Long-Term Studies of Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Biodiversity at Bandelier National Monument: Relationships Between Arthropod Community Dynamics, Elevation, and Precipitation in the Jemez Mountains: Results from 1997 Sample Collections
Lightfoot DC, Fagerlund RA, Brantley S. 1998. Long-Term Studies of Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Biodiversity at Bandelier National Monument: Relationships Between Arthropod Community Dynamics, Elevation, and Precipitation in the Jemez Mountains: Results from 1997 Sample Collections. Contract OM, Order no. 82036-6-0105. University of New Mexico, Department of Biology. Albuquerque, NM
This annual report provides results of 1997 data as part of an on-going long-term monitoring study of ground-dwelling arthropods at Bandelier National Monument. A long-term study was begun at Bandelier National Monument in 1992 to monitor ground-dwelling arthropod communities in different environments across an elevation and temperature/moisture gradient to gain information on the effects of climate variation on arthropod communities in mountain environments in the Southwest. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of annual variation in precipitation on ground-dwelling arthropod communities across an elevation gradient. In the semi-arid Southwest United States, annual precipitation is positively correlated with increasing elevation due to orographic precipitation. Mountains provide a gradient in local climatic conditions from dry, warm low elevation environments, to moist, cool high elevation environments. Such environmental gradients are reflected in plant formations, ranging from low- land deserts, to cool moist montane forests. Annual variation in regional precipitation from global climate patterns such as El Nino/La Nina events may have different effects on biotic communities at opposite ends of such elevation/moisture gradients. This study was designed to determine patterns of ground-dwelling arthropod communities across an elevation gradient in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, and to determine how communities across the gradient respond to variation in regional climate resulting in abnormally wet years and dry years. The El Nino (wet)/La Nina (dry) cycles provide a regional pattern of above average annual precipitation and below average annual precipitation respectively, in the Southwest United States.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Lightfoot, David; Fagerlund, Richard; Brantley, Sandra
- Date of Issue
- 1998-09-29
- Publisher
- University of New Mexico, Department of Biology
- Units
- BAND
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Arthropod populations, Arthropods - Ecology, Invertebrates, Jemez Mountains (New Mexico)