Our research is pioneering the new field of urban ecology while also studying past human societies, in order to understand the nature and possible outcomes of complex interactions among human and natural systems. We focus on the effect of human activities on biodiversity and habitat in the American southwest and similar arid regions in other parts of the world.
Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet)
SEINet is a center of biodiversity information, organizing Southwestern natural-history collections into one portal.
Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER)
Through interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engineering, CAP LTER examines the effects of urbanization on a desert ecosystem and vice versa.
Phoenix Area Social Survey
This survey studies the relationships between people and the natural environment in the Phoenix metro area.
Advancing Conservation in a Social Context
This project investigates the tradeoffs between human well-being and biodiversity-conservation goals, and between conservation and other economic, political, and social agendas at local, national, and international scales.
Urbanization and Global Environmental Change
This collaborative project is building greater knowledge and understanding of the bidirectional interactions between global environmental change and cities, present at local, regional, and global scales, and integrating the work of decision makers, practitioners, and academic researchers.
Agrarian Landscapes in Transition: A Cross-Scale Approach
This project traces the effects of the introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture at six long-term ecological research sites.
Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics Project
This project examines long-term socioecological processes that shaped Mediterranean landscapes from the beginning of farming to the beginning of complex civilization.
Archaeological Data Integration for the Study of Long-Term Human and Social Dynamics
This integrative project will address the challenge of enabling scientifically meaningful integration and use of the expanding body of archaeological data.
Legacies on the Landscape: Prehistoric Human Land Use and Long-Term Ecological Change
This collaborative project involving ecologists and archaeologists explores how prehistoric agricultural communities have affected plant communities, soil properties, and biogeochemical cycling for thousands of years.
Long-Term Coupled Socioecological Change in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico
In this project, archaeologists, mathematical modelers, ecologists, and environmental scientists are applying archaeological and ecological analyses, resilience theory, and formal dynamical modeling to identify variables that foster stability and promote transformation in coupled socioecological systems.
