Integrating plant community and ecosystem responses to chronic global change drivers: Toward an explanation of patterns and improved global predictions

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JRN LTER researchers prepare a precipitation addition/reduction experiment.

Background and plans Many global change drivers (GCDs) lead to chronic alterations in resource availability. As communities change through time in response to these GCDs, the magnitude and direction of ecosystem responses are also predicted to change in a non-linear fashion. We proposed to examine whether plant community dynamics are predictive of shifts in ecosystem… Read more »

Loner Lizards Stress in Shared Shade

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Sceloporus jarrovi (Yarrow's spiny lizard)

Human introverts aren’t the only ones who get stressed in shared social environments. Lizards like patchy and spread out shaded spaces where they can avoid interactions with other lizards.

LTER Road Trip: How Soil Crusts Impact the Landscape

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Dr. Rudgers examines a sample of soil crust.

Blue grama grass, golden stems meeting dead undergrowth beneath, completely surrounded Dr. Jen Rudgers in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). The meadow stretched as far as the eye could see, eventually meeting a dense slope of creosote shrubland, surrounded by bronze mountains in central New Mexico. The cool of early morning had already given… Read more »

LTER Road Trip: The MegaMe Monsoon Experiment

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Researchers walk across the Sevilleta grassland.

Across the world, shrubs are encroaching on landscapes. In Virginia, they take over coastal islands; in Colorado, they move across mountain tundra. In New Mexico, creosote outcompetes native grasses, drastically changing the drylands ecology in the Sevilleta LTER and Wildlife Refuge. Surrounded by remaining grasslands and the mountains in the distance, I stood beneath one… Read more »

LTER Road Trip: Looking into the New Mexico Future

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A switch controls the screens.

At night, 10 m x 10 m sliding screens come alive in New Mexico’s Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Across the refuge’s grass and shrubland regions, the screens roll across metal rectangles, trapping heat from the day and raising the temperature of the ground. Back at computers in Albuquerque, Sevilleta LTER researchers monitor their equipment,… Read more »

Art Student Sarah Rose at Sevilleta Field Station (SEV)

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The Normalization of Simulated Nature (#2) Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, 2018. Archival inkjet print by Sarah Rose

All science and art students spend a summer at the University of New Mexico Sevilleta Field Station, where they participate in journal club, seminars, and other summer REU activities. Art REU students are encouraged to participate in field work and data collection with REU students in the sciences. Final projects are presented during an on-site… Read more »

Art Student Siena McKim at Sevilleta Field Station (SEV)

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Page of the final insect book from Human-insect Intervention, by Siena McKim, 2018 Sevilleta Reseach Experience for Undergraduates Art Student

All science and art students spend a summer at the University of New Mexico Sevilleta Field Station, where they participate in journal club, seminars, and other summer REU activities. Art REU students are encouraged to participate in field work and data collection with REU students in the sciences. Final projects are presented during an on-site… Read more »

Climate Variability: An installation at the Sevilleta LTER (SEV)

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Construction of the Climate Variability installation.

Climate Variability Installation uses art to express fundamental questions about climate change in dryland ecosystems. The RAC supported project engages students across disciplines, the general public, and staff at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge and UNM Sevilleta Field Station. The outdoor installation represents the site’s groundbreaking research to understand climate change in a context of… Read more »

A Changing Climate Drives Change in Ecological Modeling

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Relying on a 114 year-long data set, researchers from the Sevilleta LTER have developed a more accurate way to model climate sensitivity functions that describe the relationship between ecological variability and plant productivity, rather than focusing on linear relationships between ecosystem response and average climate trends, as is more typical.  While variances in factors such as… Read more »