An eastern Joshua tree (Yucca jaegeriana) inflorescence (flowers) with a Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica) trap. SBSC is studying the ecology of the eastern Yucca moth, which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees, to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
Kathryn A Thomas, Ph.D.
Dr. Kathryn Thomas is the Acting Deputy Director of the Southwest Biological Science Center, currently stationed in Tucson, Arizona.
Kathryn Thomas has worked the Southwestern deserts since 1989 and for the USGS since 1995. Her areas of expertise are in biodiversity studies during the Anthropocene, including studies of vegetation ecology, plant-insect interactions (pollinators), and invasive species (Russian thistle, introduced tree-feeding insects) on species, community, and landscape scales.
Science and Products
Informing Renewable Energy Development Siting Decisions with Vertebrate Biodiversity Measures
Renewable energy development is expanding in southwestern deserts, including in Arizona. Energy developers look to resource management agencies to provide siting guidance on public lands where there might be conflicts with wildlife. Often, agency guidance considers species of conservation concern and economic importance, but information on comprehensive vertebrate biodiversity has been hard to...
'Eastern' Joshua trees and their sole pollinators, 'eastern' Yucca moths
Did you know that moths can be pollinators? Even more amazing is that Joshua trees, the scraggly icons of the Mojave Desert, require a single moth species to ensure fertile seed production. The association between the Joshua tree and its pollinating moth is a rare example of an obligate mutualism, which means that the species are entirely dependent upon each other. Joshua trees depend on the moth...
Managing for Grassland Health at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge
Southern Arizona’s semi-desert grasslands provides habitat for flora and fauna, regulates rainfall infiltration and overland flow, mitigates surface erosion and dust production, and sequesters carbon. Sustainable management is important to maintain these ecological services and is of concern for the managers, ranchers, and other people associated with the grassland.
Predicting the Next High Impact Insect Invasion
Although most introduced insects are relatively benign, some become high-impact pests causing widespread ecological and economic damage. Introduced insects that are specialists and feed on a single genus of plants can be high-impact as they can potentially eliminate an entire native plant genus over large areas. Luckily, most introduced insects with this feeding behavior do not become high-impact...
Endangered Cacti in Arizona
Arizona is the home to at least 10 cacti that are listed as endangered, threatened, or under conservation agreement. Land use and management activities that occur on federal, and to some extent state, lands on which the cacti occur require consultation among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the agency managing the land on which the cacti is growing, and the party proposing an activity...
Predicting the next high-impact insect invasion: Elucidating traits and factors determining the risk of introduced herbivorous insects on North American native plants
Non-native insect invasions increasingly cause widespread ecological and economic damage in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Non-native insects specialized for feeding on specific plant groups are particularly problematic as they can potentially eliminate an entire genus of native plant species across a wide area. For example, emerald ash borer has killed hundreds of millions of ash...
Joshua tree inflorescence with Yucca moth trap
An eastern Joshua tree (Yucca jaegeriana) inflorescence (flowers) with a Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica) trap. SBSC is studying the ecology of the eastern Yucca moth, which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees, to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
A researcher sets traps on an eastern Joshua tree inflorescence to assess visitation by their sole pollinator, the eastern Yucca moth
linkSBSC researcher Mary Kathryn Busby sets traps on a Joshua tree in NW Arizona, April 2022. SBSC is studying the ecology of the Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica), which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees (Yucca jaegeriana) to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
A researcher sets traps on an eastern Joshua tree inflorescence to assess visitation by their sole pollinator, the eastern Yucca moth
linkSBSC researcher Mary Kathryn Busby sets traps on a Joshua tree in NW Arizona, April 2022. SBSC is studying the ecology of the Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica), which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees (Yucca jaegeriana) to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
Joshua tree research - a composite of 4 photos taken during fieldwork
A composite of four photos taken during research on Joshua trees, Arizona Joshua Tree Forest, Mojave Desert. Photos by Morgan Andrews and Daniel Winkler, USGS, SBSC. Daniel Winkler is pictured at top right, and Morgan Andrews is pictured at bottom left.
A composite of four photos taken during research on Joshua trees, Arizona Joshua Tree Forest, Mojave Desert. Photos by Morgan Andrews and Daniel Winkler, USGS, SBSC. Daniel Winkler is pictured at top right, and Morgan Andrews is pictured at bottom left.
Science and Products
Informing Renewable Energy Development Siting Decisions with Vertebrate Biodiversity Measures
Renewable energy development is expanding in southwestern deserts, including in Arizona. Energy developers look to resource management agencies to provide siting guidance on public lands where there might be conflicts with wildlife. Often, agency guidance considers species of conservation concern and economic importance, but information on comprehensive vertebrate biodiversity has been hard to...
'Eastern' Joshua trees and their sole pollinators, 'eastern' Yucca moths
Did you know that moths can be pollinators? Even more amazing is that Joshua trees, the scraggly icons of the Mojave Desert, require a single moth species to ensure fertile seed production. The association between the Joshua tree and its pollinating moth is a rare example of an obligate mutualism, which means that the species are entirely dependent upon each other. Joshua trees depend on the moth...
Managing for Grassland Health at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge
Southern Arizona’s semi-desert grasslands provides habitat for flora and fauna, regulates rainfall infiltration and overland flow, mitigates surface erosion and dust production, and sequesters carbon. Sustainable management is important to maintain these ecological services and is of concern for the managers, ranchers, and other people associated with the grassland.
Predicting the Next High Impact Insect Invasion
Although most introduced insects are relatively benign, some become high-impact pests causing widespread ecological and economic damage. Introduced insects that are specialists and feed on a single genus of plants can be high-impact as they can potentially eliminate an entire native plant genus over large areas. Luckily, most introduced insects with this feeding behavior do not become high-impact...
Endangered Cacti in Arizona
Arizona is the home to at least 10 cacti that are listed as endangered, threatened, or under conservation agreement. Land use and management activities that occur on federal, and to some extent state, lands on which the cacti occur require consultation among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the agency managing the land on which the cacti is growing, and the party proposing an activity...
Predicting the next high-impact insect invasion: Elucidating traits and factors determining the risk of introduced herbivorous insects on North American native plants
Non-native insect invasions increasingly cause widespread ecological and economic damage in natural and agricultural ecosystems. Non-native insects specialized for feeding on specific plant groups are particularly problematic as they can potentially eliminate an entire genus of native plant species across a wide area. For example, emerald ash borer has killed hundreds of millions of ash...
Joshua tree inflorescence with Yucca moth trap
An eastern Joshua tree (Yucca jaegeriana) inflorescence (flowers) with a Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica) trap. SBSC is studying the ecology of the eastern Yucca moth, which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees, to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
An eastern Joshua tree (Yucca jaegeriana) inflorescence (flowers) with a Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica) trap. SBSC is studying the ecology of the eastern Yucca moth, which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees, to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
A researcher sets traps on an eastern Joshua tree inflorescence to assess visitation by their sole pollinator, the eastern Yucca moth
linkSBSC researcher Mary Kathryn Busby sets traps on a Joshua tree in NW Arizona, April 2022. SBSC is studying the ecology of the Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica), which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees (Yucca jaegeriana) to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
A researcher sets traps on an eastern Joshua tree inflorescence to assess visitation by their sole pollinator, the eastern Yucca moth
linkSBSC researcher Mary Kathryn Busby sets traps on a Joshua tree in NW Arizona, April 2022. SBSC is studying the ecology of the Yucca moth (Tegeticula antithetica), which is the obligate pollinator of eastern Joshua trees (Yucca jaegeriana) to determine how climate change affects the emergence of blossoms and eastern Yucca moth visitation.
Joshua tree research - a composite of 4 photos taken during fieldwork
A composite of four photos taken during research on Joshua trees, Arizona Joshua Tree Forest, Mojave Desert. Photos by Morgan Andrews and Daniel Winkler, USGS, SBSC. Daniel Winkler is pictured at top right, and Morgan Andrews is pictured at bottom left.
A composite of four photos taken during research on Joshua trees, Arizona Joshua Tree Forest, Mojave Desert. Photos by Morgan Andrews and Daniel Winkler, USGS, SBSC. Daniel Winkler is pictured at top right, and Morgan Andrews is pictured at bottom left.