The management of land resources, in the southwestern U.S. and more broadly across the US and on all continents, is challenged by three central problems:
- What practices and technologies can be developed and used to improve land productivity and its provision of ecological goods and services?,
- How can science best inform land managers in their application of conservation practices for land management?, and
- Can we predict how land-based resources will respond to present and future climatic conditions?
Our research program based at the Jornada is directed towards finding solutions to these real problems.
We have organized our research program into central themes which span from basic ecological and agricultural studies (long-term ecological research (LTER), and long-term agricultural research (LTAR)) to technologies (ecological site descriptions) and tools (assessment and monitoring, and the landscape toolbox) that can be utilized to address land management problems.
In addition, we have assembled thousands of data sets linked directly to our program or from other research locations or management agencies that have application to solving these problems.
Our intent is to provide science-based information, tools, technologies, and data sets that can be used, through simple or more complex analyses, to inform the various users, stakeholders, and the public in their application of management practices and development of policies related to land management.