Science and Resource Management Blog

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Working Through Science

In natural resource management, decisions and actions are, or at least should be, based on the best available science. Here we will highlight local examples of science and management collaborations and explore practical reasons why it doesn't always work according to theory.

We will focus on research done by people in or near Bandelier that has contributed to significant natural resource management decisions.

 

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AUGUST 2012 - The Science of Pitfalls
By Theresa Murphy Bandelier Ecology SCA 2012 URI Graduate

Last month I was able to participate in one of our four yearly collections of ground dwelling arthropods at Bandelier. Sampled four times a year, these collections are designed for long-term monitoring of ground-dwelling arthropod diversity and population dynamics at Bandelier National Monument. Three sites were chosen to monitor different elevations and vegetation types within the park. Because arthropod populations can shift dramatically from year to year the long term nature of this study helps land managers tease out long term trends in these populations due to climate or land use changes that could signal broader changes to the ecosystem. Most studies of this nature are based on six year grants; this study is extremely rare in that it has been going on for over twenty years.

To collect samples from the pitfall traps my partner, Courtney, and I went out to each collection site armed with anti-freeze, ethanol, and a toolbox full of cups, cans, strainers, funnels, and chopsticks. Each 'pitfall' is a cup filled partially with bright green anti-freeze and stored securely in a soup can that is level to the ground. Anti-freeze is used in order to prevent evaporation and preserve the samples. We use a less-toxic version with a bittering agent to prevent animals from drinking it.

The traps are camouflaged using a rock or piece of wood to prevent insects from being tipped off by light reflecting off the anti-freeze. This can make the traps hard to find but a GPS and bright-colored flagging generally help us find the traps. Plus when carefully inspecting an area, 'floating' rocks, which are a sure sign of a pitfall trap, tend to stand out.

 

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At each trap we strain out all the bugs in the cup. After collecting all our samples, a funnel and chopsticks help us fit our samples into glass vials to be sent to the University of New Mexico for identification. It is easier to place the larger insects in head first, not only because they fit better, but because many insects will stare at you with large eyes if you try to place them in the other way.

The beauty of the data collected comes from the large variety of species that have been tracked over the years. Data collected has revealed how individual species respond to environmental changes- including weather and fire. All new species collected are added to Bandelier's growing arthropod collection, housed at UNM's Natural History Museum (link: http://www.msb.unm.edu/arthropods/index.html), giving the project value in helping to build a catalog of what species can be found within the park. In fact, some previously undescribed species such as a new minute brown scavenger beetle in the family Lathridiidae and a new darkling beetle in the genus Steriphanus have been discovered from the pitfall traps at Bandelier. In addition our pitfall traps are designed using the same protocol as several pitfall sites located across the state of New Mexico allowing for invaluable comparison of diversity and species response over a broad-scale.

 

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At Bandelier changes due to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (Link to NOAA ENSO page: http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/) weather pattern have been a particular focus of this project. El Niño has a strong impact on southwestern U.S. weather and its impact on arthropod diversity is continuing to be an interesting aspect of this long term study. This study has been able to gather data on diversity during normal years and assess changes in diversity due to La Niña (dry) years and El Niño (wet) years. In addition the elevation differences among the sites make it possible to study what effects higher elevation may have on diversity, due to its cooler temperatures, higher levels of precipitation, and differing vegetation types. In connecting these two factors it has been possible to see at which elevations populations are most susceptible to changes from droughts and shifting climate patterns.

Hiking down the switchbacks with our last set of arthropod samples in hand, I thought of how diverse the insect world is. Over the course of 102 traps we had seen an amazing variety of insects from tiny black ants to brown beetles that were too big for the funnel and almost too big for a vial. We collected an assortment of crickets, spiders, beetles and even velvet ants, which despite their name, are actually flightless wasps. It's fascinating to see what turns up in each trap, especially because many of the insects in our traps are so elusive in lifestyle and habitat as to rarely be seen by hikers. It was a great experience to be part of such a unique long term study on arthropod diversity.

 

July 2012 A Mesa of Change

The ecology group has recently undertaken an effort to precisely map 1,000s of trees in the piñon-juniper woodlands of Bandelier. Using sophisticated GPS technology and a laser rangefinder we are able to map the trees with an accuracy of 15cm. This is 30x more accurate than a normal handheld GPS unit.
The piñon-juniper woodland has seen significant changes in its species composition since the establishment of

Bandelier NM . When the monument was first established ponderosa pine extended much further down the mesas than it does today. In the 1950s a mega-drought effected the southwest, during which much of the area experienced dry conditions not seen since the late 1500s. During the drought most of the lower elevation ponderosa on the mesas died. You can still see many of the dead pines as big old logs on the ground as you walk down the burro trail. Occasionally you will even see a tall standing ponderosa carcass. But for the most part ponderosas are now only able to survive in the wetter drainage bottoms, not on the drier lower mesas.
Before management of the mesas of Bandelier was under the jurisdiction of the federal government the piñon-juniper woodlands were heavily grazed by sheep and cattle. This led to suppression of low-severity surface fire as the grazers removed much of the fine fuels that would normally carry the fire. This indirect fire suppression transitioned into direct fire suppression in the early years of the Park Service. Fire suppression combined with continued land degradation through top soil erosion and grazing by an exotic feral burro population led to a "woodification" of the low elevation mesas. Woodification means the major portions of the mesas were once a more savanna-type system with large patches of grass separating relatively few trees but then gradually became a dense woodland of piñon and juniper.
Because of the continued woodification of Bandelier's mesas an ecological restoration (http://www.nps.gov/band/parkmgmt/restore.htm) project was undertaken. This project involved many partners, and years of research. The treatment method was fairly simple and basic; trees within a certain size class would be cut into many pieces and their limbs and branches scattered into the open bare areas. The result is an increase in herbaceous plants (grasses, perennial flowers) due to a decrease in erosion and an increase in cooler moist places for plants to establish.

 

During the experimental stages of the ecological restoration in the early 2000s another drought hit the Jemez Mountains. This drought devastated the mature piñon pine, killing over 95% of the mature trees. The restoration treatment eventually was fully implemented using live junipers and the standing dead piñon trees. The ecological restoration work now covers large portions of the low elevation mesas in Bandelier. In the ten years since the piñon trees died most of them have fallen over. The fallen trees have similar effects as the trees cut for the restoration treatment. It is common to see herbaceous plants and tree seedlings growing from under the branches of these fallen trees.
As our mesas continue to change the ecology group will be able to locate the trees on their demography plots more easily, due to the precision of our mapping effort. We will be able to assess mortality and germination rates, as well as changes in size and age class distribution. We have partnered with researchers from LANL and the University of Idaho to attempt to use remote sensing imagery to create models that assess forest health and recognize early signs of forest stand mortality. Our collaborators are able to use the highly accurate location and demographic data to "teach" their models what to look for when trees start to die. The next step will be to scale these models up from relatively small pieces of landscape to entire mountain ranges or forested regions. Combining precise field data with the ability to monitor forests using remote sensing gives land managers current, accurate, and broad-scale data to use in decision making.

Further Reading:

Allen, C.D., Breshears, D. 1998 Drought-induced shift of a forest-woodland ecotone: Rapid landscape response to climate variation. PNAS Vol. 95, pp. 14839–14842

Breshears et al. 2005 Regional vegetation die-off in response to global-change-type drought. PNAS Vol. 102 No 42, pp 15144-15148

 

 

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June 2012
Working with Onsite Science: A Place-Based Approach to Science for Land Management

Natural resource managers entrusted with the stewardship of our public lands have long known that decision-making related to restoring, managing, and protecting these ecosystems in a sustainable way is complex. They need relevant, up-to-date information to understand and manage specific landscapes. Much research on public wildlands, however, is conducted by scientists based out of university or urban research centers distant from the land and its local managers. Although these research efforts result in valuable findings, the information may not address site-specific management needs.
Adaptive, science-based land management-in which information on status and trends in an ecosystem is continually collected, analyzed, and communicated-is generally accepted as the desired approach for managing ecosystems on public lands (Johnson et al. 1998). Such ecological knowledge is often time and place specific. If there are substantial knowledge gaps in this realm, land managers struggle to make sound science-based decisions. On the other hand, when scientists can interact onsite with managers on a daily basis, effective communication, application, and follow-through of relevant science are greatly facilitated. This is where a place-based approach to science can help.
Bandelier has onsite scientists researching: cultural resources, ecology, wildlife, vegetation and fire effects. These scientists, act as a bridge between research and management, working to identify the information needs, secure external research funding, foster collaborations with outside institutions to conduct needed research, and communicate research findings quickly and effectively to local managers and the public. Place-based scientists develop substantial expertise in the natural dynamics of their particular landscape. Eventually this allows them to become information brokers of the deep-rooted institutional knowledge that comes from being in a place long enough to learn its lessons and grow familiar with its natural and cultural rhythms and history.
Good examples of on-site, place-focused research programs are found at a number of National Park Service units, where individual scientists have devoted major portions of their careers to working in particular landscapes. Such examples suggest that developing long-term, landscape-scale, on-site science programs could be a cost-effective way to meet critical information needs for many public land managers. Establishing additional place-based scientists could foster the development of land management organizations that institutionalize scientific approaches to learning, collaboration, open dialogue, and continual improvement-agencies that truly implement science-based adaptive management.
Resources and References
Adapted with permission from: Allen, CD. A Sense of Place: A Place-Based Approach to Science for Land Management. USGS http://www.fort.usgs.gov/resources/spotlight/place/Default.asp
Johnson, N.C., A.J. Malk, R.C. Szaro, and W.T. Sexton (eds.). 1998. Ecological stewardship: A common reference for ecosystem management. Vols. I-III. Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford, UK.

 

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