Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2008AZ267B

Meta-Analysis of Rangeland Water-Yield Experiments for the Southwestern U.S.

Institute: Arizona
Year Established: 2008 Start Date: 2008-03-01 End Date: 2009-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $10,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $20,279

Principal Investigators: Ed de Steiguer, Steven Archer

Project Summary: ABSTRACT: The purpose of the proposed project is to assist in alleviating future water supply problems in Arizona by providing an improved understanding of the effects of rangeland management activities on water-yield. This improved understanding will be achieved through a quantitative synthesis of existing rangeland water-yield research. The methodology relies upon statistical meta-analysis, a method that has been used in other fields of science. Data from the watershed and rangeland experiments will be used to estimate a series of meta-regression models. These regression models, by statistically combining the results from many field experiments, facilitate a more complete understanding of the response of semi-arid lands to treatments and conditions than do the individual experiments. This research is expected to benefit land managers in Arizona, the Southwest and other semi-arid regions by providing guidelines derived from the statistical analysis of numerous rangeland water-yield studies. Also, this research will provide technical coefficients useful for the development of semi-arid land decision support systems, optimization models and other forms of management decision tools. Finally, the meta-analyses will be useful in developing hypotheses for future research. The research objectives are: 1. to collect a large number (e.g., 100 or more) of published studies on the subject of rangeland water-yield experiments in the southwestern United States. 2. to summarize and code these studies in terms of water yield and other, resource outputs, experimental treatments, site-related variables, and factors related to experimental design. 3. to develop and estimate a series of meta-analysis regression models in order to synthesize and extend the results of these several experiments across a diversity of rangeland water management situations.