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Announcement
17th Wildland Shrub Symposium - May 22-24, 2012
at the Las Cruces Convention Center
Long Term Agricultural Research
The Agriculture Research Service has initiated a process to select ARS research units to formally link as a Long-Term Agro-Ecosystem Research (LTAR) network. Initial units as part of this LTAR network will be selected by the end of 2011.
The criteria for LTAR candidacy are 1) research productivity, 2) infrastructure capacity, 3) data richness, 4) data availability, 5) geographic coverage at various scales, 6) partnerships, and 7) institutional commitment.
The Jornada-based research group submitted materials addressing these criteria in order to formally participate in this LTAR network, which will eventually be open to sites from within and outside of the ARS.
Materials we developed in response to this request are as follows:
LTAR criteria:
Monitoring & Assessment
The August 2011 issue of Rangelands is now available. Techniques and technologies to reform the foundation for a land management knowledge system are described in the nine key papers of this issue. This special issue was sponsored by The Jornada in cooperation with BLM, NRCS, and TNC.
Figure 3d from Herrrick et al., 2010, "National ecosystem assessment supported by scientific and local knowledge", Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 8:403-408.
The Jornada is an international leader in the development of land assessment and monitoring protocols. The Jornada has developed a quantitative monitoring protocol, Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland and Savanna Ecosystems, that is being applied in the U.S. and at least four countries outside the U.S. The Jornada also co-authored the qualitative assessment protocol, Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, which is being applied globally.
Landscape Toolbox
The Landscape Toolbox was developed to help land managers and researchers discover, learn about, apply, and integrate methods and technologies for better rangeland management.
Long Term Ecological Research
In 1980 the National Science Foundation established a network of sites across the US for long term study of ecological processes over long time periods and across large spaces. One of the original sites of this network of now 26 locations was in the Jornada Basin. Five of the resulting lessons learned from over 25 years of study are:
- Tipping Points - Jornada scientists discovered the mechanisms by which grasslands, shrublands, and other ecosystems cross thresholds in which dramatic and rapid changes can occur.
- Heterogeneity and Nonequilibrium Dynamics - Jornada scientists discovered that variability in ecosystem responses in both time and space is more characteristic of drylands than average conditions.
- Accessible Ecology - Tools and programs have been created to make scientific results readily available to a variety of stakeholders, including land managers, scientists, and teachers.
- Expanding deserts - Desertification is a global problem that reduces plant productivity, biodiversity, air and soil quality, and water availability.
- Ability to restore - Jornada studies initiated in the early 1900s reveal how the change from productive, diverse perennial grasses to shrublands on degraded soils is difficult but not impossible to reverse.
Ecological Site Descriptions
Ecological sites are a key management technology used to map and describe landscapes into discrete units based on ecological attributes. Ecological site descriptions are extensive data, models, and characterizations of each ecological site. The Jornada is a leading scientific program in the development of this important technology. Two recent documents related to ecological sites are:
- Spatial perspectives in state-and-transition models: A missing link to land management?
- A Field Guide to Pedoderm and Pattern Classes
Data Catalogs
The Jornada is responsible for several long term data catalogs from research programs and locations around the US and the world. These catalogs store data of various types for access and use by the public and our research partners. Some data sets are open access and others require permitted access. Data are stored in these catalogs according to established procedures and policies.
In the News
ScienceDaily: Land Management News Feed
Are easements the most efficient way to conserve land and biodiversity? What easement structures are the most effective? Scientists compared two large easement projects dominated by grazing land: the Malpai Borderlands Group, straddling the Arizona-New Mexico border, and the Nature Conservancy's Lassen Foothills, in northern California and found some interesting results.
An environmental science researcher in Sweden has examined the geochemical status of the natural environment in the Amazonas Region, and to what extent it has been impacted by deforestation and altered land use.
