Technical Approach

A three‐tiered approach will be used that employs rigorous measurement of aquatic invertebrate biodiversity in space and time, modeling to predict key relationships between physical or landscape variables and biodiversity, and development of web‐based tools for streamlined monitoring of biodiversity. Researchers will quantify aquatic biodiversity patterns of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), Coleoptera (beetles), and Hemiptera (true bugs) in select catchments at three military installations that span a diversity of dryland ecosystems: White Sands Missile Range in the Chihuahuan Desert, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert, and Fort Huachuca in the Sonoran Desert. Two distinct but complementary modeling approaches, Multi‐Response Artificial Neural Networks and Neutral Metacommunity Models, will be used to identify key relationships between observed patterns of biodiversity and physical or chemical variables (water chemistry, hydrology, habitat connectivity) at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The key functional relationships identified in the survey and modeling work will be used to generate databases and management tools for biodiversity estimation and sampling protocol design that will be applicable beyond the locations and time frame of this research project.