World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Best Female Scientists
2025
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Ecology and Evolution
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Best Female Scientists

D-Index
109
Citations
41052
World Ranking
940
National Ranking
572

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
111
Citations
43557
World Ranking
168
National Ranking
68

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Female Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2019 - Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Overview

Jayne Belnap is affiliated with the United States Geological Survey in the United States. Their research primarily spans the Agricultural and Biological Sciences and Environmental Science fields. Within these disciplines, they have a notable focus on subfields including Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Environmental Chemistry, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation, and Ecology.

The scientist's work extensively covers topics such as Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology, Lichen and fungal ecology, Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics, Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics, Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies, Plant and animal studies, and Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior.

Jayne Belnap has contributed to several recent papers, including:

  • "What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community" (2022) published in Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
  • "The pervasive and multifaceted influence of biocrusts on water in the world's drylands" (2020) published in Global Change Biology
  • "Global cycling and climate effects of aeolian dust controlled by biological soil crusts" (2022) published in Nature Geoscience
  • "Dryland mechanisms could widely control ecosystem functioning in a drier and warmer world" (2022) published in Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • "Biocrusts mediate a new mechanism for land degradation under a changing climate" (2022) published in Nature Climate Change

The scientist's collaborative work includes frequent partnerships with several researchers such as Sasha C. Reed, Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero, Bettina Weber, Erika L. Geiger, and Michael C. Duniway.

Jayne Belnap's research findings are frequently published in prominent venues, particularly Global Change Biology, with three publications, followed by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), each with two publications. Additional articles appear in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and Nature Geoscience.

In recognition of their contributions, Jayne Belnap was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2019.

Best Publications

  • Regional vegetation die-off in response to global-change-type drought

    David D. Breshears;Neil S. Cobb;Paul M. Rich;Kevin P. Price

  • Biological soil crusts : structure, function, and management

    Jayne Belnap;Otto L. Lange

  • Water Pulses and Biogeochemical Cycles in Arid and Semiarid Ecosystems

    Amy T. Austin;Laura Yahdjian;John M. Stark;Jayne Belnap

  • Roads as Conduits for Exotic Plant Invasions in a Semiarid Landscape

    Jonathan L. Gelbard;Jayne Belnap

  • Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy

    Rebecca R Hernandez;Rebecca R Hernandez;S. B Easter;Michelle L Murphy-Mariscal;Fernando T Maestre

  • The potential roles of biological soil crusts in dryland hydrologic cycles

    Jayne Belnap

  • Microbial colonization and controls in dryland systems

    Stephen B. Pointing;Jayne Belnap

  • A multi-scale perspective of water pulses in dryland ecosystems: climatology and ecohydrology of the western USA

    Michael E. Loik;David D. Breshears;William K. Lauenroth;Jayne Belnap

  • Vulnerability of desert biological soil crusts to wind erosion: the influences of crust development, soil texture, and disturbance

    Jayne Belnap;Dale A. Gillette

  • Biological Soil Crusts: Characteristics and Distribution

    Jayne Belnap;B. Budel;Otto L. Lange

  • EXOTIC PLANT INVASION ALTERS NITROGEN DYNAMICS IN AN ARID GRASSLAND

    R. D. Evans;R. Rimer;L. Sperry;J. Belnap

  • Biological Soil Crusts as an Organizing Principle in Drylands

    Jayne Belnap;Bettina Weber;Burkhard Büdel

  • Dryland photoautotrophic soil surface communities endangered by global change

    Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero;Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero;Jayne Belnap;Burkhard Büdel;Paul J. Crutzen

  • Nitrogen fixation in biological soil crusts from southeast Utah, USA

    Jayne Belnap

  • The world at your feet: desert biological soil crusts

    Jayne Belnap

  • Soil microstructure in soils of the Colorado Plateau: the role of the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus

    Jayne Belnap;John S. Gardner

  • Surface disturbances : their role in accelerating desertification

    Jayne Belnap

  • Disturbance and Recovery of Biological Soil Crusts

    J. Belnap;D. Eldridge

  • Comparison of soil bacterial communities in rhizospheres of three plant species and the interspaces in an arid grassland.

    Cheryl R. Kuske;Lawrence O. Ticknor;Mark E. Miller;John M. Dunbar

  • A Classification of Ecological Boundaries

    David L. Strayer;Mary E. Power;William F. Fagan;Steward T. A. Pickett

Frequent Co-Authors

Sasha C. Reed
Sasha C. Reed United States Geological Survey
Cheryl R. Kuske
Cheryl R. Kuske Los Alamos National Laboratory
Matthew A. Bowker
Matthew A. Bowker Northern Arizona University
Richard L. Reynolds
Richard L. Reynolds United States Geological Survey
Seth M. Munson
Seth M. Munson United States Geological Survey
Nichole N. Barger
Nichole N. Barger University of Colorado Boulder
Ferran Garcia-Pichel
Ferran Garcia-Pichel Arizona State University
Gregory S. Okin
Gregory S. Okin University of California, Los Angeles
Jeffrey E. Herrick
Jeffrey E. Herrick New Mexico State University
Thomas H. Painter
Thomas H. Painter University of California, Los Angeles

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