Ecology of Desert Systems

Professor Walter G. Whitford received his PhD from the University of Rhode Island in Physiolgical-Ecology. He spent the next fifty years working in the Chihuahuan Desert as a faculty member in Biology at New Mexico State University (NMSU) where he was principal investigator in the Desert Biome Program which was part of the International Biological Program. His research focused on field experiments and studies of termites and seed harvesting ants. That program stimulated his commitment to the importance of soil in arid ecosystems and the organisms that are involved in nutrient cycling. He also served as the first principal investigator for the Jornada Long Term Ecological Research Program. As principal investigator, he published more than 150 papers in peer reviewed journals dealing with most aspects of desert ecology. In 1993, he left the university to work as a senior research ecologist with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency with a focus on monitoring and assessing the health of arid ecosystems. After retiring from the EPA he produced the first edition of Ecology of Desert Systems and continued to teach and do research in the Chihuahuan Desert. While a professor, he did research in Israel and Australia, evaluated arid lands research programs in South Africa, and organized a symposium on the Atacama and long-term ecological research in Chile. Before embarking on the 2nd edition of Ecology of Desert Systems, he was author or co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications. Benjamin D. Duval is Assistant Professor of biology at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. His research focuses on soil-atmosphere interactions in the context of arid land biogeochemical cycles, and arid land agro-ecology. He specifically investigates invasive plant influence on soil-microbial interactions in southwestern US riparian systems, water use impacts on greenhouse gas flux in arid agro-ecosystems, and the climate footprint of encroaching shrubs in the Chihuahuan Desert. Ben is passionate about training students to work on projects related to desert soil carbon cycling, Rio Grande riparian zone native plant restoration and improving predictive metrics of plant water and nutrient stress via remote sensing. Ben completed his PhD at Northern Arizona University in 2010, with a dissertation on the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on trace metal cycling and nitrogen fixation. Dr. Duval holds a Master’s degree from New Mexico State, where he developed a sincere love of the Chihuahuan Desert through his many hours in the field with Dr. Whitford. His research in New Mexico with Dr. Whitford included soil disturbance by mammals and interactions between desert shrubs and insects. He is an alumnus of The College of Wooster (Biology, class of 2001). His wife Mikell and son (Gustav Falcon) are willing participants in his sojourns into the northern Chihuahuan Desert around Socorro, New Mexico. One of Ben’s long-term goals is to instill in his students (and son) to respect desert systems with the same passion that Dr. Walter G. Whitford graciously passed to him.