Collection from the Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project

The Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP) is a new research initiative in Moore’s laboratory that combines systematics, ecology, and population genetics to study ground-dwelling arthropod diversity, abundance, distribution and community structure along elevation gradients in the sky islands of the Desert Southwest. During 2011, a team of faculty collaborators, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates worked together to set 660 pitfall traps along two elevation gradients in the Santa Catalina Mountains, collecting arthropods for two weeks each in May and September (following monsoon rains). Baseline data from this study will be used to establish long-term (20-30 year) trapping programs in the Catalinas and other Sky Islands that will provide data for predicting future biological responses to climatic change and identify areas to focus future conservation efforts. All processed samples from this project are being deposited in the UAIC, thus significantly increasing collection holdings.