Scott Collins Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131-1091 505 277-2265 505 277-5355 scollins@sevilleta.unm.edu
Desert Southwest Section Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge and Middle Rio Grande Basin 34o 10’ 25.99” N by 106° 55’ 31.42” W (Refuge Headquarters) 227,489 acres (92,060 ha); elevation range 4,700 to 9000 ft (1433 to 2743 m) See accompanying ArcView shapefile with the location of the recommended site.
The University of New Mexico (UNM) in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposes to establish the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) as a NEON wildland core site in the Desert Southwest Domain. The SNWR is ideally suited to serve as a NEON core wildland site. The mission of the SNWR is to (1) promote conservation of native plant and animal populations and communities, and ecosystem processes, (2) foster basic and applied scientific research, and (3) provide formal and informal environmental education opportunities. Public access is restricted throughout most of the Refuge providing significant site security for field infrastructure and personnel working in this expansive natural area. SNWR management and staff enthusiastically support and facilitate ecological research in the Refuge.
The SNWR is an extremely large (92,060 ha) site that is highly representative of vegetation and climate in the Southwest Desert Domain. Habitats includes extensive areas of Chihuahuan Desert grassland and shrubland communities, piñon-juniper woodland, Colorado shrubsteppe plateau, high elevation montane coniferous forest, riparian forest along the Middle Rio Grande, and representative species from Central Great Plains grassland all of which providing a complex array of edaphic, climatic and compositional gradients relevant to NEON.
The Refuge is host to the Sevilleta LTER Program which, along with scientists from across the US and elsewhere, have generated an impressive record of on-going studies and existing databases that address a broad array of NEON-relevant environmental research including work in all of the NEON Grand Challenge areas. Existing housing, roads, site security, and field infrastructure (flux towers, sensor arrays, mammal trapping webs, field biosafety suits and equipment, climate manipulation experiments, etc.) are available for use in NEON-related research and monitoring programs. A wireless cloud across the SNWR provides daily data transmission and unrestricted data access from field sites to researchers worldwide. The Sevilleta Field Research Station offers comfortable housing at minimum cost, spacious laboratories, a library, a computer lab, storage areas, meeting facilities and field vehicles. Finally, a 20,000 sq ft state-of-the-art laboratory, computer center and educational facility to be completed in 2007 will provide a significant foundation for NEON operations. Through this facility the Field Station will soon be connected to Lambda Rail. The site is only a 45 minute drive from the Albuquerque International Sunport via Interstate 25. Together, we believe that our expansive on-going research program, supporting infrastructure, and advanced cyberinfrastructure make the SNWR an ideal candidate to serve as a wildlands core site for NEON. The SNWR could serve as a significant component in any of the suite of regional and national research themes being proposed for NEON infrastructure and tool kits by the broader ecological research community.