Northern Arizona University - Agua Fria National Monument Collection (NAU-AGFR)

The Northern Arizona University Agua Fria National Monument Collection (NAU-AGFR) is comprised of arthropods collected within an experimental garden along the Agua Fria river. This garden is funded by a Macrosystems grant from the National Science Foundation and the facility is part of a network of common gardens managed by the Southwest Experimental Garden Array (SEGA). The primary focus of these gardens is to understand 1) the role of genetics in mitigating the effects of climate change and 2) to quantify how plant stress affects biodiversity. Dr. Art Keith uses Sea, Land, Air, Malaise (SLAM) traps to collect insects. Morgan Bannard and Gretchen Gronberg are responsible for insect curation and imaging. Dr. Gary Alpert, an entomologist at NAU oversees all arthropod aspects of the project and is assisted by Dr. Tom Whitham who oversees the integration of insect findings with climate change and plant genetics studies.