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The Heliograph: Spring 2024

heliograph.

The Heliograph is the newsletter for the Sonoran Desert Network and Desert Research Learning Center.

The Sonoran Desert Network is an Inventory & Monitoring Network that works to collect long-term inventory and monitoring data on natural resources in eleven national parks in the Sonoran Desert for the purpose of aiding parks in natural resource management. The Desert Research Learning Center is the central office of this network, located in Tucson, Arizona. It supports network operations and offers outdoor education opportunities to local student groups.

Testing Treatments for Mitigating Climate-Change Effects on Adobe Structures

After five years of hands-on research at the Desert Research Learning Center, Sonoran Desert Network (SODN) partners [Southern Arizona Office staff Sharlot Hart and Kara Raymond] published a paper analyzing the effectiveness of various treatments to adobe structures. The results of their hard work provide data-backed recommendations to cultural resource managers as many adobe structures face increased threats of erosion under climate change. You can read about this project on the SODN website, in Heritage—a cultural and natural heritage science journal—or on our social media.

People inspect a sheet hung up at night with lights to attract bugs.
People inspect a sheet hung up and illuminated at night with lights to attract insects at Tumacácori National Historical Park.

NPS/E. SCHNAUBELT

Insect Conservation in the National Parks

The Glowworms of Tumacácori Would Like a Word

After an inspiring conversation with Tony Palmer, an entomologist at Tumacácori National Historical Park, former SODN writer Alice Wondrak Biel stands up for insects. In this article about the fascinating bioluminescing earthworms and fireflies that live at Tumacácori, climate change and dark skies are identified as important factors regarding the impending “insect apocalypse.” Highlighting (pun intended!) the importance of insects to our daily comfort—and survival—she makes the case that insects deserve to be treated as wildlife, not “creepy crawlies.”

Map of Tuzigoot NM, Montezume Castle NM, Saguaro NP, Fort Bowie NHS, Chiricahua NM, and Coronado NMem in Arizona and Gila Cliff Dwellings NM and Carlsbad Caverns NP in New Mexico.

Inflation Reduction Act Funding in SODN

Globally, amphibians and aquatic reptiles are among the most threatened taxa on Earth due to the compounding effects of climate change, water extraction, and habitat decline. In the Southwest, another primary threat is the invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)—a voracious non-native predator called the “Great White Shark of the Southwest”—and the diseases they carry into the watersheds of parks, including chytrid fungus and ranaviruses. To meet this challenge and protect native species, land managers must know the distribution and abundance of native species, bullfrogs, and these threatening diseases. Through IRA funding, we can collect environmental DNA (eDNA) from surface waters to model the status and distributions of these important organisms. eDNA sample identification is on-going, and these results will inform our action plans for bullfrog control and native species recovery. We are also developing an early detection/rapid response protocol for responding to future bullfrog sightings in parks. To learn more, visit our project page.

Young adult workers in yellow hard hats work on the frame of a wooden structure.
Network staff build the second ramada at the Desert Research Learning Center.

NPS/E. SCHNAUBELT

Ramadas of the Southwest

In November of 2023, SODN staff finished building a second ramada at the Desert Research Learning Center (DRLC). This style of ramada is commonly built by Tohono O’odham people to provide shade around living and harvesting areas. We admire the resourcefulness of this ramada design and deeply respect the place-based wisdom indigenous people hold in the Sonoran Desert. Does your park have ramadas? Read more about the history of shade-making in the desert.

Staff Updates

In 2023, SODN said goodbye to several staff, volunteers, and interns who either finished their terms, followed new positions, or started exciting travel. Each of them left a wonderful impact on SODN and the DRLC, and we appreciate all their hard work!

  • Alicia Bakken, Biological Science Technician
  • Alice Wondrak Biel, Science Communication Writer/Editor (new contact: Tani Hubbard)
  • Joe Black, Biological Science Technician
  • Owen Brown, Volunteer/Stanford University CareerEd Fellow
  • Elise Dillingham, Wildlife Protocol Lead (new contact: Jessica McGeverly (previously McGarey)
  • Laura Falk, Aquatics Protocol Crew Lead (new contact: Andy Hubbard)
  • Brandon Gottung, Biological Science Technician
  • Kate Mcnicholas, SCA Aquatics Intern
  • Naomi Oberg, Biological Science Technician
  • Sam Olivares-Mejia, SIP Data Management Intern
  • Dominik Wolf, Wildlife International Volunteer in Parks

SODN is very excited to welcome new interns and staff:

Headshots of five women.
Left to right: Eva, Cassidy, Elora, Lauren, and Elizabeth.

A woman leans down to look at the scientific equipment - tubes and pumps - being worked with by two women outside.
Staff demonstrated the hand-pump method of sampling eDNA in the field for Shannon Estenoz.

NPS/E. SCHNAUBELT

At the Desert Research Learning Center

The Desert Research Learning Center has hosted multiple workshops, trainings, tours, community science events, and programs this year. Saguaro National Park, the National Park Service's Southern Arizona Group, National Park Service's Historic Preservation Training Center, US Fish and Wildlife Service, The University of Arizona, Ironwood Tree Experience, National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Mission Gardens, the National Park Foundation, and other organizations have all used our facility or have partnered with us for events. We are grateful for all our relationships with the above organizations and look forward to working with these groups and more in 2024.

Recent events hosted at the DRLC include:

  • An Eagle Scout project, in which Scouts helped complete a new campground at the DRLC for use in future programs.
  • A visit from Shannon Estenoz, the Department of Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, who was in town to announce IRA funding going towards parks in Arizona.
  • An in-person gathering for the annual Inventory & Monitoring Division Program Managers’ Meeting.
  • A research field trip for the Ecological Society of America;s college-education program, Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability (SEEDS).

Recent Reports Published

SODN’s climate-and-water reports summarize the network’s analyses of weather, groundwater, and, in some parks, springs data. Recent reports provide information on Water Year 2022 (10/1/2021–9/30/2022). This monitoring helps us understand and contextualize changes to park resources over time. The data analyzed include precipitation, temperature, groundwater levels, drought severity and extent, and–in parks where we collect spring data–spring condition, water quality and quantity, water chemistry, and discharge. Data are compared to 1991–2022 averages as context for environmental trends. Results from our eDNA collection are also discussed in these reports. These reports can be found on the SODN website and each park’s Science & Research page.

Sonoran Desert Network Welcomes International Volunteers in Parks

One of SODN’s favorite traditions is welcoming International Volunteers in Parks (IVIPs) to Tucson for internships of 21–52 weeks. Our previous IVIPs have been from France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and Romania. If you or someone you know is interested in gaining premier fieldwork experience while furthering botanical or soils skills, read more about this program on our Interns & Volunteers webpage.

Project Updates

Three people measure out a plot of land on a slope and take notes.
Uplands crew monitoring at Saguaro National Park.

NPS/A. WASHUTA

Vegetation and Soils

The uplands monitoring crew is currently processing the data collected during the 2023 field season and planning for more sampling in the fall. In 2024 the crew will visit Chiricahua NM, Coronado NMEM, Saguaro NP, Tonto NM, and the Guevavi and Calabazas units of Tumacácori NHP. The crew will also visit monitoring sites across Pima County as part of our continued partnership with the Pima County Office of Sustainability and Conservation and Tucson Audubon Society.

Four people smile at a camera, sitting among green grass holding spring monitoring equipment.
Springs monitoring in Saguaro National Park.

NPS/E. SCHNAUBELT

Springs

SODN crew members have kept up with springs data collection fantastically despite currently lacking a crew lead. Spring 2024 marks the completion of our seventh year of perennial springs monitoring. Currently we are wrapping up the web reporting of our 2022 springs data and processing the 2023 data. The comparison between these two years is staggering: 2022 was one of the wettest years in the last 100 years, while 2023 was one of the driest. We have certainly experienced climate whiplash in the Sonoran Desert.

We continue to integrate environmental DNA (eDNA) collection in our springs monitoring protocol, as began in 2022. Springs and tinajas are locations of high traffic for many desert species, making them excellent sampling locations for eDNA. A new tool in this protocol is an eDNA backpack sampler, allowing us to sample in the Gila River (Gila Cliff Dwellings NM), Quitobaquito (Organ Pipe Cactus NM), and Montezuma Well (Montezuma Castle NM) like never done before. Excitingly, the eDNA project has received much attention from the press. For example, the Arizona Daily Star wrote this piece on our work.

Four people, wearing neon vests, look at a camera on a stake in the desert.
Wildlife camera deployment.

NPS

Wildlife

For the first time, "AI soft sorting" has been implemented as part of the terrestrial wildlife monitoring protocol. The AI software sorts out false triggers from the images captured during deployment, which saves us days' worth of work during the mammal identification process. Check out our Photo Gallery containing some of the images we have captured in Saguaro National Park West, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and Chiricahua National Monument.

Streams

Streams fieldwork has been on hold since December 2023. At that time, following the departure of key staff members and a facing a large data backlog, the Southwest Network Collaboration (SWNC), which includes SODN, voted to temporarily suspend fieldwork associated with streams protocols. This temporary suspension will allow SWNC staff to review and analyze existing streams data and identify near- and long-term staffing needs and strategies for sustainably implementing streams monitoring in the future.

Past Heliographs

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    Last updated: May 31, 2024