Matthew Bowker, Lead PI

Northern Arizona University

Background: Matt Bowker is a community ecologist and restoration ecologist. He has focused on soil biota in dryland ecosystems throughout his career and readily admits an inordinate fondness for biocrusts since his first research project as an undergraduate. He is actively involved in development of methodologies to restore biocrusts to degraded ecosystems, drawing lessons from community ecology related to community assembly processes, alternate state and resilience concepts, and species interactions.

Project roles: Coordinate the network, oversee sample processing and data management at NAU

Contact: matthew.bowker@nau.edu

Anita Antoninka, co-PI

Northern Arizona University

Background: Anita Antoninka is an ecologist with emphasis on soils, interactions with primary producers, restoration and community interactions. She develops methods to cultivate, reinoculate, and scale up biocrust restoration with a focus on climate resilience.

Project roles: Project coordination

Contact: Anita.Antoninka@nau.edu

Javier Ceja Navarro, co-PI

Northern Arizona University

Background: Javier Ceja Navarro is a microbial ecologist specializing in the interactions between microorganisms and their environments, with a focus on nutrient cycling and environmental remediation.

Project roles: Analyze microbial community composition and function in soil and biocrust samples, conduct metagenomic and biochemical assays, and contribute to data interpretation.

Contact: Javier.Ceja-Navarro@nau.edu

Sasha Reed, co-PI

U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center

Background: Sasha Reed is an ecologist specializing in ecosystem processes and biogeochemistry. Her research explores nutrient cycling, carbon dynamics, and the effects of environmental change on ecosystems.

Project roles: Project development, recruitment, and coordination; measure biocrust functional traits, including C and N fixation.

Contact: screed@usgs.gov

Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi, co-PI

University of Texas at El Paso, Department of Biological Sciences

Background: Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi is an ecosystem ecologist and soil biogeochemist. His lab focuses on belowground processes using techniques like gas exchange measurements, isotopic analyses, and soil chemistry. He has studied biocrust photosynthesis and fungal loop exchange mechanisms.

Project roles: Process biocrust and soil samples at UTEP; webmaster. Analyses include soil characteristics, elemental composition, and enzymatic function.

Contact: ajdarrouzetnardi@utep.edu

Sierra Jech, Postdoctoral Researcher

Northern Arizona University, Center for Ecosystem Science and Society

Background: Sierra Jech is a soil microbial ecologist. Her Ph.D. work focused on dryland restoration with biocrusts. She brings field, lab, and computational expertise in microbial ecology.

Project roles: Coordination, node installation, training material development, DNA lab work and analysis.

Contact: sierra.jech@nau.edu

Yunge Zhao

Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Resources, Northwest Agriculture & Forestry University

Background: Dr. Yunge Zhao is a soil biogeochemist, hydrologist and expert on dryland mosses. She focuses on arid and semi-arid ecosystems, particularly in the context of erosion control and land management. Within the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she contributes to scientific assessments of ecological resilience, carbon cycling, and dryland function, and has published widely on the role of soil microbes and hydrological and erosion processes in dryland systems.

Fernando T. Maestre

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Background: Dr. Fernando Maestre is an ecologist best known for his work on dryland biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. He leads the BIODESERT project, a global-scale effort to understand how biodiversity affects ecosystem services in arid environments. His research combines field studies, remote sensing, and meta-analyses to explore the impacts of climate change and desertification worldwide.

David Eldridge

University of New South Wales, Australia

Background: Dr. David Eldridge is a globally recognized dryland ecologist whose research spans biocrusts, soil processes, and land degradation. His work has focused on how biological soil crusts influence erosion, nutrient cycling, and plant-soil interactions. He is particularly interested in how land use and disturbance regimes shape ecological function in rangelands and arid systems.

Bettina Weber

University of Graz, Austria

Background: Dr. Bettina Weber is a plant and soil ecologist specialized on the diversity and functional ecology of biocrusts. Her research includes detailed studies on the composition and mapping, as well as the role in biogeochemical cycling (carbon, nitrogen, dust), particularly under changing climate conditions. She brings deep expertise in experimental ecology, scaling from lab and field studies to the global scale, with a spatial research focus in Southern Africa. She has led several major biocrust synthesis efforts including the second edition of the field-defining book Biological Soil Crusts: An Organizing Principle in Drylands.

Scott Ferrenberg

Lubrecht Experimental Forest, University of Montana

Rory O'Connor

Northern Great Basin Experimental Range, USDA

Katherine Stewart

University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Diane Haughland

University of Alberta, Canada

Rebecca Finger-Higgins

Southwest Biolocial Science Center, USGS

Kristina Young