E-RISE RII: Forest Research for New Mexico Water and Carbon Management

This project will bring together researchers, land managers, and local communities to improve understanding and management of New Mexico's forests and woodland watersheds. Current knowledge about how forest management and disturbance affect water resources, carbon storage, and forest health on watershed scales is limited. This project integrates expertise in ecology, hydrology, community engagement, and rural economics to create management solutions, spur economic development, and provide educational and job opportunities statewide. The research, education, and workforce development components of the project will enable collaborative engagement among New Mexico institutions and organizations. The project's collaborating institutions include the University of New Mexico (lead), New Mexico State University, Western New Mexico University, Asombro Institute for Science Education, the Bosque Environmental Monitoring Program, and New Mexico State Forestry. This collaboration will serve as a model for forest, water, and carbon management throughout the Southwestern U.S. and dryland forests globally. Effective watershed management, a critical issue facing New Mexico and the Southwestern U.S., is constrained by data gaps on how forest management impacts long-term forest health, water, and carbon dynamics, and provision of ecosystem services to local communities. The Forest Research for New Mexico Water and Carbon Management project (FOR-NM) will combine high-resolution, remotely sensed data, a state-of-the-art ecological observation network, and process-based and machine learning models to gather critical data on how management, disturbance, and climate alter watershed structure and function across temporal and spatial scales. Through a new integrative mechanism, specifically the Guided Transformation framework, FOR-NM will synthesize this information into actionable, scientifically- and economically-sound watershed planning strategies aligned with local community and State priorities. FOR-NM will also use artificial intelligence to to quantify watershed structure and function in New Mexico's 500 priority watersheds, while also advancing stakeholder priorities across the state through expanding the K-16 STEM pathway's capacity, improving workforce development opportunities, and increasing economic opportunities for rural communities. This project is supported by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence (E-RISE). E-RISE supports the development of sustainable research infrastructure and capacity in EPSCoR jurisdictions through collaborative, hypothesis-driven, or problem-driven research and workforce development to improve competitiveness in selected STEM fields. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.