Project Number: 6235-11210-006-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Sep 25, 2007
End Date: Sep 24, 2012

Objective:
The goal of the research unit based at the Jornada Experimental Range (JER) is to develop ecologically based technologies for monitoring, remediation, and grazing management in desert environments. In order to achieve this goal, our overall research objective is to determine how biological (plant, animal, microbial), soil, and geomorphological processes interact across multiple spatial and temporal scales to affect soil development, soil stability, nutrient and water retention and acquisition, plant establishment and survival, and animal foraging behavior. Our ecologically based management technologies will be built from a knowledge of these processes. We will accomplish this objective by integrating short- and long-term experiments with a suite of tools (simulation modeling, geographic information systems [GIS], and remote sensing) to extrapolate information across spatial scales from individual plants to landscapes. Such an approach will enable us to accomplish four specific objectives and associated products: 1. Develop an integrated assessment and monitoring approach for vegetation structure and composition, soil stability, watershed function, and biotic integrity of spatially and temporally heterogeneous rangelands at landscape, watershed, and regional scales. 2. Identify key plant and soil processes, and environmental factors, such as landscape position, land use history, and climate, that influence the potential for remediation success. 3. Develop adaptive strategies for livestock management across multiple scales based on animal foraging behavior. 4. Predict responses of ecosystem dynamics and livestock distribution across time and space to changes in climate and other management-dependent and -independent drivers, and develop an integrated management, monitoring, and knowledge toolbox that can be easily applied by individuals with a range of management experience, from minimal to extensive.

Approach:
We will build upon information collected since 1912, complemented with ongoing and new research, to address our objectives. We will integrate short- and long-term data sets with simulation modeling, geographic information systems, and remote sensing tools. Our approach will combine short-term experiments to test specific hypotheses with synthetic experiments requiring a more complex integration of ecosystem components and drivers. Objective 1 is shared among numerous collaborators where we are evaluating ground-based and remotely sensed indicators of ecosystem properties for use at multiple-spatial scales for effectiveness in monitoring resource conditions. Objective 2 is addressed by studies to identify areas within landscapes where stimulation of key processes will generate recovery of desired functions or control of undesired species. Objective 3 is addressed by (a) developing techniques that control animal movements on rangelands, (b) rapidly identifying botanical composition of livestock diets, and (c) identifying cattle breeds adapted to nutritional forage and environmental conditions of deserts. Objective 4 is shared by the National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research project at the Jornada. Experimentation involves long-term studies of the effects of disturbances on ecosystem properties. For example, we have well-established studies that quantify pattern and control of primary productivity.