Here we profile the current research that is occurring in the Mono Basin. There are quite a few ongoing research projects, and this page serves as a clearinghouse for researchers to find out who is doing what. If you know of scientific research in the Mono Basin that is not listed here, let us know (please e-mail ) so we can add it to the list. Please also e-mail us if you have reports and studies that you think would be a good addition to this Website.

Also see the SAGEMAP Science Locator for many larger-scale Great Basin research projects not listed here.

We've tried to break down the research into several categories, but since many studies cross several disciplines, please bear with the "lumping". Some studies are listed in more than one area. We will add new categories as needed.

• Prehistoric use of Mono Lake's variable wetland habitats over the past 4,000 years
  Ryan Brady, CSU Sacramento
  Master's Thesis in progress

• Relationships between United States Federal land managers and surrounding communities; 19th and early 20th century support of US National Parks by civic and corporate advertisers; the role of non-profit partners funding of US National Parks.
  Chris Lever, UC Berkeley

• Yosemite-Mono Lake Paiute Indian Community Historical Research
  Historical research concerning the Paiute people of Mono Lake, Hetch Hetchy, Mono and Inyo Counties and Yosemite. The focus is on the tribal affiliation of the Yosemite Indians and presents an alternative viewpoint to the conventional wisdom that they were Miwoks. The conventional wisdom can be found in most books and Websites.
  Hetch Hetchy Indians
  Yosemite Indian Chiefs

• Air movement in Lee Vining Canyon
  Craig B. Clements, University of Utah

• California Temperatures on the Rise
  NASA Earth Observatory

• Climate and Forest Research
  Connie Millar, Sierra Nevada Research Center, USDA Forest Service PSW Research Station, Albany and Lee Vining, California
  A Brief History of a Long Time: The Past 800 Million Years in the Sierra Nevada (October 2004 Powerpoint presentation)

• Climatic and Hydrologic Oscillations in the Owens and Mono Lake Basins, California
  Arid Regions Climate (ARC) Project: L V. Benson (USGS), James W. Burdett (Cornell), Michaele Kashgarian (Lawrence Livermore), Steve P. Lund (USC), Joseph P. Smoot (USGS), Scott Mensing (UNR), Robert O. Rye (USGS), and Tim P. Rose (Lawrence Livermore)

• Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA)
  Connie Millar, Project Leader; Ann Dennis, Field Project Manager
  Fall 2004 Mono Lake Newsletter Article

• Long-term climatic water budget analysis of Bodie, Bridgeport, Mono Lake, and 30 other Sierra sites
  Scott Kruse, Fresno Pacific University

• Migration rates of dunes in the Mono lake dune field
  Lori K. Fenton, Post Doctorate Research Associate, ASU Dept. of Geological Sciences
  Spatial and temporal variations in the Mono Lake dune field indicate possible shifts in wind circulation patterns driven by climate fluctuations

• Mono Basin air quality monitoring
  Great Basin Air Pollution Control District
  Reasonable Further Progress Report for the Mono Basin PM-10 State Implementation Plan, September 2001 (210K)

• Mono Basin geomorphology, sedimentology, biogeography, and paleoclimatology
  Scott Stine, California State University East Bay
  The Great Droughts of Y1K
  Sierra Nevada Climate, 1650-1850

• Quaternary Overflows of Pluvial Lake Russell, Eastern California
  (to see abstract, search the page for text or scroll 2/3 of the way down)
  Marith Reheis (USGS), Scott Stine (CSU East Bay), Andrei Sarna-Wojcicki (USGS)

• Paleoclimate and Geochronology of Mono Lake: Revised Chronology and Paleoclimatic Records of the Late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation, Mono Lake (CA)
  Susan Zimmerman, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

• Paleomagnetic/Paleoceanographic/Paleoclimatic Studies of Late Quaternary Sediments from the Western Unites States - the Marine California Continental Borderland and Lakes of California/Nevada (search the page for "mono")
  Steve Lund (Geophysics, USC), Owen Davis (University of Arizona), Larry Benson (USGS-Water Resources), and Joe Smoot (USGS-Geological Division)

• Pleistocene lake history through amino acid geochronology studies
  Laurent E. Savoy, Steve Roof, Lawrence J. Winship, Hannah Thomas, Mount Holyoke College

• Predicting and Managing Climate Change Impacts on Semi-arid Land Wetlands, Migratory Birds, and Their Prey: An Integration of Remote Sensing, Molecular Genetics, Hydrology, and Environmental Modeling
  Dr. Susan Haig (USGS FRESC) and Dr. John Matthews (WWF)

• Satellite observations indicate rapid warming trend for lakes in California and Nevada
  P. Schneider, S.J. Hook, and R.G. Radocinski ( NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California) and others
  Additional Mono Lake analysis by the Mono Lake Committee

• Twentieth Century Glacier Change in the Sierra Nevada, California / Dana Glacier 2003 (see poster for 1883 photo)
  Hassan Basagic, Portland State University

• Alkali fly population monitoring
  Dave Herbst, Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, University of California

• Fish population studies
  Chris Hunter, Independent Consultant

• Demography and behavioral ecology of the bee-fly Lordotus (community ecology)
  Catherine A. Toft, University of California Davis

• Desert shrub relations to water in the soil environment
  Lisa A. Donovan, University of Georgia, Keirith A. Snyder, ARS

• Development of adaptive behavior in Belding's Ground Squirrels
  Jill Mateo, Ph.D, University of Chicago

• Development of sand dune ecosystems on the north shore of Mono Lake (shrub | dune)
  Catherine A. Toft, Deborah Elliott-Fisk, and James H. Richards, University of California Davis

• The genus Artemia Leach, 1819 (Crustacea: Branchiopoda): true and false taxonomical descriptions
  A. Asem, N. Rastegar-Pouyani, P. De Los Rios

• Geomicrobiology associated with tufa tower formation
  Jack Farmer and Mike Thomas, ASU

• Grinnell Resurvey Project: 1914-1920 Yosemite-Mono Lake Transects
  Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, UC Berkeley
  Global Warming Stalks Yosemite:  Retracing the steps of a meticulous early 20th century biologist, researchers find that some of the park’s tiniest residents have moved a startling distance uphill

• Long term carbon accumulation in a cold desert: Role of shrub islands and soil moisture across a long chronosequence of shoreline dunes at Mono Lake, CA
  M. I. Shuldman, J.H. Richards, Z.T. Aanderud. Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources University of California, Davis

• Mountain Yellow-legged Frog Research
  Dr. Roland Knapp, Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory and others

• Mechanisms Defining Ecological Range Limits in a Plant Hybrid Zone
  Sarah Kimball, UC Irvine

• Nonnative trout impact an alpine-nesting bird by altering aquatic-insect subsidies
  P.N. Epanchin, R.A. Knapp, S.P. Lawler, University of California

• Prescribed Fire Studies
  USGS, BLM
  JFSP proposal 05-2-1-08 “Evaluating the Effects of
  Pinyon Juniper Thinning Treatments at a Wildland/Urban Interface.” (Categorical Exclusion | Pinyon Fire Behavior Plots | Pinyon Thinning Treatment Plots)
  2004 Prescribed fire study - USGS/Joint Fire Science Program – Fire and Invasive Annual Grasses in Western Ecosystems  (Map of plots | Pinyon-related proposals: Invasion Thresholds / Thinning)
  Evaluation of Pinyon Removal Effects Typical of a Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Reduction Project, Mono County, California: Avian Monitoring Component at Rancheria Gulch, 2005.

• Response of high-elevation limber pine (Pinus flexilis) to multiyear droughts and 20th-century warming, Sierra Nevada, California, USA
  Constance I. Millar, Robert D. Westfall, and Diane L. Delany

• Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program
  California Department of Fish and Game

• Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep studies
  John Wehausen, White Mountain Research Station
  Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep: A Brief History
  Endangered Bighorn Protected from Sheep Grazing

• Speciation in Moths
  Michael Collins

• Stream restoration studies
  Bill Trush, California State University Humboldt
  Article by Richard Ridenhour

• Web-toed Salamanders in the Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley
  Sean Rovito, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

• Biology of Cassin's Finches
  Tom Hahn, UC Davis

• Bird feeding mechanics, behavior, and ecology (esp. phalaropes at Mono Lake)
  Margaret Rubega, UC Irvine

• A bird-caused trophic cascade in the context of riparian habitat restoration: does it exist and does it represent a "restoration service?"
  Sacha K. Heath, Humboldt State University

• Breeding Bird Census: 2001 / 2002
  The Institute for Bird Populations; Various Researchers

• California gull nesting and reproductive success
  Dave Shuford, PRBO

• Comparative reproductive biology of Cardueline Finches
  Tom Hahn, UC Davis

• Eared Grebe Surveys on Mono Lake
  Sean Boyd, Pacific Wildlife Research Centre, Canadian Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Game

• Ecological and Physiological Studies of Birds at Mono Lake, California
  Joseph R. Jehl Jr., Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute

• Feeding ecology/diet of gull nestlings at Mono Lake
  PRBO & Cornell

• Gray-crowned Rosy Finches
  Matthew Richardson and John Wingfield, University of  Washington

• The importance of Mono Lake and Great Salt Lake to eared grebes nesting in British Columbia
  Sean Boyd, Pacific Wildlife Research Centre, Canadian Wildlife Service

• Identification of Songbird Nest Predators on Mono Lake Tributaries
  Quresh Latif, UC Riverside, Oikonos, PRBO (PRBO's Eastern Sierra Projects), Inyo National Forest, and CDFG.

• Intermountain West Coordinated Bird Monitoring Program
  Great Basin Information Project

• Long term study of the biology of Mountain White-crowned Sparrows
  Tom Hahn, UC Davis and Creagh Breuner, University of Texas, Austin

• Mono Lake Christmas Bird Counts
  National Audubon Society; Various volunteers

• Mono Lake Fall Shorebird Counts
  Mono Lake Committee & PRBO

• Motus Towers at Mono Lake
  Mono Lake Committee

• Osprey Research
  Lisa Fields, California State Parks

• PRBO's Eastern Sierra Projects
  Sacha Heath, PRBO Conservation Science

• All-lake Breeding Season Snowy Plover Survey 2001-2002
  PRBO Conservation Science

• Sage Grouse Local Working Group Locator
  Great Basin Information Project

• Tree Swallow reproductive success/breeding phenology: Golondrinas de las Americas
  David Winkler, Cornell University

• Violet-green Swallow Study
  Ben Winger, Cornell University

• Waterfowl Surveys & Aerial Photography (Mono Basin, Bridgeport Reservoir, Crowley Reservoir)
  LADWP (under SWRCB order 4.d.(2))

• Ash beds of Paoha Island
  Mike Perkins, University of Utah

• Climatic and Hydrologic Oscillations in the Owens and Mono Lake Basins, California
  L V. Benson (USGS), James W. Burdett (Cornell), Michaele Kashgarian (Lawrence Livermore), Steve P. Lund (USC), Joseph P. Smoot (USGS), Scott Mensing (UNR), Robert O. Rye (USGS), and Tim P. Rose (Lawrence Livermore)

• Evolution of desert colluvial boulder fields, Eastern California
  Donald A. Friend, Mankato State University

• Geologic Map of Paoha Island (USGS)
  Marcus Bursik, University of Buffalo

• Geomicrobiology associated with tufa tower formation
  Jack Farmer and Mike Thomas, ASU

• Geomorphology Studies
  Fred Phillips, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

• Investigations of CO2 Emissions From Holocene Volcanic Features of Mono Lake and the Mono Craters Volcanic Chain in Eastern California
  Bergfeld, D.; Howle, J.F.; Evans, W.C.; USGS

• Landform mapping (fine tuned)
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

• Migration rates of dunes in the Mono lake dune field
  Lori K. Fenton, Post Doctorate Research Associate, ASU Dept. of Geological Sciences
  Spatial and temporal variations in the Mono Lake dune field indicate possible shifts in wind circulation patterns driven by climate fluctuations

• Mono Basin geomorphology, sedimentology, biogeography, and paleoclimatology
  Scott Stine, California State University East Bay

• Mono-Inyo Craters Tephra Database and High Resolution Digital Topography
  Marcus Bursik, University of Buffalo

• New 40Ar/39Ar ages reveal contemporaneous mafic and silicic eruptions during the past 160,000 years at Mammoth Mountain and Long Valley caldera, California
  Gail A. Mahood, Joshua H. Ring, Simone Manganelli and Michael O. McWilliams

• Quaternary Overflows of Pluvial Lake Russell, Eastern California
  (search the page for text or scroll 2/3 of the way down to see abstract)
  Marith Reheis (USGS), Scott Stine (CSU East Bay), Andrei Sarna-Wojcicki (USGS)

• Paleoclimate and Geochronology of Mono Lake: Revised Chronology and Paleoclimatic Records of the Late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation, Mono Lake (CA)
  Susan Zimmerman, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

• Paleomagnetic/Paleoceanographic/Paleoclimatic Studies of Late Quaternary Sediments from the Western Unites States - the Marine California Continental Borderland and Lakes of California/Nevada (search the page for "mono")
  Steve Lund (Geophysics, USC), Owen Davis (University of Arizona), Larry Benson (USGS-Water Resources), and Joe Smoot (USGS-Geological Division)

• Pleistocene lake history through amino acid geochronology studies
  Laurent E. Savoy, Steve Roof, Lawrence J. Winship, Hannah Thomas, Mount Holyoke College

• Remote sensing and tufa investigations
  Microbial Fossilization Processes in Extreme Environments
  Jack Farmer and Mike Thomas, NASA

• Sand dune genesis studies
  Scott Stine and Lora Teitler, California State University East Bay

• A Stratigraphic Study of the 610 A.D. Eruption of the Mono Craters
  Dr. Kerry Sieh, Matthew Dawson, Aron Meltzner, CalTech

• Surficial Deposits of the Mono Basin Watershed
  Angela Jayko, USGS

• Capturing small-scale variations of water isotopes in ambient air and natural waters of California: Results of field measurements using Wavelength Scanned Cavity Ring-Down Spectrosopy (Rush Creek watershed)
  Priya Gupta, Michael E. Loik, Todd E. Dawson, and others

• Diurnal Fluctuations in Snowmelt Hydrographs
  Jessica Lundquist, University of Colorado, Boulder and Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Michael Dettinger, USGS and Scripps; Daniel Cayan, USGS and Scripps

• Eastern Sierra riparian songbird conservation project ( Riparian bird population monitoring)
  Sacha Heath, Point Reyes Bird Observatory

• Fish population studies
  Chris Hunter, Independent Consultant

• Mono Basin geomorphology, sedimentology, biogeography, and paleoclimatology
  Scott Stine, California State University East Bay

• Mono Basin hydrology monitoring
  Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

• New Zealand Mud Snail: Found in Rush Creek at densities less than 100 per square meter
  David Herbst, SNARL; Debra Hawk, CDFG; Research and Management; Preventing Spread

• Peak Flow Predictive Model for Lee Vining Creek
  Peter Vorster and Greg Reis, Mono Lake Committee

• Piezometer readings along Rush and Lee Vining Creeks (1995-2004)
  Mono Lake Committee

• Reconstructing the Mediaeval low stands of Mono Lake, Sierra Nevada, California, USA
  Nicholas E. Graham and Malcolm K. Hughes

• Stream restoration studies
  Bill Trush, California State University Humboldt
  Article by Richard Ridenhour

• Public Trust Doctrine
  Hap Dunning, UC Davis

• Economic Analysis of the 3rd Annual Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua: A survey and analysis of local businesses and participants
  River Gates, PRBO, Lisa Cutting, MLC
  Mono Basin businesses and Chautauqua participants were surveyed to evaluate the economic benefits of the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua.
   
• An Economic Study of Protected Areas in the Eastern Sierra
  Robby Richardson & Dr. John Loomis, Colorado State University

• Economic Study of the Water Quality of Mono Lake and its Tributaries
  Juha Silkamaki, Ph.D., U.C. Davis, for Caltrans

• Using Revealed Preference Behavioral Models to Correctly Account for Substitution Effects in Economic Impact Analysis
  Daniel B. Deisenroth, John B. Loomis, and Craig A. Bond
  (good Mono County angling statistics)
  

• Landform mapping (fine tuned)
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

• Mono Lake DGPS Mapping Mission
  Paula Messina, San Jose State University

• Amoeba Gobbles Algae Cells in Mono Lake
  YouTube

• Arsenite-oxidizing anaerobic photosynthesizing bacteria in Mono Lake
  Thomas Kulp, et. al.,  USGS

• A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus
  Felisa Wolfe-Simon, et. al., NASA and USGS

• Collaborative Research: Microbial Observatory at an alkaline, hypersaline, meromictic lake (Mono Lake, California)
  Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, University of California

• Determination of the Diversity of Natural Viruses in an Alkaline, Hypersaline Lake - Mono Lake, California
  Peter Joe & Sunny Jiang, UC Irvine

• Geomicrobiology associated with tufa tower formation
  Jack Farmer and Mike Thomas, ASU

• Halophilic alkophilic bacteria
  Richard B. Hoover, NASA

• Magnetic Microbes
  Cody Nash, Caltech and USC

• Metabolic Capability and Phylogenetic Diversity of Mono Lake during a bloom of the Eukaryotic Phototroph Picocystis sp. Strain ML
  Blake W. Stamps, Heather S. Nunn, Victoria A. Petryshyn, Ronald S. Oremland, Laurence G. Miller, Michael R. Rosen, Kohen W. Bauer,Katharine J. Thompson, Elise M. Tookmanian, Anna R. Waldeck, Sean J. Loyd, Hope A. Johnson, Bradley S. Stevenson, William M. Berelson,Frank A. Corsetti, John R. Spear

• Mono Lake microbial biogeochemistry
  US Geological Survey - Oremland and others
  24 References (click to read PDFs) on Arsenic and Mono Lake by Ron Oremland

• The Range of Protists in Mono Lake, a Hypersaline Soda Lake in the Eastern Sierra
  LLOYD A. DAVIDSON and ARDEN E. DAVIDSON, Biology Department, Loyola University

• Speciation in the rotifer species complex Brachionus plicatilis
  Lisa Suatoni, Yale Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

• Alkali fly population monitoring
  Dave Herbst, Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, University of California

• Collaborative Research: Microbial Observatory at an alkaline, hypersaline, meromictic lake (Mono Lake, California)
  Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, University of California

• Geochemical Topography
  Pamela Conrad, JPL

Meromixis, nutrient cycling, and plankton dynamics Dr. Robert Jellison, Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara

Chart of Adult Brine Shrimp Abundance (59K Excel File) Diagram of mixing, and chart of chemical stratification since 1994 (553K Powerpoint) Related publications by Jose Romero

• Mono Lake oxygen isotope concentrations
  Hong-Chun Li, University of Southern California

• Mono Lake microbial biogeochemistry
  US Geological Survey

• Mono Lake Radiocarbon: The Mystery Deepens. Vol 88 No 12, 20 March 2007 EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union
  Broecker, Wallace. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

• Remote sensing and tufa investigations
  Jack Farmer, NASA

• Fish population studies
  Chris Hunter, Independent Consultant

• Photopoint Project (currently inactive)
  Mono Lake Committee

• Piezometer readings along Rush and Lee Vining Creeks (1995-Present)
  Mono Lake Committee

• Reforming Watershed Restoration: Science in Need of Application and Applications in Need of Science. 2008.
  Margaret A. Palmer, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

• Stream restoration studies
  Bill Trush, California State University Humboldt
  Article by Richard Ridenhour

• The unknown trajectory of forest restoration: a call for ecosystem monitoring. Washington D.C., The Wilderness Society. 2008.
  DeLuca, T.H. , G.H. Aplet, and B. Wilmer

• Wetlands Delineation
  Lahontan RWQCB (Bob Curry)