Publication and Report: Ecosystem Water Balance in a Desert Grassland

​Abstract: Climate change predictions include warming and drying trends, which are expected to be particularly pronounced in the southwestern United States. In this region, grassland dynamics are tightly linked to available moisture, yet it has proven difficult to resolve what aspects of climate drive vegetation change. In part, this is because it is unclear how heterogeneity in soils affects plant responses to climate. Here, we combine climate and soil properties with a mechanistic soil water model to explain temporal fluctuations in perennial grass cover, quantify where and the degree to which incorporating soil water dynamics enhances our ability to understand temporal patterns, and explore the potential consequences...

Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, Academics & scientific researchers, All tags... Applications and Tools, Arizona, Big Bend ‐ Río Bravo & Lower Río Conchos Pilot Area, CA-08, CO-03, California, Chihuahua, Chihuahuan Desert, Colorado Plateau, Conservation NGOs, Data.gov Desert LCC, Datasets/Database, Decision Support, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION, Federal resource managers, LCC Network Science Catalog, Mexico, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert Pilot Area, NM-02, NV-03, NV-04, New Mexico, Population & Habitat Evaluation/Projection, Publication, Report, Sonora, Sonoran Desert, TX-16, TX-23, Transboundary Madrean Watersheds Pilot Area, UT-02, UT-03, United States, User Manual, Utah, Vulnerability Assessment, biota, climate change, completed, desert southwest, ecohydrology, plants, product, soil water, vegetation change, water availability, Fewer tags

Desert LCC Land Cover Map Pilot Project

The Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) is a partnership formed and directed by resource management entities as well as interested public and private entities in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Desert and montane sky island regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Desert LCC science depends on access to transboundary base datasets. Given the importance of vegetation such as grasslands and riparian vegetation in conservation science, a bi-national, landscape-scale vegetation data layer with classes relevant to Desert LCC research is crucial. One objective of this project is to investigate appropriate methodologies and landscape scales to create a Desert LCC binational land cover...

Categories: Data, Project; Tags: 2014, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags... AZ-05, AZ-06, AZ-07, AZ-08, AZ-09, Academics & scientific researchers, Aquascalientes, Arizona, Baja California, Big Bend ‐ Río Bravo & Lower Río Conchos Pilot Area, CA-08, CA-23, CA-25, CA-27, CA-36, CA-50, CA-51, California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION, DATA ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION, Data Acquisition and Development, Desert Ecoregions, Desert LCC (all), Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Durango, EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES, EARTH SCIENCE SERVICES, Federal resource managers, GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS, GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS, GIS, Guanajuato, Interested public, Jalisco, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Map, Methodology/Protocol, Mexico, Mojave Desert Pilot Area, NM-02, NV-01, NV-03, NV-04, Nayarit, Nevada, New Mexico, Nuevo León, Project, Querétaro, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, TX-16, TX-23, Tamaulipas, Texas, Transboundary Madrean Watersheds Pilot Area, US-Mexico Border, UT-02, United States, Utah, Zacatecas, biota, completed, grasslands, land use land cover, remote sensing, shrublands, Fewer tags

Grasslands Conservation Geospatial Data Compilation and Synthesis

Grasslands are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet (Hoekstra et al 2004). Recently, the bird conservation and grasslands communities have united around a forward looking approach to conservation planning. To accomplish this the following information is needed:1) The location, quantity, and quality of desert grasslands,2) the regional risks associated with loss or degradation of grasslands,3) the vulnerability of those grasslands and the species that depend on them to environmental and climate stressors,4) where and what types of programs or partnerships exist on the landscape to address system stressors and implement further conservation programs, and5) what capacity for conservation do these entities...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2014, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags... AZ-05, AZ-06, AZ-07, AZ-08, AZ-09, Academics & scientific researchers, Aquascalientes, Arizona, Baja California, Big Bend ‐ Río Bravo & Lower Río Conchos Pilot Area, CA-23, CA-25, CA-27, CA-36, CA-50, CA-51, California, Chihuahua, Chihuahuan Desert, Coahuila, Conservation Planning, Data Acquisition and Development, Data Management and Integration, Desert LCC, Desert LCC (all), Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Durango, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS > TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS > GRASSLANDS, Federal resource managers, Guanajuato, Jalisco, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Map, Mexico, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert Pilot Area, NM-02, NV-01, NV-03, NV-04, Nayarit, Nevada, New Mexico, Nuevo León, Presentation, Project, Querétaro, Report, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Sonoran Desert, TX-16, TX-23, Tamaulipas, Texas, Training/Outreach/Workshop, Transboundary Madrean Watersheds Pilot Area, UT-02, United States, Utah, Zacatecas, biota, climate change, completed, conservation, grasslands, vulnerability assessment, Fewer tags

Fire Effects and Management in Riparian Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States and Mexico

Riparian ecosystems are among the most productive and diverse ecosystems in desert biomes. In the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave deserts of the United States and Mexico, riparian ecosystems support regional biodiversity and provide many ecosystem services to human communities. Due to the dynamic nature of these ecosystems and their abundance of resources, riparian areas have been modified in various ways and to a large extent through human endeavor to manage water and accommodate various land uses, particularly in lowland floodplains and stream channels. Modifications often interfere with multiple and complex ecological processes, resulting in the loss of native riparian vegetation and increasing vulnerability...

Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2013, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags... AZ-05, AZ-06, AZ-07, AZ-08, AZ-09, Aquascalientes, Arizona, Baja California, Big Bend ‐ Río Bravo & Lower Río Conchos Pilot Area, CA-08, CA-23, CA-25, CA-27, CA-36, CA-50, CA-51, California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Desert LCC (all), Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Durango, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS > FIRE ECOLOGY, Federal resource managers, Guanajuato, Informing Conservation Delivery, Jalisco, LCC, LCC Network Science Catalog, Mexico, Mojave Desert Pilot Area, NM-02, NV-01, NV-03, NV-04, Nayarit, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Mexico, Nuevo León, Project, Querétaro, Report, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Southwest US, TX-16, TX-23, Tamaulipas, Texas, Transboundary Madrean Watersheds Pilot Area, UT-02, United States, Utah, Zacatecas, biota, completed, fire, riparian ecosystems, Fewer tags

Final Report and Publication: From Genotype to River Basin: The combined impacts of climate change on bio-control on a dominant riparian invasive tree/shrub

Executive summary: Tamarisk control and removal has become a priority of riparian ecosystem management, due in part to its potential negative impacts on stream flow and groundwater recharge. Among the most controversial, and potentially most effective tamarisk control approaches is the introduction of the tamarisk leaf beetle, Diorhabda carinulata. The beetle has spread throughout virtually the entire upper Colorado River Basin, established major populations at Lake Mead in 2012, and is now poised to expand into the lower Colorado River Basin concordant with documented evolutionary change in beetle developmental response that may enable survival in southern regions. Superimposed on this direct plant/herbivore relationship...

Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags... AZ-05, AZ-06, AZ-07, AZ-08, AZ-09, Arizona, BIOSPHERE, CA-08, CA-36, CA-51, COMMUNITY DYNAMICS, Conservation NGOs, Conservation Planning, Data.gov Desert LCC, Datasets/Database, EARTH SCIENCE, ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS, Federal resource managers, INVASIVE SPECIES, LCC Network Science Catalog, Lower Colorado River Basin, Map, Methodology/Protocol, Mojave Desert Pilot Area, NM-02, NM-03, NV-04, Nevada, Population & Habitat Evaluation/Projection, Publication, Report, State agencies, UT-02, United States, Utah, Virgin River watershed, Vulnerability Assessment, biota, climate change, completed, drought, genetics, invasive species, phenology, riparian, stream flow, tamarisk, tamarisk leaf beetles, water supply, woody plants, Fewer tags

Data, Methods, and Cost Estimates: Reducing Uncertainty Regarding Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity in the California Desert

University of California Riverside’s Center for Conservation Biology will create a sustainable resource monitoring framework that will provide empirical data identifying if and how climate change is changing the composition and vitality of Joshua Tree National Park. These data will then help focus the Park’s resource management programs to help ensure the Park’s rich biodiversity can be sustained to the extent possible. A broader goal is to have this framework adopted across the surrounding public lands to then integrate data from multiple sites and land management philosophies to create an unambiguous picture of the impacts of climate change across the desert region.

Categories: Data; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2013, Biodiversity, CA-08, CA-36, California, All tags... Climate change, Data, Data.gov Desert LCC, Datasets/Database, Document, EARTH SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE/MANAGEMENT, Federal resource managers, HUMAN DIMENSIONS, Interested public, Joshua Tree National Park, LAND MANAGEMENT, LCC Network Science Catalog, Methodology/Protocol, Mojave Desert Pilot Area, Monitoring, Monitoring, Population & Habitat Evaluation/Projection, Presentation, United States, Vulnerability Assessment, biota, completed, product, Fewer tags