Last modified: Thursday, 02-Apr-2009 13:16:10 MST

News and Announcements

Employment Opportunities

Meetings and Symposia

Dr. Archer is collaborating on a NASA-funded scoping study entitled “Challenges and Opportunities in Remote Sensing of Global Savannas: a Scoping Study for a New Terrestrial Ecology Field Campaign”. The study aims to realize the potential of satellite remote sensing in the measurement and modeling of savanna vegetation structure and dynamics. It will develop recommendations for a program of research focused on new opportunities in remote sensing using new passive and active remote sensing technologies. A workshop on this topic will be held in Ft. Collins, CO 2-4 March 2010.

Local Research News

Steve Woods awarded grant to study "Influences of Society, Politics and Local Knowledge on Ranch Management." Steve is a PhD candidate in Arid Lands.

Nate Pierce awarded Earth Fellowship from UA's Institute for the Environment. Nate is a PhD candidate in SNRE and the Global Change Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He is working with Dr. Steve Archer and Dr. Brandon Bestelmeyer on vegetation dynamics at the Jornada LTER and Jornada Experimental Range near Las Cruces, NM.

National/Global Research News

NSF Project takes a new look at decomposition in drylands

Steve Archer and Dave Breshears are teaming up with Paul Barnes (Loyola University-New Orleans), Rebecca McCulley (University of Keytucky) and Heather Throop (New Mexico State University) to look at how photodegradation and erosion interact to influence decomposition in arid ecosystems

Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP): Grazing Lands

Dr. Archer is collaborating with Kirk Davies (Agricultural Research Service - Burns, OR), Tim Fulbright (Texas A&M-Kingsville), Kirk McDaniel (New Mexico State) and Brad Wilcox (Texas A&M) on a synthesis project aimed at critically assessing the 'Brush Management" conservation practice on grazing lands. The synthesis is being conducted in collaboration with NRCS Management Specialists George Chavez, Homer Sanchez, Pat Shaver and Chuck Stanley. The project focuses on the ecological consequences of woody plant encroachment in grassland and savanna ecosystems and the extent to which brush management can be used as a tool to promote and sustain biological diversity, plant productivity, watershed health and nutrient cycling on managed rangelands of arid and semi-arid regions. Brush management is one of several conservation practices being formally evaluated in the Grazing Lands CEAP project.

USA National Phenology Network

NEON

Livestock in a Changing Landscape (.pdf)

Miscellaneous News

New Book: Wild Rangelands: Conserving Wildlife While Maintaining Livestock in Semi-Arid Ecosystems

Rangeland ecosystems support half of the world’s livestock while also providing habitats for some of the most charismatic of wildlife species. This book examines the pressures on rangeland ecosystems worldwide from human land use, over-hunting, and subsistence and commercial farming of livestock and crops. Leading experts have pooled their experiences from all continents to cover the ecological, sociological, political, veterinary, and economic aspects of rangeland management today.

* The first book to examine rangelands from a conservation perspective

* Emphasizes the balance between the needs of people and livestock, and wildlife

* Written by an international team of experts covering all geographical regions

* Examines ecological, sociological, political, veterinary, and economic aspects of rangeland management and wildland conservation, providing a diversity of perspectives not seen before in a single volume

Dr. Archer authored Chapter 4 "Rangeland conservation and shrub encroachment: new perspectives on an old problem.

New Book: Understanding Soil Carbon Sequestration

Dr. Archer collaborated with Tom Boutton (Texas A&M), Julia Liao (Rice), and Tim Filley (Purdue) on a chapter in this new book entitled "Belowground Carbon Storage and Dynamics Accompanying Woody Plant Encroachment in a Subtropical Savanna."

New Book: The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States
US Climate Change Science Program releases Synthesis & Assessment Product 4.3

Dr. Archer worked with Cliff Dahm (U New Mexico), Travis Huxman (U Arizona), Greg Okin (UCLA), & Bill Schlesinger (Carey Institute of Ecosystem Studies) to develop the Arid Lands section of the Land Resources chapter.

New Book: Western North American Juniperus Communities
A Dynamic Vegetation Type Series: Ecological Studies, Vol. 196. Van Auken, Oscar (Ed.)

Dr. Archer co-authored Chapter 12: "The combined influence of grazing, fire, and herbaceous productivity on tree–grass interactions" with Sam Fuhlendorf (Oklahoma State), Dave Engle (Iowa State) and Fred Smeins & Charles Taylor (Texas A&M)