Long-Term Vegetation Change on the Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, centered around the four corners area of the Southwest, and includes much of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, is a large and important component of U.S. drylands. This important home to mountains, desert basins, dramatic canyons, arid woodlands, and grasslands is also one of North America’s most rapidly warming hot spots, with rates of warming of up to 2-3° C within the last 100 years. Such warming trends have already been credited with increasing drought frequency and severity, resulting in the potential loss of vegetation and soil, which can have direct impact to wildlife and people. Therefore, understanding how ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau will respond to ongoing regional warming is important for predicting the trajectory of change and aids in providing information to agencies tasked with making land management decisions.
This project explores how dryland vegetation and soils will respond to past, current, and future climate and land use changes on the Colorado Plateau. Using data collected by the USGS starting in 1996, the Southwest Biological Science Center is exploring trends and potential trajectories of dryland landscape ecosystems across a historic grazing gradient in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Collected data include vegetation cover surveys, soil measurements (e.g. nutrient and carbon content, soil texture and mapping), and landscape characterizations. Recent analysis of long-term data shows ecosystem sensitivities to ongoing regional warming, with observed declines in biological soil crusts largely attributed to warmer summertime temperatures. Vegetation communities demonstrate more variability, with the highest plant cover occurring in years with more precipitation. Findings from this study will help to inform Department of the Interior and other federal, state, tribal, and private land management decisions aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. Additionally, by providing information that will help distinguish ecosystem change due to climate alone from those changes attributable to land use (i.e., livestock grazing), the results of this work will help managers of complex, multi-use landscapes identify successful management actions.
Below are other science projects related to this project.
Colorado Plateau Extreme Drought in Grassland Experiment (EDGE)
Chronic Drought Impacts on Colorado Plateau Ecosystems (Rain-Out Experiment)
Drylands are highly vulnerable to climate and land use changes: what ecosystem changes are in store?
New Approaches for Restoring Colorado Plateau Grasslands
Soil, geologic, geomorphic, climate, and vegetation data from long-term monitoring plots (2009 - 2018) in Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks, Utah, USA
Biocrust cover, vegetation, and climate data from a protected grassland within Canyonlands National Park, Utah (ver. 2.0, Sept. 2023)
Below are publications associated with this project.
Decline in biological soil crust N-fixing lichens linked to increasing summertime temperatures
Insights from long-term ungrazed and grazed watersheds in a salt desert Colorado Plateau ecosystem
Rangeland monitoring reveals long-term plant responses to precipitation and grazing at the landscape scale
Desert grassland responses to climate and soil moisture suggest divergent vulnerabilities across the southwestern United States
Effects of Bromus tectorum invasion on microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling in two adjacent undisturbed arid grassland communities
On the brink of change: Plant responses to climate on the Colorado Plateau
Responses of wind erosion to climate-induced vegetation changes on the Colorado Plateau
Long-term change in perennial vegetation along the Colorado river in Grand Canyon national park (1889-2010)
Carbon, water, and energy fluxes in a semiarid cold desert grassland during and following multiyear drought
Sediment losses and gains across a gradient of livestock grazing and plant invasion in a cool, semi-arid grassland, Colorado Plateau, USA
Bromus tectorum invasion alters nitrogen dynamics in an undisturbed arid grassland ecosystem
Soil biota can change after exotic plant invasion: Does this affect ecosystem processes?
Below are news stories related to this project.
Below are partners associated with this project.
The Colorado Plateau, centered around the four corners area of the Southwest, and includes much of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, is a large and important component of U.S. drylands. This important home to mountains, desert basins, dramatic canyons, arid woodlands, and grasslands is also one of North America’s most rapidly warming hot spots, with rates of warming of up to 2-3° C within the last 100 years. Such warming trends have already been credited with increasing drought frequency and severity, resulting in the potential loss of vegetation and soil, which can have direct impact to wildlife and people. Therefore, understanding how ecosystems of the Colorado Plateau will respond to ongoing regional warming is important for predicting the trajectory of change and aids in providing information to agencies tasked with making land management decisions.
This project explores how dryland vegetation and soils will respond to past, current, and future climate and land use changes on the Colorado Plateau. Using data collected by the USGS starting in 1996, the Southwest Biological Science Center is exploring trends and potential trajectories of dryland landscape ecosystems across a historic grazing gradient in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.
Collected data include vegetation cover surveys, soil measurements (e.g. nutrient and carbon content, soil texture and mapping), and landscape characterizations. Recent analysis of long-term data shows ecosystem sensitivities to ongoing regional warming, with observed declines in biological soil crusts largely attributed to warmer summertime temperatures. Vegetation communities demonstrate more variability, with the highest plant cover occurring in years with more precipitation. Findings from this study will help to inform Department of the Interior and other federal, state, tribal, and private land management decisions aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. Additionally, by providing information that will help distinguish ecosystem change due to climate alone from those changes attributable to land use (i.e., livestock grazing), the results of this work will help managers of complex, multi-use landscapes identify successful management actions.
Below are other science projects related to this project.
Colorado Plateau Extreme Drought in Grassland Experiment (EDGE)
Chronic Drought Impacts on Colorado Plateau Ecosystems (Rain-Out Experiment)
Drylands are highly vulnerable to climate and land use changes: what ecosystem changes are in store?
New Approaches for Restoring Colorado Plateau Grasslands
Soil, geologic, geomorphic, climate, and vegetation data from long-term monitoring plots (2009 - 2018) in Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks, Utah, USA
Biocrust cover, vegetation, and climate data from a protected grassland within Canyonlands National Park, Utah (ver. 2.0, Sept. 2023)
Below are publications associated with this project.
Decline in biological soil crust N-fixing lichens linked to increasing summertime temperatures
Insights from long-term ungrazed and grazed watersheds in a salt desert Colorado Plateau ecosystem
Rangeland monitoring reveals long-term plant responses to precipitation and grazing at the landscape scale
Desert grassland responses to climate and soil moisture suggest divergent vulnerabilities across the southwestern United States
Effects of Bromus tectorum invasion on microbial carbon and nitrogen cycling in two adjacent undisturbed arid grassland communities
On the brink of change: Plant responses to climate on the Colorado Plateau
Responses of wind erosion to climate-induced vegetation changes on the Colorado Plateau
Long-term change in perennial vegetation along the Colorado river in Grand Canyon national park (1889-2010)
Carbon, water, and energy fluxes in a semiarid cold desert grassland during and following multiyear drought
Sediment losses and gains across a gradient of livestock grazing and plant invasion in a cool, semi-arid grassland, Colorado Plateau, USA
Bromus tectorum invasion alters nitrogen dynamics in an undisturbed arid grassland ecosystem
Soil biota can change after exotic plant invasion: Does this affect ecosystem processes?
Below are news stories related to this project.
Below are partners associated with this project.