Researchers

Julio Betancourt is a Senior Scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey (formerly in Tucson and now based out of Reston VA) and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he obtained both his Master’s and Ph.D. His training in the sciences is broad and includes geology, hydrology, climatology, and ecology. This has allowed him to do innovative research in the seams between disciplines, and to publish over two books and 160 technical papers in a wide variety of scientific journals. Julio studies how climate variability affects terrestrial ecosystems at scales critical for understanding ecological and evolutionary processes to inform rational approaches to managing water and other natural resources under an uncertain and changing climate. He has conducted field studies across the western U.S. and Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Peru. Julio has been a leader in both regional and national scientific initiatives. Over the past decade, he has helped organize the public and private sector led to control the spread of African buffelgrass in Southern Arizona (www.buffelgrass.org). He also co-founded the USA-National Phenology Network (www.usanpn.org), to observe and predict how plants and animals will respond to climate change, and to help society adapt to a changing climate.