New Adjunct Faculty member, Bethany Bradley, has received $1.5 million grant
Our newest member of NRC, Bethany Bradley, is sure getting off to a fast start! She and 3 collaborators from Northern Arizona University just landed a $1.5 million grant that runs from 2010-2013. The project is Funded by the Department of Defense, Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and titled: Integrated spatial models of non-native plant invasion, fire risk, and wildlife habitat to support conservation of military lands in the arid Southwest.
The study looks at interactions between plant invasion and increases in fire frequency and magnitude in the Sonoran Desert. The individual and synergistic impacts of invasive plants, fire, and climate change on native habitat are likely to affect the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and other threatened, sensitive, or at-risk species in complex ways. The objective of this research is to integrate empirically-based models of non-native plant invasion, fire, and sensitive wildlife habitat in a spatially explicit decision-support package that informs sustainable resource management and recovery of native habitats...