Douglas Moore

• University of New Mexico

Drylands contain a third of the organic carbon stored in global soils; however, the long-term dynamics of soil organic carbon in drylands remain poorly understood relative to dynamics of the vegetation carbon pool. We examined long-term patterns in soil organic matter (SOM) against both climate and prescribed fire in a Chihuahuan Desert grassland i...

Tree masting (synchronous, episodic reproduction) is common worldwide and is hypothesized to be especially important in ecosystems with low species diversity and productivity as in semi‐arid woodlands of the American Southwest. We analyzed mast dynamics of three dominant tree species, one‐seed juniper (Cupressaceae: Juniperus monosperma), two‐needl...

Understanding controls on net primary production (NPP) has been a long-standing goal in ecology. Climate is a well-known control on NPP, although the temporal differences among years within a site are often weaker than the spatial pattern of differences across sites. Climate sensitivity functions describe the relationship between an ecological resp...

Background/Question/Methods Most long-term datasets contain gaps, which we define as missing or unusable data. In hydrologic datasets, causes of gaps include loss or contamination of samples, routine maintenance, equipment malfunction, extreme weather, and breaks in the funding cycle. When calculating precipitation inputs or streamflow outputs of...

Surface-active arthropods were sampled after a lightning-caused wildfire in desert grassland habitat on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro County, NM. Pitfall traps (n = 32 per treatment) were used to evaluate species-specific "activity-density" indices after the June wildfire in both burned and unburned areas. In total, 5,302 individu...

Precipitation variability and shrub encroachment in response to global environmental change are likely to affect both richness and aboveground net primary production (ANPP) of annual plants in arid and semi-arid ecosystems in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, especially given the grazing history and desertification potential of this aridland region....

Background/Question/Methods The ongoing response to fire on aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) in a southwestern desert grassland is being studied. In June, 2003, a prescribed burn was applied to a large area (5,000 ha) of desert grassland and shrubland on the east side of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. The...

Background/Question/Methods 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, Bo...

Background/Question/Methods Grazing in grasslands creates changes in plant community structure. The magnitude of these changes depends on the productivity and the intensity of grazing. Low productivity grasslands coupled with high grazing intensity may lead to shrub encroachment in some arid land ecosystems. We examined the effects of cattle grazi...

Aboveground net primary production (ANPP) dynamics are a key element in the understanding of ecosystem processes. For semiarid environments, the pulse-reserve framework links ANPP to variable and unpredictable precipitation events contingent on surficial hydrology, soil moisture dynamics, biodiversity structure, trophic dynamics, and landscape cont...

Rates and impacts of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition are poorly understood in arid land ecosystems where soils are typically low in plant available N. To address this issue, we quantified long-term trends in N deposition and estimated its impact on plant community structure in the northern Chihuahuan desert of Central New Mexico, USA. Annual an...

Measuring environmental variables at appropriate temporal and spatial scales remains an important challenge in ecological research. New developments in wireless sensors and sensor networks will free ecologists from a wired world and revolutionize our ability to study ecological systems at relevant scales. In addition, sensor networks can analyze an...

Measuring environmental variables at appropriate temporal and spatial scales remains an important challenge in ecological research. New developments in wireless sensors and sensor networks will free ecologists from a wired world and revolutionize our ability to study ecological systems at relevant scales. In addition, sensor networks can analyze an...

Extreme, regional droughts are the most common form of disturbance in semiarid ecosystems typified by relatively slow recovery rates. Drought-driven impacts can include regionally synchronized insect outbreaks, wildfires, and tree mortality (Swetnam and Betancourt 1990), as well as disastrous failures of agriculture, silviculture, and livestock pro...

This volume in the Long-Term Ecological Research Network Series would present the work that has been done and the understanding and database that have been developed by work on climate change done at all the LTER sites. Global climate change is a central issue facing the world, which is being worked on by a very large number of scientists across a...

This volume in the Long-Term Ecological Research Network Series would present the work that has been done and the understanding and database that have been developed by work on climate change done at all the LTER sites. Global climate change is a central issue facing the world, which is being worked on by a very large number of scientists across a...

From a set of turbulence data collected with a three-axis sonic anemometer/thermometer and described in a companion paper, we simulate the eddy-accumulation process for sensible heat and momentum fluxes. The resulting eddy-accumulation coefficient for momentum clearly depends on surface-layer stability; at neutral stability, its value is 0.63. On s...

Refuge has patchy vegetation in sandy soil. During midday and at night, the surface sources and sinks for heat and moisture may thus be different. Although the Sevilleta is broad and level, its metre-scale heterogeneity could therefore violate an assumption on which Monin-Obukhov similarity theory (MOST) relies. To test the applicability of MOST in...

Typically, 50-70% of the total annual precipitation in New Mexico can be produced by convective thunderstorms during the period June through September. These thunderstorms are accompanied by intense lightning and characteristically produce heavy, localized rainfall resulting in high spatial variation in precipitation inputs. During other months pre...

The long-path capabilities of Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy allow field measurements of trace gas concentrations over spatial scales intermediate between those commonly used by biologists (10 cm-10 m) and climatologists (> 200 km). These intermediate scale measurements are critical to relate small plot findings to data on regional...

Stable isotopes of strontium provide a unique quantification of ecosystem processes because organisms do not differentiate between them. For landscapes with contrasting geologies, these isotopes can identify atmospheric source material from local weathered material. This study quantified the input of strontium, distribution within the ecosystem, ca...

N (as ammonium sulfate) or C (as a sucrose-sawdust mixture) were added to plots in two Douglas-fir stands. Perturbation response was measured as the difference between net N mineralization potentials of perturbed plots and potentials of associated control plots on five occasions during the subsequent 2 yr. In 5 out of 8 comparisons, N-dynamics demo...

Forest-floor and 0–10 cm depth mineral soil horizons in two stands of Douglas fir were sampled for available NH4 +-N and NO3 –-N, N-mineralization potentials, and nitrification potentials for 2 years. The plots in each stand were sampled for 1 year, treated with either ammonium sulfate, carbohydrate (sawdust-sucrose), irrigation, carbohydrate plus...

Forest canopies can collect nutrients from the atmosphere, but the magnitude is difficult to quantify. Natural isotopes of strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) can be used to quantify instantaneous atmospheric inputs and their net accumulation over successional time, identify the distribution and movement of atmospheric inputs within the ecosystem, and quantify w...

Stream samples were taken at one control area above and two areas below the Santa Fe Ski Basin. Samples were analyzed for total coliform, fecal coliform, and fecal streptococci. The average ratio of fecal coliform to fecal streptococci below the ski basin was actually lower than the average ratio at the control site. The lower ratio would indicate...

The input of heavy metals by automobile exhaust pollution associated with the ski basin activities is the primary concern of this paper. Stream, snowpack and lichen samples were collected and analyzed for Pb, Zn, and Cu. Some lichen samples were also analyzed for Ca, Mg, Na, K, Fe, and Mn, as well as Pb, Zn, and Cu. Snowpack samples from roadside a...