Desert Museum Science and Conservation

regional knowledge for nature and people

The future of the Sonoran Desert region rests on our ability to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, 这反过来又取决于生物多样性, resilient ecosystems. 在这个体系中，人们既强大又脆弱. For nearly 70 years, the Desert Museum has been hel销g people understand and appreciate their environment and their multiple roles in it. Museum scientists and curators documented and disseminated the foundation of natural history knowledge that under销s management decisions 今天, as it has in the past.

Saving Habitats

In the area of plant ecology, 该博物馆目前专注于入侵杂草的科学和管理, primarily buffelgrass, which currently has the greatest potential to transform our saguaro-palo verde forests into fire-prone grasslands, 危及生物多样性和人类健康和财产. Building upon the Museum’s history of publishing the flora of vast areas of the Sonoran Desert – which have been used as the basis for decades of ecological research – we aim to expand into a more holistic approach to maintaining ecosystem function by understanding vegetation dynamics at the landscape scale under a regime of changing climate and introduced species. We are currently invested in research to better understand the impact of fire on saguaro mortality, 从真菌病原体中开发生物除草剂, to monitor treatment effectiveness, 并了解社会行为者之间的行为和互动是如何发生的.g.、医疗机构、政府机构、义工组织等.) influence outcomes of the invasion. We will continue to work with partners at the University of Arizona and regional land managers to develop sustainable approaches for maintaining and restoring desert landscapes that continue to support bio多样性 and mitigate the threat of fire for plants, 野生动物, and people.
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Protecting Pollinators

博物馆目前的重点是了解本地蜜蜂的多样性和生态. 该地区是世界上蜜蜂种类最丰富的地区之一(与中东并列)。, with more than 700-800 species, 然而，2022世界杯下注对这些杰出传粉者的需求和习性知之甚少. Building on the Museum’s history with the Forgotten Pollinators and Migratory Pollinators projects, 这引起了人们对保护这些被忽视的动物的关注, 世界杯app软件推荐将继续与亚利桑那大学的同事合作 了解本地蜜蜂的现状, 影响其多样性和丰度的因素, 以及有助于保护它们在生态系统中的数量和功能的行动. 这些努力依赖于一组志愿者科学家, 博物馆最有价值但未被充分利用的资产之一. These volunteers sample, 销, label and identify every specimen, resulting in a collection of nearly 20,000只蜜蜂, 这将在未来几十年用来回答关于富足的问题, 多样性, species composition, 物候学, 以及气候和其他环境变化对本地蜜蜂的影响. 此外, we continue to grow the educational component of this effort by offering college and high school students the opportunity to contribute by DNA barcoding bee specimens for which identification is impossible via morphological characters. Through DNA barcoding, students are documenting new species and publishing their barcodes in the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD), 这有助于他们将自己视为科学家. Hundreds of additional community scientists are documenting native bees via photography and the Tucson Bee Collaborative iNaturalist Project. The Museum also participates in networks to monitor and conserve monarch butterflies at the national and state level, with monarch tagging and public education.
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Resilient Food Systems

建立在民族植物学研究的悠久历史之上, 教学, and outreach, 博物馆的目标是建立一个研究项目 understand and conserve the wild relatives of modern-day crops and expand the regional food system to include arid-adapted native foods. These native and other arid-adapted plants are an important hedge against the effects of climate change in the Sonoran Desert and other arid regions. They can provide low-cost, low-maintenance food supplies for households and local producers as well as genetic material to adapt future large-scale agriculture to a changing climate. Beyond providing food for people, 原生植物是野生动物食物网和健康生态系统的基础. 有价值的合作伙伴将包括Native Seeds/Search, Mission Garden, UArizona, Tucson City of Gastronomy, Borderlands Restoration and other groups that are interested in this area and would welcome additional research capacity and a connection to education programming for hundreds of thousands of Desert Museum visitors.

Saving Species

The Desert Museum works with State, Federal and Tribal agencies in both the US and 墨西哥 to help conserve threatened and endangered species from the Sonoran Desert region. 该博物馆在这一领域的研究重点是水生物种的养殖, 虽然工作人员也参与实地调查, 一些非水生物种的重新引进和研究. The Museum holds populations of plants, 鱼, 用于打捞的两栖动物和爬行动物, assurance and propagation. Knowledge developed at the Museum has led to the first successful breeding of several aquatic species, 包括, most recently, the Sonoyta mud turtle. Animals held at the Museum, 他们的护理知识也随之发展, 直接影响了索诺塔鱼的生存, Sonoyta mudturtle, Longfin dace, Gila topminnow, Sonoran Desert tortoise, Yaqui cat鱼, Sonora chub and Tarahumara frog, among others. 博物馆还参与了亚利桑那狩猎和鱼类的乌龟收养计划, involving citizens in saving this species.
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In each of the four focal areas, 博物馆与大学研究人员合作, conservation practitioners, 土地管理者回答问题，解决社区今天面临的问题, 为未来预期的和潜在的挑战做好准备. The Museum is unique in its explicit linkage of science to a robust Art Institute and a multi-modal educational platform for increasing public understanding and engagement – which are as important as scientific knowledge for successful conservation programs. The Museum’s science team engages creatively with Museum educators and interpreters – 包括 the award-winning docent program – to develop messaging for exhibits and programs, 以及公众参与的机会, such as community science, pollinator and native-foods gardening, bio多样性 surveys, buffelgrass pulls, and native-foods cooking classes. With its legacy of research on and interpretation of Sonoran Desert natural history in a setting that invites hands-on inquiry & connection, 博物馆准备与学术界合作, conservation, management, 政策, and community organizations to make an enormous positive impact on the ecological and human systems of the region.

世界杯app软件推荐感谢托马斯·R·盖茨基金会提供的保护资金. Brown Foundation, National Park Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Science Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Forest Foundation, 亚利桑那州林业和消防管理部, Pima County, the Rossetter Foundation, and anonymous foundations and donors

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每篇文章的作者在发表时至少有一位在ASDM工作.

Sonoran Desert Region
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