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Tara Bishop

Faculty Member

Dr. Tara Bishop

Biography

I am a dryland community and ecosystem ecologist asking questions about climate change (drought and precipitation changes), wildfire, and plant-soil feedbacks. Mostly from the plant perspective, how are interactions in the environment from trophic cascades, to changes in soil nutrient availability and disturbance regime shifts, altering our dryland plant communities. Most of my work centers in drylands of the western United States including the Mojave Desert, Great Basin, Sonoran and the Colorado Plateau. I utilize experimental studies, observational studies, in addition to remote sensing, modeling, and drone image analysis with GIS to answer my research questions.

I also enjoy integrating community based science and communication with natural resource managers to help bridge gaps and breakdown silos of information to better manage our landscapes based on ecological foundations. I work with multi-agency collaborative groups and value outreach workshops as a way to build relationships and help root my science with decision makers.

Education

PhD, Brigham Young University, 2019

Major: Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation

MS, Mississippi State University, 2012

Major: Biology

BS, Brigham Young University, 2008

Major: Biology Composite Teaching

Teaching

GEO 480R

Earth Science Seminar, Spring 2025

ENVT 2710

Environmental Careers, Spring 2025

ENVT 1270

Environmental Microbiology, Spring 2025

ENVT 495R

Special Projects in Environmental Management, Spring 2025

ENVT 495R

Special Projects in Environmental Management, Spring 2025

ENVT 495R

Special Projects in Environmental Management, Spring 2025

BOT 489R

Student Research, Spring 2025

Presentations

Bishop, Tara (Author Only), Gordon, Mason (Presenter & Author), Hoffman, Feyan (Presenter & Author), Feltenberger, Ava (Presenter & Author), Fowles, Christine (Presenter & Author), Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Effects of fire and rodents on shrub volume and fruit density in the Mojave Desert", Ecological Society of America, Long Beach, CA. (August, 2024)
Bishop, Tara (Author Only), Fowles, Christine (Presenter & Author), Gordon, Mason (Author Only), Feltenberger, Ava (Author Only), Hoffman, Feyan (Author Only), Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Effects of fire and rodents on shrub volume and fruit density in the Mojave Desert", Ecological Society of America, Long Beach, CA. (August, 2024)
Bishop, Tara (Presenter & Author), Duniway, Michael (Co-Presenter), Pinyon and Juniper Adaptation and Management Working Group, "Using Ecological Site Groups and data drive State and Transition Models for Pinyon-Juniper woodland Management", Colorado University, Boulder, Flagstaff, AZ. (May, 2024)
Bishop, Tara (Presenter & Author), Knight, Anna (Author Only), Nauman, Travis (Author Only), Duniway, Michael (Author Only), Utah Geospatial Applications Symposium, "Generalized State and Transition Models for wildfire and landscape management using Ecological Site Groups", Utah Valley University. (April, 2024)
Bishop, Tara (Coordinator/Organizer), Duniway, Michael C (Co-Chair), Young, Kristina (Co-Chair), Severson, John (Co-Chair), Nauman, Travis (Co-Chair), Fire and Fuels Ecological Site Group Workshop, "Array", US Geological Survey, Salt Lake City. (February, 2024)
Young, Kristina (Co-Presenter), Bishop, Tara (Moderator), Faist, Akasha (Coordinator/Organizer), Society for Range Management Annual Meeting, "Seeding more broadly_ Exploring information-sharing to increase the use of diverse native plant species in restoration", Society for Range Management, Sparks, NV. (February, 2024)

Scholarly/Creative Works

Stanton, Rebekah , Cass, Kristina , Nusink, Baylie , Burdett, Eliza , Watts, Rachel , Bishop, Tara BB, St. Clair, Samuel , "Rodent seed preferences and their implications for plant community assembly and invasion in post-fire desert ecosystems" . Journal of Animal Ecology.
Young, Kristina E, Bishop, Tara BB, Johnson, Danielle B, Gunnell, Kevin , Faist, Akasha , Garbowski, Magda , Kildisheva, Olga , Neumann, Danielle , Gornish, Elise , (2025) "Practitioner tools for addressing knowing-doing gaps in seed-based restoration" . Restoration Ecology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.70043
Pienaar, Ryan , Bishop, Tara BB, Schill, Steven R, St. Clair, Samuel B, (2025) "Detecting spatiotemporal changes in harvester ant disks in response to fire and rodent competition using small unoccupied aerial systems imagery" (Issue: 72, vol. 40). Landscape Ecology. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-025-02078-0
Duniway, Michael C, Knight, Anna C, Nauman, Travis , Bishop, Tara B B, McCord, Sarah E, Webb, Nicholas P, Williams, C Jason, Humphries, Joel T, (2025) "Quantifying regional ecological dynamics using agency monitoring data, ecological site descriptions, and ecological site groups" . Rangeland Ecology & Management. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550742424002021
Villarreal, Miguel L., Bishop, Tara B. B., Sandkey, Temuulen Ts., Smith, William K., Burgess, Matthew A., Caughlin, T. Trevor, Gillan, Jeffrey K., Havrilla, Caroline A., Huang, Tao , LeBeau, Raymond L., Libantino Norton, Cynthia , Sankey, Joel B., Scholl, Victoria M., von Nonn, Joshua , Yao, Erika H., (2025) "Applications of unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) in landscape ecology_ a review of recent research, challenges and emerging opportunities" (Issue: 43, vol. 40). Landscape Ecology. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-024-02040-6
Stanton, Rebekah L, Saunders, Carrie Evans, Bishop, Tara B B, St. Clair, Samuel B, (2025) "Rodent herbivory preferences and their implications for plant community assembly and invasion in a post-fire desert ecosystem" . Biological Invasions. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-024-03505-0

Awards

Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Works

Office of Academic Affairs; Scholarship & Creative Works - October, 2024