SEV

Sevilleta LTER

Investigating host feeding strategy as a determinant of gut microbial community profile

Poster Number: 
401
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Cristina Takacs-Vesbach

Diverse microbial communities live in the gut regions of animals. The precise ecological and evolutionary circumstances that govern relationships between hosts and their gut communities is unclear. In this study, we hypothesize that host feeding strategy shapes the microbial communities within the gut systems of insects. We collected five insect species from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge that exhibited herbivorous, detritovorous and carnivorous diets.

Interspecific spatial patterns support indirect facilitation of harvester ants by kangaroo rats

Poster Number: 
390
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Andrew Edelman

Spatial patterns of structures (e.g., nests and burrows) in animal populations can provide insight into underlying ecological processes. Banner-tailed kangaroo rats (Dipodomys spectabilis) and harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) are the largest and most dominant granivores found in rodent and ant communities of the northern Chihuahuan Desert. Both species build conspicuous, above-ground structures and are highly territorial.

SEVILLETA LTER Abiotic Pulses and Constraints: Dynamics and stability in an aridland ecosystem

Poster Number: 
352
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Scott Collins

The Sevilleta LTER is located at the intersection of several aridland ecosystem types. Although it is axiomatic that water is the key limiting resource in aridland ecosystems, most arid land soils are also chronically low in nutrients and organic matter. Resource availability is a function of the frequency and size of precipitation events as well as the time between events. As a consequence, NPP and organic matter decomposition are often decoupled in space and time, and soil nutrient supply rates may limit NPP during periods when soil moisture is sufficient for plant growth.

Hydraulic contributions to differential survival during drought in a piñon-juniper woodland

Poster Number: 
342
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Jen Plaut

Drought-related tree mortality occurs worldwide, including recent episodes in piñon-juniper woodlands of the American west. Although the physiological mechanisms of mortality are poorly understood, carbon starvation may occur in trees that limit transpiration (E) to avoid hydraulic failure.

The EcoTrends Project: preview of the book and introduction to the web site

Poster Number: 
274
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Debra Peters

The EcoTrends Project began in 2004 as a joint collaboration among the LTER Program, USDA Agricultral Research Service, and the USDA Forest Service with two goals: (1) to create a book illustrating trends in long -term data and showing the value of long-term data across a network of sites in addressing continental-scale questions, and (2) to make long-term biotic and abiotic data easily accessible through a common web interface with a focus on derived or aggregated data to allow cross-site analyses to be made.

Ground-dwelling arthropods and environmental factors in two semi-arid habitats: data from 1992-2004

Poster Number: 
211
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Amaris Swann

Ground-dwelling arthropods, primarily predators and detritivores, form a large part of the energy flow through ecosystems, but there are few long-term studies looking at many taxa. These animals have been monitored at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico, a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site since 1990. We report on patterns in relative abundance from 2 study sites: desert grassland and creosotebush shrubland. Arthropods were collected in pitfall traps, operated year-round and collected every 2 months.

The effects of fire on the plant community in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland

Poster Number: 
203
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Terri Koontz

Disturbance from fire can affect the abundance and distribution of shrubs and grasses in arid ecosystems. Specifically, fire may increase grass and forb production while hindering shrub encroachment. Therefore, prescribed fires are a common management tool for maintaining grassland habitats in the southwest. However, Bouteloua eriopoda (black grama), a dominant species in Chihuahuan Desert grassland, is highly susceptible to fire resulting in death followed by slow recovery rates.

Grassland-Shrubland Transitions Across Sevilleta Landscapes

Poster Number: 
182
Presenter/Primary Author: 
Debra Peters

Landscapes at the Sevilleta LTER site are dominated or codominated by two perennial grasses from different biomes, Bouteloua eriopoda (black grama) from the Chihuahuan Desert and B. gracilis (blue grama) from the shortgrass steppe, and the Chihuahuan Desert shrub Larrea tridentata (creosotebush). We used a long-term removal study to examine inter-specific interactions between these dominant species, and to determine which species would eventually dominate following the removal of the others.

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