Publications
Below are publications associated with the Southwest Biological Science Center's research.
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Filter Total Items: 1403
Forest floor and mineral soil respiration rates in a northern Minnesota red pine chronosequence
We measured total soil CO2 efflux (RS) and efflux from the forest floor layers (RFF) in red pine (Pinus resinosaAit.) stands of different ages to examine relationships between stand age and belowground C cycling. Soil temperature and RS were often lower in a 31-year-old stand (Y31) than in 9-year-old (Y9), 61-year-old (Y61), or 123-year-old (Y123) stands. This pattern was most apparent...
Authors
Matthew D. Powers, Randall K. Kolka, John Bradford, Brian J. Palik, Martin F. Jurgensen
Temperate and tropical forest canopies are already functioning beyond their thermal thresholds for photosynthesis
Tropical tree species have evolved under very narrow temperature ranges compared to temperate forest species. Studies suggest that tropical trees may be more vulnerable to continued warming compared to temperate species, as tropical trees have shown declines in growth and photosynthesis at elevated temperatures. However, regional and global vegetation models lack the data needed to...
Authors
Alida C. Mau, Sasha Reed, Tana E. Wood, Molly A. Cavaleri
Infrared heater system for warming tropical forest understory plants and soils
The response of tropical forests to global warming is one of the largest uncertainties in predicting the future carbon balance of Earth. To determine the likely effects of elevated temperatures on tropical forest understory plants and soils, as well as other ecosystems, an infrared (IR) heater system was developed to provide in situ warming for the Tropical Responses to Altered Climate...
Authors
Bruce A. Kimball, Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez, Molly A. Cavaleri, Sasha Reed, Grizelle González, Tana E. Wood
Isotopic evidence that nitrogen enrichment intensifies nitrogen losses to the atmosphere from subtropical mangroves
Nitrogen (N) enrichment can have large effects on mangroves’ capacity to provide critical ecosystem services by affecting fundamental functions such as N cycling and primary productivity. However, our understanding of excess N input effects on N cycling in mangroves remains quite limited. To advance our understanding of how N enrichment via water or air pollution affects mangroves, we...
Authors
Carla Roberta Gonçalves Reis, Sasha Reed, Rafael Silva Oliveira, Gabriela Bielefeld Nardoto
Life history with emphasis on geographic variation
Every organism is defined by a set of vital rates that evolve to enhance lifetime reproductive fitness and survival of individuals and their progeny. These traits vary due to the complex but sometimes predictable interactions between individuals, populations and their environments. Collectively, these attributes are referred to as life history traits and include age and size of maturity...
Authors
Jeffrey E. Lovich, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Kathryn Greene
Quantifying postfire aeolian sediment transport using rare earth element tracers
Grasslands, which provide fundamental ecosystem services in many arid and semiarid regions of the world, are undergoing rapid increases in fire activity and are highly susceptible to postfire-accelerated soil erosion by wind. A quantitative assessment of physical processes that integrates fire-wind erosion feedbacks is therefore needed relative to vegetation change, soil biogeochemical...
Authors
David Dukes, Howell B. Gonzales, Sujith Ravi, David E. Grandstaff, R. Scott Van Pelt, Junran Li, Guan Wang, Joel B. Sankey
Taxonomy: A history of controversy and uncertainty
No abstract available.
Authors
Jeffrey E. Lovich, Kristen M. Hart
Global conservation status of turtles and tortoises (order Testudines)
We present a review and analysis of the conservation status and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat categories of all 360 currently recognized species of extant and recently extinct turtles and tortoises (Order Testudines). Our analysis is based on the 2018 IUCN Red List status of 251 listed species, augmented by provisional Red List assessments by the IUCN...
Authors
Anders G.J. Rhodin, Craig B. Stanford, Peter Paul van Dijk, Carla Eisemberg, Luca Luiselli, Russell A. Mittermeier, Rick H. Hudson, Brian D. Horne, Eric Goode, Gerald Kuchling, Andrew D. Walde, Ernst H. W. Baard, Kristin H. Berry, Albert Bertolero, Torsten E. G. Blanck, Roger Bour, Kurt. A. Buhlmann, Linda J. Cayot, Sydney Collett, Andrea Faye Currylow, Indraneil Das, Tomas Diagne, Joshua R. Ennen, Germán Forero-Medina, Matthew G. Frankel, Uwe Fritz, Gerardo García, J. Whitfield Gibbons, Paul M. Gibbons, Gong Shiping, Joko Guntoro, Margaretha D. Hofmeyr, John B. Iverson, A. Ross Kiester, Michael W.N. Lau, Dwight P. Lawson, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Edward O. Moll, Vivian P. Páez, Rosalinda Palomo-Ramos, Kalyar Platt, Steven G. Platt, Peter C. H. Pritchard, Hugh R. Quinn, Shahriar Caesar Rahman, Soary Tahafe Randrianjafizanaka, Jason Schaffer, Will Selman, H. Bradley Shaffer, Dionysius S. K. Sharma, Shi Haitao, Shailendra Singh, Ricky Spencer, Kahleana Stannard, Sarah Sutcliffe, Scott Thomson, Richard C. Vogt
Agriculture
Agricultural production is a fundamental activity conducted on 45% of the U.S. land area, 55% of Mexico’s land area, and 7% of Canada’s land area (World Bank 2016). Because of this vast spatial extent and the strong role that land management plays in how agricultural ecosystems function, agricultural lands and activities represent a large portion of the North American carbon budget...
Authors
Alexander N. Hristov, Jane M. F. Johnson, Charles W. Rice, Molly E. Brown, Richard T. Conant, Stephen J. Del Grosso, Noel P. Gurwick, C.A. Rotz, Upendra M. Sainju, R. Howard Skinner, Tristram O. West, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, Henry Janzen, Sasha Reed, Nancy Cavallaro, Gyami Shrestha
Population expansion of Humpback chub in western Grand Canyon and hypothesized mechanisms
Humpback chub, Gila cypha, is an endangered warm water fish endemic to the Colorado River basin of southwestern North America. In Grand Canyon National Park, cold hypolimnetic water-release temperatures from Glen Canyon Dam have largely precluded successful spawning and recruitment of humpback chub in the mainstem Colorado River. Therefore, the species has utilized the warmer, more...
Authors
David R. VanHaverbeke, Dennis M. Stone, Michael J. Dodrill, Kirk L. Young, Michael J. Pillow
Case studies of capacity building for biodiversity monitoring
Monitoring the status and trends of species is critical to their conservation and management. However, the current state of biodiversity monitoring is insufficient to detect such for most species and habitats, other than in a few localised areas. One of the biggest obstacles to adequate monitoring is the lack of local capacity to carry out such programs. Thus, building the capacity to do...
Authors
Dirk S. Schmeller, Christos Arvanitidis, Monika Böhm, Neil Brummitt, Eva Chatzinikolaou, Mark John Costello, Hui Ding, Michael J. Gill, Peter Haase, Romain Juillard, Jaime García-Moreno, Nathalie Pettorelli, Cui Peng, Corinna Riginos, Ute Schmiedel, John P. Simaika, Carly Waterman, Jun Wu, Haigen Xu, Jayne Belnap
Turtles: Freshwater
With their iconic shells, turtles are morphologically distinct in being the only extant or extinct vertebrate animals to have their shoulders and hips inside their rib cages. By the time an asteroid hit the earth 65.5 million years ago, causing the extinction of dinosaurs, turtles were already an ancient lineage that was 70% through their evolutionary history to date. The remarkable...
Authors
J. Whitfield Gibbons, Jeffrey E. Lovich, R.M. Bowden