Award Abstract # 1235828
LTER: Long-Term Research at the Jornada Basin (LTER-VI)

NSF Org: DEB
Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient: NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: November 30, 2012
Latest Amendment Date: January 3, 2018
Award Number: 1235828
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Douglas Levey
DEB
 Division Of Environmental Biology
BIO
 Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date: December 1, 2012
End Date: November 30, 2019 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $5,239,200.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $5,929,998.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2013 = $1,620,800.00
FY 2014 = $339,200.00

FY 2015 = $1,029,998.00

FY 2016 = $980,000.00

FY 2017 = $980,000.00

FY 2018 = $980,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Debra Peters (Principal Investigator)
    deb.peters@ars.usda.gov
  • Hugh Monger (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Niall Hanan (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Brandon Bestelmeyer (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Stephanie Bestelmeyer (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Kris Havstad (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: New Mexico State University
1050 STEWART ST.
LAS CRUCES
NM  US  88003
(575)646-1590
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: New Mexico State University
2995 Knox St
Las Cruces
NM  US  88003-0003
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): J3M5GZAT8N85
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Primary Program Source: 01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1195, 1355, 9150, 9169, 9177, 9178, 9251, EGCH, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 119500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.074

ABSTRACT

The overall goal of the Jornada Basin Long Term Ecological Research Program is to understand and quantify the mechanisms that generate alternative natural and human-dominated states in dryland ecosystems, and to predict future states and their consequences for the provisioning of ecosystem services. Based on long-term databases beginning in 1858, research over the next six years will focus on five types of dynamics: (1) a shift from perennial grasslands to desertified shrublands, (2) a reversal to grassland states, (3) transitions among shrub-dominated states, (4) invasion by non-native grasses, and (5) transitions to human-dominated states. This research combines rigorous hypothesis testing through initiation of new experiments, novel integration of long-term studies to address new questions, forecasts of alternative future landscapes and consequences for ecosystem services under a changing environment, and extension of cross-site and regional studies. Simulation modeling will improve understanding of current patterns and prediction of future dynamics.

Training opportunities will be provided for graduate and undergraduate students at four Hispanic-serving institutions in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. A K-12 and teacher-training program will provide inquiry-based curricula, field trips, teacher workshops, and public education events. Research findings will be distributed to scientists, land managers, and educators via workshops, seminars, and an on-line newsletter. International collaborations will occur on five continents (North and South America, Asia, Europe, Australia) to address the global challenge of increasing desertification.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 197)
Alvarez, LJ, Epstein HE, Li J, and Okin GS "Aeolian process effects on vegetation communities in an arid grassland ecosystem." Ecology and Evolution , v.2 , 2012 , p.809 10.1002/ece3.205
Anadón, JD, Sala OE, and Maestre FT. "Climate change will increase savannas at the expense of forests and treeless vegetation in tropical and subtropical Americas" Journal of Ecology , v.102 , 2014 , p.1363 10.1111/1365-2745.12325
Anadón, JD, Sala OE, Turner BL II, and Bennett EM "Effect of woody-plant encroachment on livestock production in North and South America." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , v.11 , 2014 , p.12948 10.1073/pnas.1320585111
Anderson, CA, and Vivoni ER "Impact of land surface states within the flux footprint on daytime land-atmosphere coupling in two semiarid ecosystems of the Southwestern U.S." Water Resources Research , v.52 , 2016 , p.4785--480 10.1002/2015WR018016
Andreoni, Kieran J. and Wagnon, Casey J. and Bestelmeyer, Brandon T. and Schooley, Robert L. "Exotic oryx interact with shrub encroachment in the Chihuahuan Desert" Journal of Arid Environments , v.184 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2020.104302 Citation Details
Apodaca, M., McInerney J, Sala OE, Katinas L, and Crisci J "A Concept Map of Evolutionary Biology to Promote Meaningful Learning in Biology. American Biology Teacher" American Biology Teacher , v.81 , 2019 , p.79-87 10.1525/abt.2019.81.2.79
Archer, SR, Predick, KI "An ecosystem services perspective on brush management: research priorities for competing land use objectives" Journal of Ecology , v.102 , 2014 , p.1394 1111/1365-2745.12314
A, Tadesse and Jeong, Jaehak and Green, Colleen H.M. "Modeling landscape wind erosion processes on rangelands using the APEX model" Ecological Modelling , v.467 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.109925 Citation Details
Bagchi, S, Briske DD, Bestelmeyer BT, and Wu XB "Assessing resilience and state-transition models with historical records of cheatgrass Bromus tectorum invasion in North American sagebrush-steppe" Journal of Applied Ecology , v.50 , 2013 , p.1131 10.1111/1365-2664.12128
Bagchi, S, Singh NJ, Briske DD, Bestelmeyer BT, McClaran MP, and Murthy K "Quantifying long term trajectories of plant community change with movement models: implications for ecological resilience" Ecological Applications , v.27 , 2017 , p.488
Barnes, PW, Throop HL, Archer SR, Breshears DD, McCulley RL, and Tobler MA "Sunlight and soil-litter mixing: Drivers of litter decomposition in drylands" Progress in Botany , v.76 , 2015 , p.273 10.1007/978-3-319-08807-5_11
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 197)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Jornada Basin LTER (JRN-LTER-VI, 2012-2018) Outcomes report

1. Intellectual Merit

The Jornada Basin long-term ecological research site (JRN-LTER) is a temperate dryland in southern New Mexico, representative of many arid and semi-arid ecosystems (drylands) in the southwest USA and globally.  The JRN, like many drylands, has experienced dramatic changes in vegetation structure and ecosystem function over the past century. These changes, manifested as conversion of perennial grasslands to landscapes dominated by unpalatable, xerophytic shrubs (shrub encroachment), are often accompanied by increases in soil erosion, reduced productivity and declining biodiversity. Because drylands occupy >40% of the Earth’s land surface, these state changes have important consequences for the provisioning of goods and services to the >1 billion people living in these landscapes.

In LTER-VI (2012-2018), we developed a conceptual framework focused on alternative stable states in the context of grassland and shrubland transitions. Notably, we demonstrated that shrub encroachment can be explained as the outcome of positive feedback mechanisms relating to bare soil connectivity, operating within heterogeneous spatial (soil and geomorphology) and temporal (climate and management) contexts.  We expanded our research to examine alternative transition types observed at the Jornada, including from shrublands back toward perennial grassland, between shrublands dominated by different shrub species, and between grasslands or shrublands toward novel ecosystems driven by climate change and invasive plant species. For each transition type, we quantified patterns of change in the landscape and initiated mechanistic studies of those dynamics.

A major outcome of JRN-LTER-VI was the development of bare soil connectivity concepts and metrics, now used in drylands globally. Connectivity controls redistribution of soil, water, nutrients and seeds, and is central to plant-soil feedbacks at multiple scales, including wind and water erosion-deposition processes.  Our research demonstrated that increasing bare soil connectivity associated with drought and grazing, can further suppress grasses, while providing opportunities for shrub establishment. We showed that shrub encroached grassland can recover over ~20 year time-frames if ungrazed, but only when remnant grass cover exceeds a 3% threshold. We also found that a multi-year wet period triggered perennial grass recovery through demographic processes correlated with summer rainfall during the current growing season, seed production during two previous growing seasons, and the number of consecutive prior wet years.

Shrub encroachment did not reduce average biomass of desert rodents, important consumers that can potentially reduce cover of perennial grasses.  However, wet periods produced irruptions of rodents (one year later) especially on shrubby sites (Figure 1), while biomass was higher on unencroached grasslands following droughts.

Long-term climate change experiments (increased precipitation variability with constant mean) indicate that future increases in precipitation variability will reduce grass production. However, shrub production increases with rainfall variability, partially ameliorating the negative effect on overall primary production (Figure 2).

Hydrological observations enhanced understanding of watershed processes related to channel infiltration, evapotranspiration, and runoff (Figure 3).  A new conceptual model, and a distributed hydrological model, showed the importance of channel infiltration promoting groundwater recharge. Both increasing storm size and woody plant encroachment were identified as potentially increasing future groundwater recharge.

We developed a trans-disciplinary approach, based on human guided machine-learning and big data analyses, to integrate patterns and processes at local scales to landscape, regional and continental scales.  The approach was successful in explaining historic patterns of vegetation during the 1930s Dust Bowl and current patterns in animal disease across the Western US.  

2. Broader Impacts

The JRN-LTER continues to publish high-impact research in leading ecological and inter-disciplinary journals, including influential articles in Nature, Science, Ecology, PNAS and other journals.   Peer-reviewed articles totaled 216 during the 2012-2018 period (average 36/year; Figure 4).

More than 110,000 K-12 students (~18,700/y) participated in science education programs associated with JRN-LTER-VI, including full-day field trips, classroom and schoolyard lessons (Figure 5). Separately, more than 2,000 children (~345/y) participated in data-centered learning as part of our innovative Desert Data Jam program.  The Data Jam approach has been adopted as a model for K-12 outreach and engagement by several other LTER sites.  We provided teacher professional development to >3,700 teachers (~621/y), supported graduate student training through >40 graduate research fellowships (~7/y), and hosted family education events for more than 3,300 individuals (~562/y). We also published One Day in the Desert, Jornada's contribution to the LTER Children's Book Series.

NSF highlighted JRN-LTER hydrological research (https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=296120&org=NSF&from=news).  We continued outreach to Federal and other natural resource managers through co-leadership of the Interpreting and Managing Indicators of Rangeland Health (IIRH) course, and as part of BLM Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) trainings. The training manual for the IIRH course now includes updated sections on landscape connectivity informed by JRN research. JRN results are communicated through global outreach and trainings associated with the Land-Potential Knowledge System, which is experiencing exponential growth in use (see https://landpotential.org).


Last Modified: 01/03/2020
Modified by: Niall P Hanan

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