Emily N. Runnion has accepted a position as an outreach presenter with the Tucson Environmental Education Exchange. She will work to develop educational materials to help grade-school students in the Tucson area develop their environmental literacy. Emily is a senior pursuing a degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Wildlife Management and Conservation. She is the recipient of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment's Student Leadership award, a participant in the University of Florida's International Research Experiences for Students, and a student crew leader for the project "Brush management and ecosystem services: a quantification of trade-offs on Western rangelands."

Victoria R. Friess has accepted an internship with the Bio/Diversity Project for Fall 2018. She will be working with educators to develop environmental science curricula for K-12 students, particularly those students from underrepresented groups, and will be leading field trips to places such as the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and/or Saguaro National Park. The Bio/Diversity Project is a collaborative effort involving the Women in Science & Engineering Program at the University of Arizona, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the Friends of Saguaro National Park. Victoria is a rising senior pursuing a degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Wildlife Management and Conservation. She is interning with the Arizona Game and Fish Department this summer. Victoria is also a student crew leader on the project "Brush management and ecosystem services: a quantification of trade-offs on Western rangelands."

Alaina H. Michaels was accepted to the Masters program in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. She will be continuing work under the guidance of Dr. Anna Dornhaus in the Social Insect Laboratory. Alaina also recently received the Van de Verde Undergraduate Research Scholarship in Science. The scholarship is supported by an endowment established in memory of Alice M. Van de Verde and suppports undergraduate students enrolled in the University of Arizona's College of Science in their pursuit of a career in research. This scholarship will: a) provide financial support for Alaina when she travels to the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI2018) Congress in Guarujá, Brazil this summer, and b) support her long-term efforts in becoming an effective science communicator and inspiration to other girls and young women interested in science.

Alaina completed her Bachelor's degree in Organismal Biology this past May, and she recently completed her duties as a technician on this project. We wish her well in her future endeavors.

Dean Michael E. Staten, Courtney E. Pijanowski, and Adam T. Naito. Photo courtesy of Deb Mager and Courtney Pijanowski.

Courtney E. Pijanowski has been selected as the Environmental Science Outstanding Graduating Senior for her "academic achievement and membership in student, college, university, and community organizations, as well as other noteworthy extracurricular affiliations." She received an honor from the Darrel S. and Lucille Metcalfe Agricultural Endowment at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Awards Luncheon on Thu May 3, 2018. Courtney's supervisor, Dr. Adam T. Naito, introduced her to the luncheon attendees and noted that her "national and international field research experiences, leadership roles, and her degree in Environmental Science have made her a resilient and intellectually versatile individual ready to take on the challenges that professionals in environmental science and sustainability science face." He added that "it has been rewarding to work with her for two years and watch her grow academically, professionally, and personally. Individuals like Courtney therefore deserve special investment, mentorship, and unique opportunities that further their education and help fulfill their passions." Be sure to read more about Courtney's accomplishment, as well as the accomplishments of other students recognized at the ceremony at the CALS news page here. Courtney was a student crew leader on this project and co-director for Students for Sustainability. Upon graduation later this month, Courtney will be working for NEON in Alaska's Interior Region. We wish her the very best in her future endeavors.

Emily N. Runnion received the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE) Student Leadership Award for Spring 2018 at the SNRE Awards Ceremony on 19 April. Emily was nominated by her supervisor Dr. Adam T. Naito, who noted that she "exemplifies the best of what students in SNRE and CALS offer" and "sets a standard for a new generation of scientists and individuals dedicated to improving our environment." Naito added that "the valuable contributions of women, particularly those in leadership roles, in this field is desperately needed, but sorely lacking. Emily will help fill this gap, and in doing so, she will continue to serve as a role model for others and lead the effort to solve our pressing environmental problems." Emily is currently a junior pursuing a degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Wildlife Management and Conservation. She is also a student crew leader on this project. She will be spending this summer in Swaziland as part of the University of Florida's International Research Experiences for Students program.

Victoria R. Friess has accepted an internship with the Arizona Game and Fish Department for Summer 2018. She will be working with wildlife biologists Ms. Renee Wilcox, Ms. Nora Clarke, and Ms. Angelina Stingeline on habitat monitoring projects and fish and wildlife surveys in Arizona. Victoria is currently a junior pursuing a degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Wildlife Management and Conservation. She is also a technician on this project and will return in Fall 2018 as a student crew leader.

Courtney E. Pijanowski has accepted a position as a Lead Field Technician for NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network). She will lead and train crews to support NEON's data collection efforts (physical, chemical, biological) at three sites in Domain 19 (Taiga) in Alaska during Summer 2018. NEON is "a continental-scale ecological observation facility, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and operated by Battelle. NEON collects and provides open data that characterize and quantify complex, rapidly changing ecological processes across the United States." Courtney is currently a senior in Environmental Science. She works as a student crew leader for the project as well as serving as co-director for Students for Sustainability.

Sara R. Amiot joined the Archer Lab as a new undergraduate technician. She will be working with William A. Rutherford on his dissertation project "Exotic grass and woody-plant encroachment in Southwestern rangelands: mechanisms of invasion and opportunities for containment." Sara is currently a junior working towards her degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Conservation Biology.

Nathan Pierce presented a portion of his dissertation work at the Society for Range Management Annual Meeting in Sparks, Nevada. Pierce presented a poster entitled "Grassland-shrubland state transitions in arid rangelands: competition matters" and discussed the importance of local grass-shrub interactions in promoting or attenuating rates and dynamics of state changes on arid rangelands.

Austin Rutherford has been selected as a recipient of the Carson Scholarship to support his dissertation research investigating the mechanisms driving velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina) seedling establishment in Sonoran Desert grasslands. Biosphere 2 is providing additional support for his work and participation in the program. Austin will receive a $5,000 award each academic year. The Carson Scholars Program is a presitigous scholarship program sponosred by the Institute of the Environment that "cultivates and advances interdisciplinary environmental scholarship at the University of Arizona." Read the UANews press release to learn about more Austin's involvement and the work of his fellow scholars.

Emily Runnion has been selected as a participant in the University of Florida's (UF) International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program, funded by the National Science Foundation. Emily will be traveling to Swaziland during Summer 2018 and working with Swazi and UF-based American scientists to better understand agricultural impacts on biodiversity functioning and ecosystem services. Her trip will culminate in an individual research project focused on either avian or herpetofaunal communities in Swaziland. Emily is one of five students selected from a national applicant pool of nearly 80 students. Emily is currently a junior pursuing a degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis in Wildlife Management and Conservation. She is also a student crew leader and technician on this project.

Dr. Steven R. Archer, Dr. Adam T. Naito, and undergraduate students Victoria R. Friess, Alex C. Grant, Alaina H. Michaels, Courtney E. Pijanowski, Emily N. Runnion, and Carley J. Schwartz participated in the development of a mini-documentary on brush management research produced by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Communications and Cyber Technologies group. This documentary will be shown at a series of workshops in Spring 2018 that involve land managers and ranchers. View the embedded link below. For more information about our work, visit the project link here.

Karen Wang will be joining the staff of the University of California Riverside as a pollinating insect collection specialist. She will be assisting Dr. Lauren Ponisio's team to sample pollinator communities in almond orchards across California during Spring 2018. Karen also just graduated from the University of Arizona, and we wish her the best in her future endeavors.

Dr. Steven Archer is a co-author on a newly published article in Rangeland Ecology & Management that reviews the wildlife responses to brush management. For an overview of the paper, please see the Publications link at the Archer Lab site.

Rayanna K. Benally received the Fall 2017 School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE) Outstanding Graduating Senior award. She was nominated by her NASA Space Grant supervisors and mentors Dr. Steven R. Archer and Dr. Adam T. Naito, who noted her "exceptional levels of intellectual engagement, independence, diligence, and commitment in balancing her undergraduate studies and internship activities" and her ability to "emerge from SNRE well-equipped to address the many challenges facing professionals in the field of natural resources ecology and management." Anna graduated from the University of Arizona in December 2017 and will be interning with the Bureau of Land Management. We wish her the best in her future endeavors.

William A. Rutherford presented a portion of his dissertation work as a poster at the 14th Annual Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems (RISE) Symposium on Saturday, October 21. His poster, entitled "Does seed predation limit velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina) recruitment in grasslands?" describes recent work in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. RISE is an annual symposium that provides researchers with opportunities to present ongoing or completed work at: "the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) and the University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER), to encourage future research activities at the WGEW and the SRER, and to promote the WGEW and the SRER as outdoor scientific laboratories."

Dr. Furong Niu has joined the Archer Lab as a new postdoctoral research associate. Dr. Niu joins us from the University of Göttingen, where he recently completed his PhD. Dr. Niu will be working with Dr. Archer and Dr. Greg Okin from the University of California Los Angeles on an National Science Foundation-funded project that investigates aeolian (wind) processes in desertification.

Dr. Adam T. Naito has hired seven undergraduate students to provide field data collection and laboratory assistance for the project. These bright students consist of juniors and seniors from the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, the School of Geography and Development, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The technicians include: Alyiah M. Branz, Victoria R. Friess, Alaina Michaels, Sandra G. Mungaray, Bridget A. Slomka, Maya R. Stahl, and Karen Wang. These students will join four other students that are returning from the 2016-2017 academic year: Alexander C. Grant, Courtney E. Pijanowski**, Emily N. Runnion**, and Carley J. Schwartz.
^** indicates student crew leader.

Scott A. Jones was awarded a Western SARE (Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) Graduate Student grant to support his dissertation research. The Western SARE program is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides competitive financial support to projects that "advance farm and ranch systems that are profitable, environmentally sound, and good for communities." Scott is studying the impacts of shrub encroachment/brush management impacts on ecosystem services at the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, using an integrated approach involving geospatial analysis and modeling, as well as semi-structured interviews with stakeholders.

Dr. Naito attended the NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network)Data Institute in Boulder, Colorado from 19-24 June 2017. The workshop focused on providing an introduction to analysis of large remote sensing data sets using the programming language Python in the Jupyter Notebook environment. The Institute instructors also provided an introduction to reproducible workflows in a collaborative setting using GitHub. In attendance were 25 other graduate students, researchers, and professors from academic institutions, the US Department of Agriculture, the National Park Service, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Station. NEON consists of a network of 81 terrestrial and aquatic ecological sites across the United States and will provide scientists with long-term ecological data to answer pressing ecological questions not possible before. NEON is operated by Battelle Ecology and funded by the National Science Foundation.

Scott A. Jones presented an overview of his dissertation work as a poster at the Science on the Sonoita Plain Symposium 2017. SOSP is an annual event dedicated to the sharing scientific investigations and land management activities that are occurring within the upper watersheds of Cienega Creek, Sonoita Creek, and the Babocomari River.

Sarah E. Posner has been accepted to the Master's program in Geography at the Univerity of Colorado Boulder. She will be initially working as a research assistant with her advisor, Dr. John O'Loughlin, on a project examining the relationships between climate and conflict in Eastern Africa. She will begin her studies in Fall 2017. Sarah was previously a technician on the project Brush management and ecosystem services: a quantification of trade-offs on Western rangelands" and the recipient of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Undegraduate Research Award.

Elena G. Dosamantes received the "Honorable Mention" title for the SNRE Outstanding Graduating Senior award at the Annual SNRE Awards Ceremony. She was nominated by her supervisor, Dr. Adam T. Naito, who noted her "recognition of the power and importance of education" and her ability to "help fill a contribution gap regarding women in STEM- (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines."

Elena has also been accepted to the Master's program in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. She will be working with Dr. Maria Fernandez-Gimenez on a research project investigating collaborative adaptive management in rangeland decision-making, with particular emphasis on the involvement of women and Hispanics. She began her studies in Fall 2017. Elena was a technician on the project "Brush management and ecosystem services: a quantification of trade-offs on Western rangelands."

Courtney E. Pijanowksi has been appointed a Co-Director for Students for Sustainability (SFS). SFS is a part of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona (the student government on campus) and is an organization that "empowers students, builds leaders, and pursues institutionalized sustainability at the University of Arizona and within the surrounding community." Courtney also accepted an internship to study the behavioral ecology of burying beetles at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado during Summer 2017. She assisted Dr. Rosemary Smith, a professor of biology at Idaho State University, with field surveys, behavioral experiments, and databasing efforts.

Kalyn R. Miller has accepted an internship at the Arizona Department of Game and Fish to study and map black-tailed prairie dog colonies in northern Arizona. He will be working with AZGFD Biologist Holly Hicks. Mr. Miller was a technician on the project Brush management and ecosystem services.

Austin Rutherford, a PhD student in the Archer Lab, recently published an article in Scientific Reports titled, “Albedo feedbacks to future climate via climate change impacts on biocrusts.” This is work he completed prior to coming to the Archer Lab as a technician for the USGS in Moab, UT. The study found a marked rise in albedo as a result of increased cyanobacteria cover and subsequent losses of mosses and lichens in biological soil crusts due to climate change. The paper was picked up by UANews, High Country News, Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, AZ), and by an official USGS press release.

Emily N. Runnion has accepted an internship to study the effects of urban development on herpetofauna (reptiles, amphibians) on golf courses in Oro Valley, Arizona during Summer 2017. She will be working with Dr. Matthew Goode, a research scientist in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Ms. Runnion is currently a technician on this project.

Melanie E. Jones has been accepted to the graduate program in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. She plans to study Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the context of climate change adaptation. Since her graduation in May 2016, Melanie has been working as a data technician with the National Park Service at Saguaro National Park.

Sarah E. Posnerwas hired as a Next Generation Park Ranger at Saguaro National Park. She will be engaging with youth groups visting the park and will educate them on natural resource management issues in the park. In addition, she will be facilitating the park's community outreach efforts via web and social media platforms.

Cheryl L. McIntyre attended the 70th Annual Society for Range Management meeting in St. George, Utah. She presented a portion of her dissertation work as a poster entitled "Influence of biological soil crusts on grass germination and establishment of native and non-native grasses" in the PhD-level Poster Competition. Cheryl was awarded Second Place in the competition and will receive a certificate and $100.

Sarah E. Posner received the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award for her contributions in field work during the course of her undergraduate career in the School of Geography and Development and involvement with this project. Sarah was nominated by Dr. Greg A. Barron-Gafford, a Co-PI on the project. She received this award based upon her "academic achievement, originality, and creativity in an independent, undergraduate research project," as well as for, as one judge of the competition noted, her "quest for new knowledge and desire to improve the environment through research." Her supervisor, Dr. Adam T. Naito, noted that Sarah "was a critical member of my field team for a year and a half...[and] could take initiative, anticipate the needs of her fellow technicians or the project, and provide effective leadership. I am grateful for her contributions, and I know she will be successful in the future."