Search for: All records

Forest dynamics in arid and semiarid regions are sensitive to water availability, which is becoming increasingly scarce as global climate changes. The timing and magnitude of precipitation in the semiarid southwestern U.S. (“Southwest”) has changed since the 21st century began. The region is projected to become hotter and drier as the century proceeds, with implications for carbon storage, pest outbreaks, and wildfire resilience. Our goal was to quantify the importance of summer monsoon precipitation for forested ecosystems across this region. We developed an isotope mixing model in a Bayesian framework to characterize summer (monsoon) precipitation soil water recharge and water use by three foundation tree species (Populus tremuloides [aspen], Pinus edulis [piñon], and Juniperus osteosperma [Utah juniper]). In 2016, soil depths recharged by monsoon precipitation and tree reliance on monsoon moisture varied across the Southwest with clear differences between species. Monsoon precipitation recharged soil at piñon-juniper (PJ) and aspen sites to depths of at least 60 cm. All trees in the study relied primarily on intermediate to deep (10- 60 cm) moisture both before and after the onset of the monsoon. Though trees continued to primarily rely on intermediate to deep moisture after the monsoon, all species increased reliance on shallow soil moisture to varying degrees. Aspens increased reliance on shallow soil moisture by 13% to 20%. Utah junipers and co-dominant ñons increased their reliance on shallow soil moisture by about 6% to 12%. Nonetheless, approximately half of the post-monsoon moisture in sampled piñon (38-58%) and juniper (47- 53%) stems could be attributed to the monsoon. The monsoon contributed lower amounts to aspen stem water (24-45%) across the study area with the largest impacts at sites with recent precipitation. Therefore, monsoon precipitation is a key driver of growing season moisture that semiarid forests rely on across the Southwest. This monsoon reliance is of critical importance now more than ever as higher global temperatures lead to an increasingly unpredictable and weaker North American Monsoon. 

Building community with rural and underrepresented groups has been a challenge in the field of citizen science. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a team of scientists, educators, Extension professionals, and evaluators have joined efforts to take on this challenge across Alaska. The goals for Arctic Harvest-Public Participation in Scientific Research are to: 1) investigate how shifts in environmental conditions affect the fate of subsistence berries and timing of berry loss from plants in fall and winter across Alaska; and 2) improve the participation in and effectiveness of citizen science across diverse audiences, particularly at high latitudes where a high proportion of communities have populations underrepresented in STEM. We present the assets that collaboration across a land grant university brought to the table, and the Winterberry Citizen Science program design elements we have developed to engage our 1080+ volunteer berry citizen scientists ages three through elder across urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and formal and informal learning settings. Our interdisciplinary team developed and implemented a program that provides in-person or online support for berry monitoring and data collection, and accommodates different age levels and settings. We also developed and tested an innovative program model that weaves storytelling throughout the citizen science learning cycle, from berries stories from the larger community, to stories of the citizen science process, to stories developed from berry data being collected and applied to future scenarios in a changing climate. The variety of program modifications we created have been highly effective helping reach a variety of settings and age levels. In both informal and formal learning environments in our first two years of the program we have had 568 pre-K and elementary-aged (age 3-12), 424 secondary-aged (age 12-18) youth participants and 107 adults (ages 18+), with 44% of participants coming from groups underrepresented in STEM, and 100% of groups completing berry monitoring throughout the fall. These results highlight the importance of designing the citizen science program with cultural relevance, program delivery options, and relationships between participants and scientists, while remaining committed to making a substantial scientific contribution.