Notice of Intent: Arthropod responses to climate change and natural disturbance events across an elevational gradient in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico.

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Climate change, and associated increased variation in weather conditions, are having profound impacts on vegetation and wildlife across the American Southwest. Montane forests of the Southwest are particularly vulnerable to the effects of warmer ambient temperatures, drought, and extreme weather events. A recent pattern of droughts and warmer temperatures since the 1990â¿¿s has caused increased forest tree mortality and increased frequency and severity of forest fires across the Southwest. The Jemez Mountains of northcentral New Mexico have experienced considerable conifer tree mortality due to recent droughts, bark beetle infestations and a series of large catastrophic wildfires over the past couple of decades. Arthropods (insects, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, crustaceans) tend to be specialized to live in particular environments, largely determined by temperature, moisture and vegetation type. Arthropods are critical ecosystem components that drive many ecological functions, including herbivory, predation, litter decomposition, pollination, pathogen transmission, etc. Arthropods generally have short life cycles and are known to respond rapidly to changes in weather conditions or habitat changes. A long-term study of arthropod responses to climate change and habitat disturbance was initiated in 1992 by the University of New Mexico, Bandelier National Monument and the USGS Jemez Mountains Field station along an elevational gradient in the Jemez Mountains. The purpose of this research is to determine how climate change affects ground-dwelling arthropods in the Jemez Mountains, especially across the elevation gradient from low elevation pinyon-juniper woodlands, through mid-elevation ponderosa pine forests to high elevation mixed-conifer forests; in addition, the sites could act as experimental monitoring locations for probable disturbance incidents, such as fires or bark-beetle attacks on resident tree species. As important components of forest ecosystems, arthropods should serve as indicators of changes in the species diversity and trophic functional attributes of montane forest ecosystems relative to climate change.

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