoreNet is an emerging dryland restoration netw
Authors
Caroline Ann Havrilla, Seth M. Munson, Molly L. McCormick, Katherine M. Laushman, Kathleen R. Balazs, Bradley J. Butterfield
Brackish tidal marsh management and the ecology of a declining freshwater turtle
Water management practices in tidal marshes of the San Francisco Bay Estuary, California are often aimed at increasing suitable habitat for threatened fish species and sport fishes. However, little is known about how best to manage habitat for other sensitive status species like the semiaquatic freshwater Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) that is declining throughout much of its range. Her
Authors
Mickey Agha, Charles Yackulic, Melissa K. Riley, Blair Peterson, Brian D Todd
Estimating inundation of small waterbodies with sub-pixel analysis of Landsat imagery: Long-term trends in surface water area and evaluation of common drought indices
Small waterbodies are numerically dominant in many landscapes and provide several important ecosystem services, but automated measurement of waterbodies smaller than a standard Landsat pixel (0.09 ha) remains challenging. To further evaluate sub‐Landsat pixel techniques for estimating inundation extent of small waterbodies (basin area: 0.06–1.79 ha), we used a partial spectral unmixing method with
Authors
Ibrahima Sall, Christopher J. Jarchow, Brent H. Sigafus, Lisa A Eby, Michael James Forzley, Blake R. Hossack
What could explain δ13C signatures in biocrust cyanobacteria of drylands?
Dryland ecosystems are increasing in geographic extent and contribute greatly to interannual variability in global carbon dynamics. Disentangling interactions among dominant primary producers, including plants and autotrophic microbes, can help partition their contributions to dryland C dynamics. We measured the δ13C signatures of biological soil crust cyanobacteria and dominant plant species (C3
Authors
Eva Stricker, Grace Cain, Jennifer A. Rudgers, Robert L Sinsabaugh, Vanessa Fernandes, Corey Nelson, Ana Giraldo Silva, Ferran Garcia-Pichel, Jayne Belnap, Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi
Body sizes in upper elevation populations of whiptail lizards: Aspidoscelis inornatus (Squamata: Teiidae) in central and northern Arizona, USA
The binational distribution of the gonochoristic (i.e., diploid bisexual) Aspidoscelis inornatus (Little Striped Whiptail) complex extends from parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the USA (Taylor 1965; Stevens 1983; Wright and Lowe 1993; Sullivan 2009; Walker et al. 2012) southward into parts of the Mexican states Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, and Tam
Authors
James M. Walker, Trevor B. Persons, Brian K. Sullivan, Charles A. Drost, James E. Cordes
Refining genetic boundaries for Agassiz’s desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) in the western Sonoran Desert: The influence of the Coachella Valley on gene flow among populations in southern California
Understanding the influence of geographic features on the evolutionary history and population structure of a species can assist wildlife managers in delimiting genetic units (GUs) for conservation and management. Landscape features including mountains, low elevation depressions, and even roads can influence connectivity and gene flow among Agassiz’s desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) populations
Authors
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Taylor Edwards, Kristin H. Berry, Shellie R. Puffer, Kristy L. Cummings, Ennen Joshua R., Mickey Agha, Rachel Wood, Kathleen D. Brundige, Robert W. Murphy
Wind, sun, and wildlife: Do wind and solar energy development “short-circuit” conservation in the western United States?
Despite the trade-offs between renewable energy development, land use, humans, and wildlife, wind and solar development continues to transform the southwestern US into a green energy landscape. While renewable energy reduces carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels, many studies have emerged on the associated ecological and social impacts of this technology. Here, we review the current state
Authors
Mickey Agha, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Ennen Joshua R., Brian D Todd
Comment on 'Kidron (2018): Biocrust research: A critical view on eight common hydrological‐related paradigms and dubious theses. Ecohydrology, e2061'
Kidron (2018) uses a straw man argument in an attempt to debunk eight putative hydrological‐related paradigms he believes to be “common among hydrologists, ecologists, or microbiologists that investigate biocrusts.” These paradigms relate to the roles of physical crusts and vascular plants in biocrust development, the major drivers (climate, porosity, hydrophobicity, and exopolysaccharides) of hyd
Authors
Vincent J. M. N. L. Felde, Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero, Sonia Chamizo, Federico Rossi, Daniel Uteau, Stephen Peth, Hannes Keck, Roberto de Philippis, Jayne Belnap, David J. Eldridge
A mixed length scale model for migrating fluvial bedforms
With the expansion of hydropower, in‐stream converters, flood‐protection infrastructures, and growing concerns on deltas fragile ecosystems, there is a pressing need to evaluate and monitor bedform sediment mass flux. It is critical to estimate real‐time bedform size and migration velocity and provide a theoretical framework to convert easily accessible time histories of bed elevations into spatia
Authors
Michele Guala, Michael Heisel, Arvind Singh, Mirko Musa, Daniel Buscombe, Paul Grams
Informing amphibian conservation efforts with abundance-based metapopulation models
Science-based management strategies are needed to halt or reverse the global decline of amphibians. In many cases, sound management requires reliable models built using monitoring data. Historically, monitoring and statistical modeling efforts have focused on estimating occupancy using detection–nondetection data. Spatial occupancy models are useful for studying colonization–extinction dynamics, b
Authors
Paige E Howell, Blake R. Hossack, Erin L. Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Richard B. Chandler