LTREB: Experimental monitoring and manipulation of a Chihuahuan Desert rodent community

Utah State University, Logan UT

Investigators

Abstract

Diverse ecosystems are changing in response to shifts in climate and species composition; and understanding how communities, populations, and species will respond to these changes is a major challenge in ecology. Progress has been complicated because some climate changes are directional while others are cyclic in nature. Furthermore, responses to climate can be affected by species interactions and by time lags in how species respond to changes in climate. This project will use a long-term study of small mammals near Portal, Arizona, to understand whether recent changes in desert communities result from directional anthropogenic global change or from a natural, decadal-scale climate cycle, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Long-term experimental manipulations removing a keystone group of species, kangaroo rats, will be used to assess whether and how species composition influences ecological responses to climate. This project will further scientific understanding of climate change impacts on desert ecosystems, and whether shifts in deserts are due to anthropogenic global change or natural decadal scale climate oscillations. Results will also indicate whether species composition can direct ecosystem-level responses to climate change. This project will integrate research and education by training undergraduate and graduate students and by disseminating research results broadly through web-based fora such as blogs.