Brandon T Bestelmeyer

Research Ecologist/Adjunct Assistant Professor

Land change has been particularly severe in several parts of the world, including the Gobi desert of Mongolia where grassland productivity has declined. We are working with the Mongolian government to better understand and react to these changes

USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range

 and Biology Department

 

Our research centers on land change science with an emphasis on rangelands and dryland ecosystems.

 

Land change has several manifestations, including desertification, restoration actions, changes in biodiversity, or changes in how people use the land. 

 

Our group works to uncover the hidden linkages among these changes and their ultimate causes. We seek to reveal the (often unintended) consequences of management and provide science information and tools to managers and policymakers. We approach problems using the core landscape ecology concepts of pattern-process relationships, spatial explicitness, scale hierarchies and interactions among scales, and social-ecological linkages.

 

We apply this research by developing and linking interpretive tools including ecological land classification, state-and-transition models, soil mapping, remote-sensed vegetation mapping, and process-based indicators.

 

Projects involve collaborations with government agencies, NGOs, and scientists in developed and developing nations to expand our ideas and approaches yet keep them grounded in the real world. Without the direct collaboration of managers and policymakers, land change science is not effective.

 

Prospective students and postdocs are encouraged to contact me for more information

USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range

MSC 3JER, Box 30003

New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, NM 88003

Contact:

Phone: 505-646-5139

Fax: 505-646-5889

E-mail: bbestelm"at"nmsu.edu

Soil is beautiful