Publications by authors named "Colton R A Stephens"

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil, and biodiversity are critical to explain the delivery of fundamental ecosystem services across drylands worldwide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Host-associated microbial communities play important roles in wildlife health, but these dynamics can be influenced by environmental factors. Urbanization has numerous effects on wildlife; however, the degree to which wildlife-associated bacterial communities and potential bacterial pathogens vary across urban-rural/native habitat gradients remains largely unknown. We used gene amplicon sequencing to examine bacterial communities found on Mountain Chickadee () feathers and nests in urban and rural habitats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF