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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Relating Plant Community Structure To Carbon Dynamics In Semiarid Grasslands, Theodore D. Roper Jul 2022

Relating Plant Community Structure To Carbon Dynamics In Semiarid Grasslands, Theodore D. Roper

Biology ETDs

Understanding how fine-scale changes in soil characteristics and plant community composition affect ecosystem functioning is key to predicting how biome shifts will affect regional and global carbon cycling. This is crucial in the dryland biomes of the US Southwest, projected to be one of the regions most affected by climate change. We examined fine-scale drivers of ecosystem function within two biomes – a Chihuahuan Desert grassland and Plains/Chihuahuan Desert ecotone – via long-term vegetation data, micrometeorological data, eddy covariance carbon flux measurements, and soil water and texture, finding that the ecotone site had over 30% higher soil water content, over …


Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan W. Dombrosky Dr. May 2021

Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan W. Dombrosky Dr.

Anthropology ETDs

It has long been assumed that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the U.S. Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from Late pre-Hispanic/Early Historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have impacted food choice and fishing decisions during this time. I use behavioral ecology to understand how fishing could have been an optimal food-getting strategy for Ancestral Pueblo farmers. Stable isotope analysis offers a way to account for environmental change. I provide a refined 13C Suess correction model to support …


A Landscape On The Threshold Of Change: Patterns Of Soil Microbial Ecology Along Dynamic Geomorphic And Hydrologic Features In A Polar Desert, Kelli L. Feeser, David J. Van Horn, Heather N. Buelow, Daniel R. Colman, Theresa A. Mchugh, Jordan G. Okie, Egbert Schwartz, Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach, Becky A. Ball, Andrew G. Fountain, Michael N. Gooseff, Joseph S. Levy, Maciej K. Obryk Dec 2019

A Landscape On The Threshold Of Change: Patterns Of Soil Microbial Ecology Along Dynamic Geomorphic And Hydrologic Features In A Polar Desert, Kelli L. Feeser, David J. Van Horn, Heather N. Buelow, Daniel R. Colman, Theresa A. Mchugh, Jordan G. Okie, Egbert Schwartz, Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach, Becky A. Ball, Andrew G. Fountain, Michael N. Gooseff, Joseph S. Levy, Maciej K. Obryk

Biology ETDs

The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica are on the threshold of widespread landscape scale change due to increasing temperature and solar radiation and altered hydrology: buried ice is melting, the soil active layer is thickening, thermokarst features are developing along streams, water tracks are expanding, and lake levels are rising. These changes will impact the microbial communities found in each of the affected habitats. The purpose of this work is to first, understand the spatial distribution of soil bacteria in the MDV, specifically investigating the scale-dependent effects of environmental heterogeneity, and second, to perform surveys and coupled experiments to …


Assessment Of Vegetation Response To Wildfire At Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico: Case Study Of The Las Conchas Fire, Gladys Valentin-Gonzalez Dec 2017

Assessment Of Vegetation Response To Wildfire At Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico: Case Study Of The Las Conchas Fire, Gladys Valentin-Gonzalez

Geography ETDs

In the past couple of decades, there has been an increase in the occurrence of wildfire events in the United States. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that over 73,000 wildfires on average occur annually in the U.S., burning about 7.3 million acres of land. Bandelier National Monument, in northern New Mexico, has been affected by several wildfires in the past 40 years, one of the most recent being the Las Conchas Fire in 2011, which burned over 60,700 hectaresin Bandelier National Monument and Valles Caldera National Preserve. This research explores a remote-sensing based assessment of vegetation response to and recovery …


Impacts Of Long-Term Precipitation Manipulation On Hydraulic Architecture, Xylem Function, And Canopy Status In A Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Patrick J. Hudson Dec 2016

Impacts Of Long-Term Precipitation Manipulation On Hydraulic Architecture, Xylem Function, And Canopy Status In A Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Patrick J. Hudson

Biology ETDs

The Southwestern US is predicted to become hotter and drier, as global climate change forces increasing temperatures and variability in timing and size of precipitation inputs. Drought stress has become more frequent in recent decades, and resulted in massive forest mortality in piñon-juniper woodlands. During recent severe droughts (2000-2003, 2009-2012), piñon pine (Pinus edulis Englem.) suffered disproportionately high mortality compared to co-occurring one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma [Engelm.] Sarg.). A large-scale precipitation manipulation experiment was established in a piñon-juniper woodland in central New Mexico to test hypotheses regarding tree survival and mortality with respect to altered water regimes. Our …