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In the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts, I am conducting research on how different plant and animal species respond to experimental fires and rodent exclusion treatments.
Finding out how desert communities respond to fire is vital because fire regimes in desert ecosystems have changed significantly in recent years. Fire return intervals have been shortened, mainly due to an overabundance of invasive annual grasses like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and red brome (Bromus rubens).
My research aims to improve ecological resilience in desert communities by describing responses to novel fire regimes in deserts.
There are 3 main components of this research:
Rodent community diversity
Rodent community diversity
We trap, tag and identify rodents to see how fire affects different species and overall diversity
Plant community diversity
Plant community diversity
We count plants along a transect to show changes in diversity due to fire and changes in rodent abundance
Ant mound and disk size and density
Ant mound and disk size and density
We measure ant mound and disk size to show how western harvester ants are affected by fire
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