Fourth Annual Symposium

Recent research at the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) and the University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER)

University of Arizona, Tucson, Marley Building, Rm. 230 [MAP]
Saturday, 6 October 2007, 8:30AM to 2:30PM

View the Symposium Program Word Format Acrobat Format

We would like to announce the fourth annual Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems (RISE) Symposium. The objectives of the symposium are to share recent results of scientific research at the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) and the University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER), to encourage future research activities at the WGEW and the SRER, and to promote the WGEW and the SRER as outdoor scientific laboratories.

The Symposium will feature invited speakers presenting either recent research on the WGEW or SRER or new reflections on earlier work conducted at either site. There will be time for questions from the audience, which will be made up of federal agency and university researchers, students, and stakeholders from southern Arizona.

8:30-9:00	Registration
9:00-9:05	Mitch McClaran and Susan Moran	RISE Welcome
9:05-9:10	Mark Nearing USDA-ARS SWRC	Update: WGEW Data Access Project
9:10-9:15	Steve Archer UA SNR	Update: National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) on SRER
9:20-9:25	George Ruyle UA SNR	Update: New Livestock Grazing Management Program on SRER
9:30-9:50	John Briggs & Nancy Grimm ASU CAP-LTER	Ecological Response to Land Use Change Along an Urban – Wildland Gradient.
9:50-10:10	Dave Goodrich USDA-ARS SWRC	Rainfall and Runoff as a Function of Spatial and Temporal Scales and Event to Multi-decadal Persistence in Spatial Rainfall Variability.
10:10-10:30	Joe Santanello NASA & ESSIC/UM	Using Remotely-sensed Estimates of Soil Moisture to Infer Soil Texture and Hydraulic Properties Across WGEW.
10:30-11:00	Poster introductions	Poster abstracts presented by poster authors.
11:00-1:00	Poster Session	Authors will be with their posters in the hall outside the conference room.
12:00-1:00	Lunch w/ Posters	Provided at the meeting by RISE
1:00-1:15	Peter Gierlach (Petey Mesquitey) KXCI Radio	Near-life Experiences in the Desert Grassland.
1:15-1:20	Mark Losleben NPN	Update: National Phenology Network.
1:20-1:40	Dan Papaj UA EEB	Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly Learning Behavior in Relation to Color Variation in Aristolochia Host Plants.
1:40-2:00	Susan Skirvin UA GRD & MGE	Assessing Vegetation Change Temporally and Spatially in Southeastern Arizona.
2:00-2:20	Wim van Leeuwen UA OALS & GRD	Detecting Phenological Changes in Vegetation Response to Climate Variation on the SRER and Nearby areas Areas.
2:20-2:30	Discussion	All speakers and poster authors will be in attendance.

POSTERS

1	Jean McLain, Mitchel P. McClaran, Dean A. Martens USDA-ARS ALARC and UA SNR	Soil Cycling of Methane in Response to Grazing and Mesquite Management in the Santa Rita Experimental Range.
2	Brad Butterfield and John Briggs ASU	Patch Dynamics of Soil Biotic Feedbacks in the Sonoran Desert.
3	Brendan Yuill and Mary H. Nichols UA SNR and USDA-ARS SWRC	Sediment Transport Dynamics in a Low-ordered, Semi-arid Watershed and the Difference Between the Controlling Processes for the Fine and Coarse Load.
4	T. Meixner, P. Brooks, J. Hogan, G. Oelsner, M. Baillie, C. Soto, S. Simpson UA HWR	Significance of Overland Flow in Sustaining Water Resources of Arid and Semi-arid Rivers - Water Quantity and Quality Implications.
5	Juan C. Villegas, David D. Breshears, Chris B. Zou UA SNR	Soil Evaporation as a Function of Canopy Cover: Method Calibration and Preliminary Observations at the Santa Rita Experimental Range.
6	Alona Bachi and Michael L. Rosenzweig UA EEB	The Tucson Hummingbird Project: An Experimental Study of Community Ecology and Reconciliation on a City-wide Scale.
7	Wade Leitner and Larry Norris BirdWorks, LLC	Inventory and Monitoring of Bird Populations in Florida Canyon on the Santa Rita Experimental Range.
8	Mark Losleben and Jake Weltzin NPN	The USA National Phenology Network: Phenology as an Integrative Science for Assessment of Global Change Impacts.
9	Jennifer Davison, Jahan Kariyeva, Willem van Leeuwen UA OALS and GRD	Precipitation and Vegetation Phenology In and Around the Santa Rita Experimental Range: Comparison of Three Remote Measures.
10	Steve Woods, Steve Archer, Susan Schwinning UA SNR	Influences of Shrub Seedling Root Development on Initial Establishment and Encroachment Potential.
11	Michaela Buenemann UA GRD	Quantifying the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Woody Plant Encroachment: An Integrative Remote Sensing, GIS, and Spatial Modeling Approach
12	Fadzayi Mashiri and Mitchel McClaran UA SNR	Long-term Effects of Yearlong and Seasonal Rotation Grazing on the Spatial Homogeneity of Grass.
13	Chris McDonald UA SNR	Survival of Lehmann Lovegrass Plants After a Prescribed Fire.
14	Erik Hamerlynck, Chandra Holifield Collins and Jeff Stone USDA-ARS SWRC	Shifts in Canopy and Ground Cover Following Lehmann's Lovegrass Invasion.
15	Jason Stevens and Jeffrey S. Fehmi UA SNR	Soil Inoculation of Digitaria californica Plugs and Iimplications for Ecological Restoration in Semi-arid Environments.
16	Aaryn Olsson and Kristin Wisneski UA OALS	Geospatial Collaboration for Buffelgrass Control on the SRER.
17	Kristin Wisneski, Aaryn Olsson, Barron Orr and Mitch McClaran UA OALS and SNR	Utilizing Geospatial Technologies for Invasive Species Mapping & Control.
18	Abigail Roanhorse and Vince Jenkins UA ABE	High-resolution Aerial Photography with Remotely Piloted Vehicles.
19	Amalia Slaughter Andrea S. Laliberte, Craig Winters and Albert Rango USDA-ARS JER	Acquisition, Orthorectification, and Classification of Hyperspatial UAV Imagery.
20	Dawn Browning, Andrew Byrne, and Steve Archer UA SNR	How Big is Big? Field Validation of Historic Aerial Photography.

RISE Organizing Committee:

Mark Heitlinger, Mitch McClaran, Susan Moran

markh@Ag.arizona.edu
mcclaran@u.arizona.edu
Susan.Moran@ars.usda.gov

Acronyms:

ABE: Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering
ALARC: Arid Lands Agricultural Research Center
ARS: Agricultural Research Service
ASU: Arizona State University
CAP-LTER: Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-term Ecological Research
EEB: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
ESSIC: Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center
GRD: Department of Geography and Regional Development
HWR: Department of Hydrology and Water Resources
JER: Jornada Experimental Range
MGE: Mining and Geological Engineering
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NPN: National Phenology Network
OALS: Office of Arid Lands Studies
SNR: School of Natural Resources
SWRC: Southwest Watershed Research Center
UA: University of Arizona
UM: University of Maryland

Registration

Mitch McClaran and

Susan Moran

Poster Session

Peter Gierlach (Petey Mesquitey) KXCI Radio

Dawn Browning, Andrew Byrne, and Steve Archer UA SNR

Acronyms:

Peter Gierlach (Petey Mesquitey)
KXCI Radio

Dawn Browning, Andrew Byrne, and Steve Archer
UA SNR