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: 1338
Insights from long-term ungrazed and grazed watersheds in a salt desert Colorado Plateau ecosystem
Dryland ecosystems cover over 41% of the earth’s land surface, and living within these important ecosystems are approximately 2 billion people, a large proportion of whom are subsistence agropastoralists. Improper grazing in drylands can negatively impact ecosystem productivity, soil conservation, hydrologic processes, downstream water quantity and quality, and ultimately human health and economic
Authors
Michael C. Duniway, Erika L. Geiger, Tamera J. Minnick, Susan L. Phillips, Jayne Belnap
Fungal loop transfer of nitrogen depends on biocrust constituents and nitrogen form
Besides performing multiple ecosystem services individually and collectively, biocrust constituents may also create biological networks connecting spatially and temporally distinct processes. In the fungal loop hypothesis rainfall variability allows fungi to act as conduits and reservoirs, translocating resources between soils and host plants. To evaluate the extent to which biocrust species compo
Authors
Zachary T. Aanderud, Trevor B. Smart, Nan Wu, Alexander S. Taylor, Yuanming Zhang, Jayne Belnap
Hydrological regime and climate interactively shape riparian vegetation composition along the Colorado River, Grand Canyon
QuestionHow closely do riparian plant communities track hydrological and climatic variation in space, and how do interactions among hydrological and climatic filters influence success of flow management strategies?LocationGrand Canyon, Arizona, USA.MethodsMulti‐year vegetation surveys were conducted across three hydrological zones – active channel, active floodplain and inactive floodplain – withi
Authors
Bradley J. Butterfield, Emily C. Palmquist, Barbara Ralston
Dryland photoautotrophic soil surface communities endangered by global change
Photoautotrophic surface communities forming biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are crucial for soil stability as well as water, nutrient and trace gas cycling at regional and global scales. Quantitative information on their global coverage and the environmental factors driving their distribution patterns, however, are not readily available. We use observations and environmental modelling to estim
Authors
Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero, Jayne Belnap, Burkhard Büdel, Paul J. Crutzen, Meinrat O. Andreae, Ulrich Pöschl, Bettina Weber
Warm water temperatures and shifts in seasonality increase trout recruitment but only moderately decrease adult size in western North American tailwaters
Dams throughout western North America have altered thermal regimes in rivers, creating cold, clear “tailwaters” in which trout populations thrive. Ongoing drought in the region has led to highly publicized reductions in reservoir storage and raised concerns about potential reductions in downstream flows. Large changes in riverine thermal regimes may also occur as reservoir water levels drop, yet t
Authors
Kimberly L. Dibble, Charles B. Yackulic, Theodore A. Kennedy
Monitoring riparian-vegetation composition and cover along the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona
Vegetation in the riparian zone (the area immediately adjacent to streams, such as stream banks) along the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona, supports many ecosystem and societal functions. In both Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon, this ecosystem has changed over time in response to flow alterations, invasive species, and recreational use. Riparian-vegetation cover and composition
Authors
Emily C. Palmquist, Barbara E. Ralston, Daniel A. Sarr, Taylor C. Johnson
Climatic sensitivity of dryland soil CO2 fluxes differs dramatically with biological soil crust successional state
Arid and semiarid ecosystems make up approximately 41% of Earth’s terrestrial surface and are suggested to regulate the trend and interannual variability of the global terrestrial carbon (C) sink. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are common dryland soil surface communities of bryophytes, lichens, and/or cyanobacteria that bind the soil surface together and that may play an important role in regu
Authors
Colin Tucker, Scott Ferrenberg, Sasha C. Reed
Science at the frontier: Multimethod research to evaluate ecosystem change across multiple scales
Changes in the Earth system occur across the full spectrum of spatial and temporal scales, yet our research approaches to understanding and predicting those changes are typically restricted to a pre-defined window of space and time. For this reason, there is substantial power in integrating different approaches, particularly for research associated with the multifaceted nature of ecosystem respons
Authors
Colin Tucker, Dong Yan, Sasha C. Reed, Matthew Dannenberg, William Smith
Anticipatory natural resource science and management for a changing future
Prolonged shifts in long‐term average climate conditions and increasing variability in short‐term weather conditions affect ecological processes, and represent a fundamental challenge for natural resource management. Recent and forthcoming advances in climate predictability may offer novel opportunities, but capitalizing on these opportunities will require focusing scientific research on understan
Authors
John B. Bradford, Julio L. Betancourt, Bradley J. Butterfield, Seth M. Munson, Troy E. Wood
Post-fire redistribution of soil carbon and nitrogen at a grassland-shrubland ecotone
The rapid conversion of grasslands into shrublands has been observed in many arid and semiarid regions worldwide. Studies have shown that fire can provide certain forms of reversibility for shrub-grass transition due to resource homogenization and shrub mortality, especially in the early stages of shrub encroachment. Field-level post-fire soil resource redistribution has rarely been tested. Here w
Authors
Guan Wang, Junran Li, Sujith Ravi, David Dukes, Howell B. Gonzales, Joel B. Sankey
Ecohydrological implications of aeolian sediment trapping by sparse vegetation in drylands
Aeolian processes are important drivers of ecosystem dynamics in drylands, and important feedbacks exist among aeolian—hydrological processes and vegetation. The trapping of wind‐borne sediments by vegetation canopies may result in changes in soil properties beneath the vegetation, which, in turn, can alter hydrological and biogeochemical processes. Despite the relevance of aeolian transport to ec
Authors
Howell B. Gonzales, Sujith Ravi, Junran Li, Joel B. Sankey
Ecosystem thresholds, tipping points, and critical transitions
Abrupt shifts in ecosystems are cause for concern and will likelyintensify under global change (Scheffer et al., 2001). The terms‘thresho lds’, ‘tipping points’, and ‘critical transitions’ have beenused interchangeably to refer to sudden changes in the integrityor state of an ecosystem caused by environmental drivers(Holling, 1973; May, 1977). Threshold-based concepts havesignific antly aided our c
Authors
Seth M. Munson, Sasha C. Reed, Josep Peñuelas, Nathan G. McDowell, Osvaldo E. Sala