Research Projects

OUR RESEARCH

Structural diversity across the NEON terrestrial
macrosystem

Wildlife habitat restoration monitoring post forest fire

We are investigating relationships between vegetation volume and structural arrangement with ecosystem function across terrestrial biomes at the NEON sites with UAVs. This project is funded by NSF Award #2212859.

We are using UAVs to monitor forest restoration post-wildlife at the Lincoln National Forest in collaboration with the US Forest Service. These forest represent important wildlife habitat but wildfires are changing the plant composition and size across the landscape.

Root structural diversity in drylands

Plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity across the USA

Biodiversity and habitat configuration in the USA-Mexico borderlands

We are studying the habitat of and the rich biodiversity found in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. Sites include those found along the borderland region around El Paso, Texas.

Biocrust communities and their ecosystem services

We are using ground penetrating RADAR to characterize and develop metrics that describe the below ground structural diversity of ecosystems in drylands. Ongoing work to understanding root structural diversity and its relationship to soil processes are ongoing at Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico.

This collaborative project between Purdue University, Indiana University, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Smithsonian, and the US Forest Service seeks to understand patterns of co-occurence in plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity across space and time. This project is funded by the NSF Award #2106103.

In collaboration with scientists at USDA, NMSU, and UNLV, we are exploring the communities and the services that biological crusts (biocrusts) provide in the hot deserts of the USA.