Publications
Below are publications associated with the Southwest Biological Science Center's research.
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Filter Total Items: 1332
Species-specific nitrogenase activity in lichen-dominated biological soil crusts from the Colorado Plateau, USA
Background and aimBiological soil crusts (biocrusts) play numerous crucial roles in drylands, which comprise over 40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface. Among these key contributions is the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Yet, relatively little is known about the N2 fixation capabilities of different lichen species that are found in late successional biocrust communities across drylands globally.Me
Authors
Terry J. Torres-Cruz, Armin J. Howell, Robin H. Reibold, Theresa A. McHugh, Mackenzie A. Eickhoff, Sasha C. Reed
Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative unit watershed erosion potential prioritization for check-dam installation
Changes in land-use practices and the extirpation (local extinction) of beaver populations in the early 20th century during European settlement are believed to have resulted in many changes in how streams in the Western United States function. Some of the negative changes that have resulted include stream channelization, soil erosion, changing vegetation, water turbidity, and a loss of overland fl
Authors
Kirsten E. Ironside
Elevated aeolian sediment transport on the Colorado Plateau, USA: The role of grazing, vehicle disturbance, and increasing aridity
Dryland wind transport of sediment can accelerate soil erosion, degrade air quality, mobilize dunes, decrease water supply, and damage infrastructure. We measured aeolian sediment horizontal mass flux (q) at 100 cm height using passive aspirated sediment traps to better understand q variability on the Colorado Plateau. Measured q‘hot spots’ rival the highest ever recorded including 7,460 g m−2 day
Authors
Travis W. Nauman, Michael C. Duniway, Nichloas P. Webb, Jayne Belnap
Influences of the invasive tamarisk leaf beetle (Diorhabda carinulata) on avian diets along the Dolores River in Southwestern Colorado USA
The tamarisk leaf beetle (Diorhabda carinulata), introduced from Eurasia in 2001 as a biological control agent for the invasive plant Tamarix ramosissima, has spread widely throughout the western USA. With D. carinulata now very abundant, scientists and restoration managers have questioned what influence this introduced arthropod might have upon the avian component of riparian ecosystems. From 200
Authors
Charles van Riper, Sarah L. Puckett, Abigail J. Darrah
Exclusion of small mammals and lagomorphs invasion interact with human-trampling to drive changes in topsoil microbial community structure and function in semiarid Chile
Species losses and additions can disrupt the relationship between resident species and the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Persistent human-trampling, on the other hand, can have similar effects through the disruption of biocrusts on surface soils of semiarid systems, affecting soil stability and fixation of carbon and nitrogen. Here, we tested the interactive and synergistic impacts of t
Authors
Fernando D. Alfaro, Marlene Manzano, Sebastian Abades, Nicole Trefault, Rodrigo de la Iglesia, Aurora Gaxiola, Pablo A. Marquet, Julio R. Gutierrez, Peter L. Meserve, Douglas A. Kelt, Jayne Belnap, Juan J. Armesto
Life history characteristics may be as important as climate projections for defining range shifts: An example for common tree species in the intermountain western US
AimPredictions of future suitable habitat for plant species with climate change are known to be affected by uncertainty associated with statistical approaches, climate models and occurrence records. However, life history characteristics related to dispersal and establishment processes as well as sensitivity to barriers created by land‐use may also play important roles in shaping future distributio
Authors
Stella M. Copeland, John B. Bradford, Michael C. Duniway, Bradley J. Butterfield
STEPWAT2: An individual‐based model for exploring the impact of climate and disturbance on dryland plant communities
The combination of climate change and altered disturbance regimes is directly and indirectly affecting plant communities by mediating competitive interactions, resulting in shifts in species composition and abundance. Dryland plant communities, defined by low soil water availability and highly variable climatic regimes, are particularly vulnerable to climatic changes that exceed their historical r
Authors
Kyle A. Palmquist, John B. Bradford, Trace E. Martin, Daniel R. Schlaepfer, William K. Lauenroth
Amendments fail to hasten biocrust recovery or soil stability at a disturbed dryland sandy site
In most drylands, biological soil crusts (biocrusts), an assemblage of lichens, bryophytes, fungi, green algae, and cyanobacteria, are critical to healthy ecosystem function. However, they are extremely sensitive to disturbance and attempts to facilitate their recovery have had variable success. In this study, we applied soil amendments designed to improve soil surface stability and accelerate bio
Authors
David G. Chandler, Natalie K. Day, Matthew D. Madsen, Jayne Belnap
Biocrusts: The living skin of the Earth
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) form a “living skin” at the soil surface in many low productivity ecosystems around the world including water- and cold-limited environments, and early successional seres (Belnap et al. 2003). They may be composed of any configuration of soil surface-dwelling cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algae, lichens, mosses or liverworts, and support assemblages of decomposers an
Authors
Matthew A. Bowker, Sasha C. Reed, Fernando T. Maestre, David J. Eldridge
Beyond traditional ecological restoration on the Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau is one of North America's five major deserts, encompassing 340,000 km2 of the western U.S., and offering many opportunities for restoration relevant to researchers and land managers in drylands around the globe. The Colorado Plateau is comprised of vast tracts of public land managed by local, state, and federal agencies that oversee a wide range of activities (e.g., mineral an
Authors
Daniel E. Winkler, Dana M. Backer, Jayne Belnap, John B. Bradford, Bradley J. Butterfield, Stella M. Copeland, Michael C. Duniway, Akasha M. Faist, Stephen E. Fick, Scott L. Jensen, Andrea T. Kramer, Rebecca Mann, Robert Massatti, Molly L. McCormick, Seth M. Munson, Peggy Olwell, Steve D. Parr, Alix Pfennigwerth, Adrienne M. Pilmanis, Bryce A. Richardson, Ella Samuel, Kathy See, Kristina E. Young, Sasha C. Reed
How many measurements are required to construct an accurate sand budget in a large river? Insights from analyses of signal and noise
Morphological change in river channels is frequently evaluated in the context of mass balance sediment budgets. In a closed sediment budget, measurements of sediment influx and efflux are coupled with measured changes in channel topography to provide both spatial and temporal resolution, and independent estimates of the mass balance. For sediment budgets constructed over long river segments (~10 c
Authors
Paul Grams, Daniel D. Buscombe, David Topping, Matthew Kaplinski, Joseph Hazel
Probabilistic models of seafloor composition using multispectral acoustic backscatter: The benthic detectorists
We describe and compare two probabilistic models
for task-specific seafloor characterization based on multispectral
backscatter. We examine whether generative or discriminative
approaches to supervised seafloor characterization do better
at harnessing the greatly increased information about seafloor
substrate composition that is encoded in the backscattering
response across multiple frequencies. A
Authors
Daniel Buscombe, Paul E. Grams, Matthew Kaplinski