Joe Mcauliffe
Director Emeritus & Senior Research Scientist
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Multidisciplinary collaborations involving geology, soil science, hydrology and ecology
- Ecology and conservations of semi-arid grasslands
- Pre-Eurosettlement wildfire history
- Palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology
- Plant-soil relationships and ecophysiology
- Ecology of long-lived desert plants
PERSONAL STATEMENT
During the last three decades, the most challenging and interesting research problems on which I have worked have involved collaborations from other disciplines, particularly geology, soil science and hydrology. This work has greatly broadened my understanding of the natural history and ecology of arid environments. I am interested in the broad scope of the development of arid landscapes – from the geological processes over long periods of time that have sculpted the underlying physical template, to the ways that organisms have modified that template. My current research is focused on two widely separated arid regions. One is the eastern Mojave Desert region of southwestern United States where I am studying the history of wildfires that occurred long before European settlement of the region and also the influences of historically recent wildfires. The other is in western South Africa and neighboring Namibia, where I am investigating ways in which interactions among long-lived termite colonies, vegetation and soils have fundamentally changed the appearance and productivity of environments throughout the Succulent Karoo region.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Mojave Desert region:
McAuliffe, J.R., André, J.M. 2024. The 2023 York Fire, Mojave National Preserve – A wildfire history perspective. Mojave Science Newsletter, pp. 5-22. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30688094
McAuliffe, J.R., McFadden, L.D., Persico, L.P. and Rittenour, T.M., 2022. Climate and vegetation change, hillslope soil erosion, and the complex nature of late Quaternary environmental transitions, eastern Mojave Desert, USA. Quaternary, 5(4), p.43. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat5040043
McAuliffe, J.R. 2021. Storm cloud over Cima Dome – Tracking vegetation change after the fire. Mojave National Preserve Science Newsletter 2021:1-11. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30771173
McAuliffe, J.R. 2020. Pre-Eurosettlement wildfires in Mojave National Preserve. Mojave National Preserve Science Newsletter 2020:1-8. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30770732
McAuliffe, J.R. 2016. Perennial grass-dominated plant communities of the eastern Mojave Desert region. Desert Plants 32(1):1-90. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30770618
Succulent Karoo, South Africa & Namibia:
McAuliffe, J.R. et al. 2025. Heuweltjie-Covered Landscapes of Western South Africa – Interpretive Fieldtrip Guidebook, 431 pp. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30048331
McAuliffe, J.R., Jürgens, N., Gunter, F. and Burke, A. 2024. Occurrence and formation of clast-free circular depressions in the southern Namib Desert, Tsau ǁKhaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park, Namibia. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 48(2):275-297. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03091333241235158
McAuliffe, J.R. 2023. Earthen mounds (heuweltjies) of South Africa and their termite occupants: Applicability of concepts of the extended phenotype, ecosystem engineering and niche construction. In: Mainwaring, M.C., Stoddard, M.C., Barber, I., D., Deeming, C., Hauber, M.E. The evolutionary ecology of nests: a cross-taxon approach. Special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378: 20220150. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2022.0150
McAuliffe, J.R. 2022. Heuweltjies – the “Little Hills” of western South Africa. Chapter 10.1 In: Jürgens, N. Fairy Circles of the Namib Desert: Ecosystem Engineering by Subterranean Social Insects. Klaus Hess Verlag, Goettingen, Germany, pp. 302-339. http://www.biodiversity-plants.de/biodivers_ecol/vol7.php
McAuliffe, J.R., L.D. McFadden, and M.T. Hoffman. 2018. Role of aeolian dust in shaping landscapes and soils of arid and semi-arid South Africa. Geosciences 8, 171; 34 pp. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences8050171
Complete list of research publications and technical reports by Joseph R. McAuliffe: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31129909