Jornada Basin LTER (JRN) - United States of America

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Basic Information
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Site Name
Jornada Basin LTER (JRN)
Short name
JRN
Country
United States of America
Web Address
http://lter.jornada.nmsu.edu
Site Manager
Niall Hanan
John Anderson
Gregory Maurer
Madeleine Soss
Site Description
The Jornada Basin Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program is part of a national network of long-term ecological research sites funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The Jornada LTER program has been continuously funded since 1982 to develop general principles governing changes between grassland and shrubland ecosystems based on long-term data collected in the Chihuahuan Desert. Research themes at the Jornada LTER focus on vegetation change, climate and land use impacts on ecosystem function, and the role of dryland processes in structuring communities and landscapes. We translate our findings to dryland ecosystems around the world, and forecast the dynamics of future ecosystem states in response to changing climate and land use. The Jornada Basin is located in southern New Mexico, USA, approximately 25 km northeast of the city of Las Cruces (32.6 N -106.7 W, elevation 1315 m). Annual precipitation is 24 cm and maximum temperatures average 13 C in January and 36 C in June. The study site is near the northern extent of the Chihuahuan Desert, which is the largest of the North American warm deserts, in a region has undergone large shifts in the relative dominance of grasslands and shrublands over the past century. We partner closely with the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range (JER) and the NMSU Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (CDRRC), allowing us to benefit from a long history of rangeland research, and to contribute to science-based management and sustainability practices.The Jornada Basin LTER project is administered by New Mexico State University.
Last modified
2022-12-08 02:09:01

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1982
Observed properties
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
ILTER✔This site is a verified "ILTER" member.
US LTER✔ (LTER-NAM-US-21)This site is a verified "US LTER" member.
Photos
Figure 1. Microscale self-segregation of cyanobacterial species in biocrusts. A Patches attributable to M. vaginatus (dashed white lines) and Parifilum sp. (dashed black lines) on a rehydrated biocrust are visible through differential coloration. Areas sampled for bulk soil (B) and cyanobacterial bundles (A1-4) are indicated by circles. Scale bar is 1 cm. (Nelson et al., 2022)
Figure 1. Microscale self-segregation of cyanobacterial species in biocrusts. A Patches attributable to M. vaginatus (dashed white lines) and Parifilum sp. (dashed black lines) on a rehydrated biocrust are visible through differential coloration. Areas sampled for bulk soil (B) and cyanobacterial bundles (A1-4) are indicated by circles. Scale bar is 1 cm. (Nelson et al., 2022)
Figure 2. Impact of connectivity modifiers (conmods) on herbaceous cover in the TRIGGER experiment. (A) cover measurements in treated and control during 3 years since initiation.
Figure 2. Impact of connectivity modifiers (conmods) on herbaceous cover in the TRIGGER experiment. (A) cover measurements in treated and control during 3 years since initiation.
Figure 2. Impact of connectivity modifiers (conmods) on herbaceous cover in the TRIGGER experiment. (B) conmod overhead imagery showing 2022 forb growth.
Figure 2. Impact of connectivity modifiers (conmods) on herbaceous cover in the TRIGGER experiment. (B) conmod overhead imagery showing 2022 forb growth.
Figure 3. Effects of reducing shrub competition (“plant scale”) and aeolian connectivity (“patch scale”) on perennial grass establishment, averaged across the 15 blocks of the cross-scale interactions study (CSIS), showing modest impacts of treatments on their own, but much larger interactive effects.
Figure 3. Effects of reducing shrub competition (“plant scale”) and aeolian connectivity (“patch scale”) on perennial grass establishment, averaged across the 15 blocks of the cross-scale interactions study (CSIS), showing modest impacts of treatments on their own, but much larger interactive effects.
Figure 4. Competition intensity (CI) for honey mesquite populations across the Jornada Basin, showing three classes of Low (0
Figure 4. Competition intensity (CI) for honey mesquite populations across the Jornada Basin, showing three classes of Low (0
Figure 5. Hypothetical relationship between timing of senescence for grasses (green line) and shrubs (orange line) and annual precipitation amount. Saturation of surface soils at higher rainfall amounts results in percolation to deeper soil depths accessible by shrubs, eliciting a senescence response (Currier & Sala, 2022).
Figure 5. Hypothetical relationship between timing of senescence for grasses (green line) and shrubs (orange line) and annual precipitation amount. Saturation of surface soils at higher rainfall amounts results in percolation to deeper soil depths accessible by shrubs, eliciting a senescence response (Currier & Sala, 2022).
Figure 6. Thiel-Sen slope of moving window covariance analysis between perennial herbaceous vegetation and bare ground ("xerification") for years 1986 through 2020 at the JRN LTER site. Yellow colors indicate little or no directional change through time, while increasingly negative Thiel-Sen slopes (darker green colors) indicate potential ("imminent") ecological state change. Red colors (positive Thiel-Sen slopes) indicate areas of earlier high covariance, where new states are dominant/stable in more recen
Figure 6. Thiel-Sen slope of moving window covariance analysis between perennial herbaceous vegetation and bare ground ("xerification") for years 1986 through 2020 at the JRN LTER site. Yellow colors indicate little or no directional change through time, while increasingly negative Thiel-Sen slopes (darker green colors) indicate potential ("imminent") ecological state change. Red colors (positive Thiel-Sen slopes) indicate areas of earlier high covariance, where new states are dominant/stable in more recen
Figure 7. Adaptation of the Noy-Meir (1973) pulse-reserve concepts to show growth strategies of microbes and plants under pulsed rainfall regimes (Garcia-Pichel & Sala, 2022). Nimble response (NIR) organisms (e.g. microbes) respond more rapidly to pulses, including short pulses, with less reliance on (and accumulation of) carbohydrate reserves. Torpid response (TOR) organisms (e.g. plants) utilize reserves of carbohydrates in roots or seeds to initiate growth and must devote more resources in late growth to
Figure 7. Adaptation of the Noy-Meir (1973) pulse-reserve concepts to show growth strategies of microbes and plants under pulsed rainfall regimes (Garcia-Pichel & Sala, 2022). Nimble response (NIR) organisms (e.g. microbes) respond more rapidly to pulses, including short pulses, with less reliance on (and accumulation of) carbohydrate reserves. Torpid response (TOR) organisms (e.g. plants) utilize reserves of carbohydrates in roots or seeds to initiate growth and must devote more resources in late growth to
Geographic
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Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 32.617 Longitude: -106.741

Size
ca. 104166.00ha
Elevation (min)
1207.00msl
Elevation (max)
2442.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
GEO-BON Biome
Terrestrial
Biome
Desert-scrub
Ecosystem Type
Desert
Deserts and xeric shrublands
Air Temperature: Average Annual
13.00°C
Precipitation Annual
240.00mm
Landforms
Desert
Basin
Vegetation
Vegetation varies along the north-south axis of the Chihuahuan desert, and the habitat types studied at the Jornada are most representative of the northern Trans-Pecos subdivision of this region. The Jornada LTER focuses on five habitat types: black grama grassland (Bouteloua eriopoda), creosotebush shrubland (Larrea tridentata), mesquite duneland (Prosopis glandulosa), tarbush shrubland (Flourensia cernua) and playa . The playas, dominated by a variety of grasses, are found in low- lying, periodically flooded areas that receive drainage waters from the various upslope communities.
Hydrology
The Jornada Basin LTER research area is within a closed basin.
Site Type
Platform
Design of Experimentation
partly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
beyond catchment scale
Design of Observation
partly observation
Scale of Observation
beyond catchment
Permanent Power Supply
No
Equipment
Data infrastructure » Data services » Data portal
Data infrastructure » Data storage » XML database
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Structured file
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Spatial database (GIS)
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Spatial data file (GIS)
Data infrastructure » Data storage » Relational database
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Data transmission » Data Transmission Type (from site) » Telephone line
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Data transmission » Data Transmission Type (from site) » Radio transmission system (repeaters. receivers. centralstation)
Energy and data transmission infrastructure » Data transmission » Data Transmission Type (within site) » Radio transmission system (repeaters, receivers, centralstation)
Accessible All Year
No
All parts of Site Accessible
No
Permanent Operation
No
General Data Policy
Formal acknowledgement of the dataset providers
Data Policy Notes
We follow the US LTER data access policy:

This information is released under the Creative Commons license - Attribution - CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The consumer of these data ("Data User" herein) has an ethical obligation to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or co-authorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available "as is." The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you.
Data Policy URL
https://lter.jornada.nmsu.edu/for-researchers/
LTER Site Classification
LTSER