Long-term monitoring of ground-dwelling arthropods in central Arizona–Phoenix, ongoing since 1998

The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program has been
monitoring ground-dwelling arthropods (e.g., insects, ararchnids) at locations throughout the
greater Phoenix metropolitan area (GPMA) and surrounding Sonoran desert region since 1998.
Monitoring locations span a diversity of habitat types, including mesic and xeric residential
yards, commercial areas, agricultural fields, desert locations within the GPMA (desert
remnant), and undisturbed desert locations. Organisms are collected quarterly using unbaited
pitfall traps, typically ten per location but with some variation, exposed for approximately
seventy-two hours. Organisms are identified to the lowest practical taxonomic level and
enumerated. Many of the sampling locations established at the beginning of the monitoring
project were relocated in 2001-2002 to overlap with the CAP LTER's Ecological Survey of
Central Arizona (ESCA; formerly named Survey200) long-term monitoring sites, although within
the same general landscape categories.