Award Abstract # 0217774
Sevilleta LTER: Long Term Ecological Research in a Biome Transition Zone

NSF Org: DEB
Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
Initial Amendment Date: December 6, 2002
Latest Amendment Date: August 13, 2007
Award Number: 0217774
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Henry L. Gholz
DEB
 Division Of Environmental Biology
BIO
 Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: November 1, 2002
End Date: November 30, 2008 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $0.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $3,177,024.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2003 = $771,955.00
FY 2004 = $799,071.00

FY 2005 = $749,998.00

FY 2006 = $782,000.00

FY 2007 = $74,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Scott Collins (Principal Investigator)
    scollins@unm.edu
  • Terry Yates (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Robert Parmenter (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Blair Wolf (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • William Pockman (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Clifford Dahm (Former Principal Investigator)
  • James Gosz (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of New Mexico
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE
NM  US  87131-0001
(505)277-4186
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: University of New Mexico
1 UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
ALBUQUERQUE
NM  US  87131-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): F6XLTRUQJEN4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Population & Community Ecology,
LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH,
ERE General,
Ecosystem Science
Primary Program Source: app-0103 
app-0104 

app-0105 

app-0106 

app-0107 
Program Reference Code(s): 1195, 5416, 7218, 7259, 7271, 7298, 7304, 9150, 9169, 9177, 9178, 9251, EGCH, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 112800, 119500, 730400, 738100
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

The Sevilleta LTER (SEV) research site is located on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, where a junction of four biomes (Great Plains Grassland, Great Basin Shrub-steppe, Chihuahuan Desert and Montane Coniferous Forest) provides a rich assortment of Biome Transition Zones (BTZs). Interacting with a highly variable climate, elevational range, complex topography, geology, and soils, this provides a complex spatial and temporal template for this project. SEV combines long-term research and an increasing array of collaborative, short-term research efforts that range from genetics to remote sensing of the landscape and focus on the floral and faunal properties of transitions between grass and shrub life forms represented by two components of the Chihuahuan Desert biome and their junctions with the Great Plains shortgrass steppe biome.
The proposed new work will build upon and expand foundation studies ongoing since 1989 and initiate new long-term landscape experiments and measurements to develop and test a general theory of the dynamics of BTZs. A new conceptual framework will expand past studies to focus on patch-scale dynamics, biotic and abiotic drivers, and the consequences of different patch types, sizes, and their mosaics to landscape and regional scale dynamics. A series of experiments will be initiated that focus on the importance of plant-soil-animal-microbe interactions and feedbacks with ecosystem dynamics. An iterative approach combines a synthetic simulation model with data collected from short- and long-term interdisciplinary studies as a framework for extending our conceptual model to additional transitions in the future.
Results will provide an important regional context for studies conducted within the shortgrass steppe biome at the SGS LTER and within the Chihuahuan Desert biome at the JRN LTER. Future studies will expand to other major biome representatives at SEV (e.g., shrubsteppe of the Colorado Plateau, Pinon -Juniper woodlands). These studies on other BTZs and ecotones present at SEV will further develop and test BTZ theory applicable to understanding and predicting ecosystem response to global change. Simulation modeling will be used to predict changes in the location and composition of BTZs through time under changes in climate and disturbance regime. Because the region is likely to experience a decade-long drought, directional changes in climate, and increases in atmospheric deposition, an understanding of the key processes driving patch and ecotone dynamics is critical to an ability to manage and preserve the biodiversity and natural resources of these systems. Common properties and patterns that can be used for many types of boundaries at many scales are expected. Extrapolating from patch mosaics, processes, and dynamics to the landscape and region will also be critical in determining the contribution of the Sevilleta to regional and global biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 59)
Abramson, G., V.M. Kenkre, T.L. Yates, and R.R. Parmenter "Traveling waves of infection in the Hantavirus epidemics." Bulletin of Mathematical Biology , v.65 , 2003 , p.519
A.K. Knapp, M.D. Smith, S.L. Collins, N. Zambatis, M. Peel, S. Emery, J. Wojdak, M.C. Horner-Devine, H. Biggs, J. Kruger and S.J. Andelman "Generality in Ecology: Testing North American Grassland Rules in South African Savannas" Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment , v.2 , 2004 , p.483
Allen, M.F., J. Lansing and E.B. Allen. "Fine root length, diameter, specific root length and nitrogen concetrations of nine tree species across four North American biomes" Ecological Monographs , v.72 , 2002 , p.293
Allen, M.F., W. Swenson, J.I. Querejeta, L.M. Egerton-Warburton, and K.K. Treseder. "Ecology of mycorrhizae: A conceptual framework for complex interactions among plants and fungi." Annual Review of Phytopathology , v.41 , 2003 , p.271
Bess, E.C., R.R. Parmenter, S. McCoy and M.C. Molles, Jr. "Responses of a riparian forest-floor arthropod community to wildfire in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico" Environmental Entomology , v.31 , 2002 , p.774
Bhark, E.W. and E.E. Small. "The relationship between plant canopies and the spatial variability of infiltration in grassland and shrubland of the northern Chihuahuan Desert" Ecosystems , v.6 , 2003 , p.185
Body size, energy use, and community structure of small mammals. "Body size, energy use, and community structure of small mammals." Ecology , v.86 , 2005 , p.1407
Chen, X., B.-L. Li, and S. Collins "Multiscale monitoring of multispecies case study: two grass species at Sevilleta." Plant Ecology , v.179 , 2004 , p.149
Cook, W., D. Casagrande, D. Hope, P. Grossman, and S. Collins. 2004 "Learning to roll with the punches: Adaptive experimentation in human-dominated systems." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment , v.2 , 2004 , p.467
Corkidi, L., D.L. Rowland, N.C. Johnson and E.B. Allen. "Nitrogen fertilization alters the functioning of arbuscular mycorrhizas at two semiarid grasslands" Plant and Soil , v.240 , 2002 , p.299
Dahm, C.N., J.R. Cleverly, J.E.A. Coonrod, J.R. Thibault, D.E. McDonnell, and D.J. Golroy. "Evapotranspiration at the land/water interface in a semi-arid drainage basin" Freshwater Biology , v.47 , 2002 , p.831
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 59)

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