Gitanjali Bodner

The Nature Conservancy in Arizona

Intermittent rivers are spatially dynamic, expanding and contracting in response to changes in water availability, but studies that explicitly examine spatial drying patterns are scarce. We used long-term data produced by citizen scientists to map wet and dry reaches of 3 different river systems to investigate mechanisms producing temporal variatio...

This study evaluated patterns and drivers of vegetation change in a semi-arid grassland in southern Arizona across eleven years of extended drought and high temperatures, 2004–2014. Changes included declines in C4 perennial grass basal cover with patchy grass mortality, leaf litter increases, shrub declines, and increases in non-native grass Eragro...

Adaptive comanagement endeavors to increase knowledge and responsiveness in the face of uncertainty and complexity. However, when collaboration between agency and nonagency stakeholders is mandated, rigid institutions may hinder participation and ecological outcomes. In this case study we analyzed qualitative data to understand how participants per...

There is growing recognition that public lands cannot be managed as islands; rather, land management must address the ecological, social, and temporal complexity that often spans jurisdictions and traditional planning horizons. Collaborative decision making and adaptive management (CAM) have been promoted as methods to reconcile competing societal...

The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA) supports three of the rarest ecosystems in the American Southwest: riparian, aquatic, and semidesert grassland; is home to 6 endangered species; and has 2 eligible wild and scenic river segments. In response to its exceptional biological, cultural, and scenic values, the Bureau of Land Management...