About

Professor A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold is a principal investigator and educator based in the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences. Her research focuses on ecology, evolution, and the potential applications of symbioses, with a special emphasis on the fungal components of plant microbiomes. She investigates foliar endophytic fungi and soilborne fungi that interact with seeds and roots, as well as mycorrhizal fungi, insect-associated fungi, and fungal-bacterial interactions. Her research spans diverse field sites from the Arctic to tropical rainforests and arid land agriculture, employing a range of skills including traditional microbiology, field ecology, phylogenetics, and genomics. Professor Arnold collaborates widely across the interdisciplinary campus community and beyond, contributing to a broad understanding of microbial richness across scales and the ecological roles of fungi in plant systems.

Research topics

• Geography
• Ancient history
• Archaeology
• Computer Science
• History
• Engineering
• Geology

Selected publications

• An isotopic perspective on equid selection in cult at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel

  PLoS ONE · 2025-07-09

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Archaeological excavations of an Early Bronze Age III (c. 2900-2600/2550 BCE) domestic neighborhood at the site of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel, uncovered four complete skeletons of young female donkeys that were buried immediately below house floors as ritual foundation deposits. Multi-isotope analyses (carbon, oxygen and strontium) of their teeth document that each of the donkeys was born and raised in Egypt before being brought to Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath where they were slaughtered and buried beneath house floors in a non-elite domestic neighborhood. In contrast, isotopic analysis of teeth from a single isolated donkey mandible and additional sheep and goat teeth that displayed evidence of being used for food consumption and not associated with a complete burial, identify the donkey as born and raised among local livestock in the vicinity of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath. The intentionally buried of specifically imported and highly valued young jennies reveal what appears to be a ritually charged characteristic when constructing domestic residences at the site.

  PublisherDOI

• Feeding the Philistine city. An isotopic investigation of animal resources at Ashkelon in the Iron I

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2024-04-28 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Hearing and Doing: The Speeches in Acts and the Essence of Christianity by Christopher R. J. Holmes (review)

  ˜The œCatholic Biblical quarterly · 2024-10-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• FTICR-Based Metabolomics Reveals the Dynamics of Soil Metabolic Complexity of Primary Succession at the Landscape Evolutionary Observatory at Biosphere 2, Az, USA

  2023-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Feeding the Philistine City. An Isotopic Investigation of Animal Resources at Ashkelon in the Iron I

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Effects of biocrust formation and moss colonization on biogeochemical properties of basaltic tephra

  2023-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Resource allocation and rising complexity during the Iron Age IIA: An isotopic case study from Khirbet Summeily, Israel

  Quaternary International · 2022 · 3 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Geography
  • Geology
  PublisherDOI

• “Come, O pilgrim”—but buy local: an isotopic investigation of animal provisioning at Iron Age II Tel Dan

  Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences · 2021 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Archaeology
  • Geography
  • Ancient history
  PublisherDOI

• Evidence for movement of goods and animals from Egypt to Canaan during the Early Bronze of the southern Levant: A view from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath

  Ägypten und Levante · 2020 · 7 citations

  • Geography
  • Archaeology
  • Ancient history

  In this paper, we present the results of recent research on the potential movement of animals and other goods between Old Kingdom Egypt and the southern Levant during the Early Bronze III (c. 2850–2550 BCE). Several types of goods found at the site within a domestic residential neighbourhood (possibly of merchants) suggest that the inhabitants had extensive trade connections with the surrounding regions. A variety of durable goods derived from a variety of nonlocal sources, some of which are potentially located in Egypt. Other objects may have had a raw material origin in Egypt, but were modified in the northern Levant, and end up in the southern Levant. Scientific analysis of the normally assumed items, such as domestic livestock, demonstrate that donkey caravans were coming from Egypt during a period when trade supposedly has ceased between Egypt and the southern Levant. Isotopic analysis of donkey and other domestic animals are the first bioarchaeological evidence for the movement of livestock between the two regions – that the animals were born and raised in Egypt, brought to Canaan, and slaughtered soon after their arrival at the site. These results can challenge our traditional assumptions about evidence for direct trade between regions. We should be cautious in our labeling of raw material of artefacts that are non-local before a full scientific analysis is conducted.

  PublisherDOI

• Earliest evidence for equid bit wear in the ancient Near East: The "ass" from Early Bronze Age Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel

  PLoS ONE · 2018-05-16 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Analysis of a sacrificed and interred domestic donkey from an Early Bronze Age (EB) IIIB (c. 2800-2600 BCE) domestic residential neighborhood at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel, indicate the presence of bit wear on the Lower Premolar 2 (LPM2). This is the earliest evidence for the use of a bit among early domestic equids, and in particular donkeys, in the Near East. The mesial enamel surfaces on both the right and left LPM2 of the particular donkey in question are slightly worn in a fashion that suggests that a dental bit (metal, bone, wood, etc.) was used to control the animal. Given the secure chronological context of the burial (beneath the floor of an EB IIIB house), it is suggested that this animal provides the earliest evidence for the use of a bit on an early domestic equid from the Near East.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Haskel J. Greenfield

  University of Manitoba

  17 shared

• Aren M. Maeir

  5 shared

• Tina L. Greenfield

  University of Manitoba

  4 shared

• Itzhaq Shai

  3 shared

• Gideon Hartman

  University of Connecticut

  3 shared

• Kara Larson

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  2 shared

• Deirdre N. Fulton

  University of Arizona

  2 shared

• Ghiwa Makke

  University of Arizona

  2 shared

Labs

• A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold LabPI

  We are researchers and educators with interests in ecology, evolution, and potential applications of symbioses. Our special focus is on the fungal portion of plant microbiomes, with particular...

Education

• PhD, Archaeology

  University of Calgary

  2006

• MA, Anthropology

  University of Manitoba

  2001

• BA Honors, Anthropology

  University of Manitoba

  1998