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"Sonoran Desert"
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The desert smells like rain : a naturalist in O'odham country
\"Longtime residents of the sonoran desert, the Tohono O'odham people have spent centuries living off the land - a land that most modern citizens of southern Arizona consider totally inhospitable. Ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan has lived with the Tohono O'odham, long known as the Papagos, observing the delicate balance between these people and their environment. Bringing O'odham voices to the page at every turn, he writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize wild edible foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O'odham children's impressions of the desert, and observations on the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Whether visiting a sacred cave in the Baboquivari Mountains or attending a saguaro wine-drinking ceremony. Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people in a book that has become a contemporary classic of environmental literature.\"--Jacket.
BOOK
Sonoran Desert Journeys
Lizards dashing rapidly between plants. Songbirds and woodpeckers
flying to and from their nests. Hawks perched on saguaros. What
kinds of journeys have these and many other animals and plants and
their ancestors taken in space and time to arrive in the Sonoran
Desert? How long have these species been living together here? In
Sonoran Desert Journeys ecologist Theodore H. Fleming
discusses two remarkable journeys. First, Fleming offers a brief
history of our intellectual and technical journey over the past
three centuries to understand the evolution of life on Earth. Next,
he applies those techniques on a journey of discovery about the
evolution and natural history of some of the Sonoran Desert's most
iconic animals and plants. Fleming details the daily lives of a
variety of reptiles, birds, mammals, and plants, describing their
basic natural and evolutionary histories and addressing intriguing
issues associated with their lifestyles and how they cope with a
changing climate. Finally, Fleming discusses the complexity of
Sonoran Desert conservation. This book explores the evolution and
natural history of iconic animals and plants of the northern
Sonoran Desert through the eyes of a curious naturalist and
provides a model of how we can coexist with the unique species that
call this area home.
eBook
Characterizing range-wide impacts of anthropogenic barriers on structural landscape connectivity for the Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai)
ContextLinear anthropogenic barriers may reduce structural landscape connectivity for wildlife.ObjectivesUsing graph-based connectivity indices, we modeled the potential impacts of linear barriers on structural connectivity and on individual patch importance at different biologically justified dispersal distance thresholds for the Sonoran desert tortoise, a wide-ranging species for which anthropogenic barriers may be reducing structural landscape connectivity.MethodsTo characterize the potential impacts of barriers on structural connectivity for the Sonoran desert tortoise, we compared network compartmentalization, individual habitat patch importance, and the spatial distribution of important habitat patches for models of structural connectivity reflecting the landscape prior to the development of linear barriers to models depicting current linear barriers in the landscape at different distance thresholds.ResultsLinear barriers fragmented the habitat patch network into a minimum of 239 patch components. Compartmentalization increased little as dispersal distance thresholds exceeded 10 km. In barrier simulations, patch importance mostly decreased and the spatial distribution of important patches shifted south.ConclusionBarriers are limiting structural connectivity for Sonoran desert tortoises and may prevent dispersal events, rescue effects in the event of localized extinctions, and successful range shift in response to climate change. Management efforts targeted at enhancing connectivity for ecological processes or movements occurring at 5–10 km may enhance the potential for longer-distance movements or generational dispersal occurring at a greater extent. Our methods provide an efficient framework for assessing changes in structural connectivity on a landscape extent that may be applied to addressing different problems or questions related to landscape connectivity.
Journal Article
A natural history of the Sonoran Desert
\"The landscape of the Sonoran Desert Region varies dramatically from parched desert lowlands to semiarid tropical forests and frigid subalpine meadows... \"A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert\" takes readers deep into its vast expanse, looking closely at the relationships of plants and animals with the land and people, through time and across landscapes\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
A spatially explicit hierarchical model to characterize population viability
Many of the processes that govern the viability of animal populations vary spatially, yet population viability analyses (PVAs) that account explicitly for spatial variation are rare. We develop a PVA model that incorporates autocorrelation into the analysis of local demographic information to produce spatially explicit estimates of demography and viability at relatively fine spatial scales across a large spatial extent. We use a hierarchical, spatial, autoregressive model for capture–recapture data from multiple locations to obtain spatially explicit estimates of adult survival (ϕad), juvenile survival (ϕjuv), and juvenile-to-adult transition rates (ψ), and a spatial autoregressive model for recruitment data from multiple locations to obtain spatially explicit estimates of recruitment (R). We combine local estimates of demographic rates in stage-structured population models to estimate the rate of population change (λ), then use estimates of λ (and its uncertainty) to forecast changes in local abundance and produce spatially explicit estimates of viability (probability of extirpation, P
ex). We apply the model to demographic data for the Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) collected across its geographic range in Arizona. There was modest spatial variation in λ̂ (0.94–1.03), which reflected spatial variation in ϕ̂ad (0.85–0.95), ϕ̂juv (0.70–0.89), and Ψ̂ (0.07–0.13). Recruitment data were too sparse for spatially explicit estimates; therefore, we used a range-wide estimate (^R = 0.32 1-yr-old females per female per year). Spatial patterns in demographic rates were complex, but ϕ̂ad, ϕ̂juv, and λ̂ tended to be lower and ψ̂ higher in the northwestern portion of the range. Spatial patterns in P
ex varied with local abundance. For local abundances >500, P
ex was near zero (<0.05) across most of the range after 100 yr; as abundances decreased, however, P
ex approached one in the northwestern portion of the range and remained low elsewhere. When local abundances were <50, western and southern populations were vulnerable (P
ex > 0.25). This approach to PVA offers the potential to reveal spatial patterns in demography and viability that can inform conservation and management at multiple spatial scales, provide insight into scale-related investigations in population ecology, and improve basic ecological knowledge of landscape-level phenomena.
Journal Article
The turquoise ledge : a memoir
Silko takes readers along on her daily walks through the arroyos and ledges of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, weaving tales from both sides of her family's past into her observations, and using the turquoise stones that she finds on her walks to unite the strands of her stories.
Book
Plant Life of a Desert Archipelago
The desert islands of the Gulf of California are among the world's best-preserved archipelagos. The diverse and unique flora, from the cardón forests of Cholludo to the agave-dominated slopes of San Esteban remain much as they were centuries ago, when the Comcaac (Seri people) were the only human presence in the region. Almost 400 plant species exist here, with each island manifesting a unique composition of vegetation and flora. For thousands of years, climatic and biological forces have sculpted a set of unparalleled desert worlds.Plant Life of a Desert Archipelagois the first in-depth coverage of the plants on islands in the Gulf of California found in between the coasts of Baja California and Sonora. The work is the culmination of decades of study by botanist Richard Felger and recent investigations by Benjamin Wilder, in collaboration with Sr. Humberto Romero-Morales, one of the most knowledgeable Seris concerning the region's flora. Their collective effort weaves together careful and accurate botanical science with the rich cultural and stunning physical setting of this island realm.The researchers surveyed, collected, and studied thousands of plants--seen here in meticulous illustrations and stunning color photographs--providing the most precise species accounts of the islands ever made. To access remote parts of the islands the authors worked directly with the Comcaac, an indigenous community who have lived off marine and terrestrial life in this coastal desert region for centuries. Invaluable information regarding indigenous names and distributions are an intrinsic part of this work.The flora descriptions are extraordinarily detailed and painstakingly crafted for field biologists. Conservationists, students, and others who are interested in learning about the natural wealth of the Gulf of California, desert regions, or islands in general are sure to be captivated by this rich and fascinating volume.
eBook
Vegetation, Climate, and Soil Relationships Across the Sonoran Desert
The distribution and abundance of dominant species and their relationships with soil and climate were investigated using a variety of multivariate statistics across 30 plots that spanned 50 000 km2 of the Sonoran Desert. Relationships between the distribution of Carnegiea gigantea and several of its nurse plant species (Ambrosia deltoidea, Ambrosia dumosa, Cercidium microphyllum, Larrea tridentata, Prosopis spp., Olneya tesota) were documented. A general east-west gradient was observed where temperature increases and precipitation decreases westwards and calcium levels, total organic carbon, particle size, and soil pH increase westwards. Western areas with high temperatures and low precipitation may have elevated levels of calcite and thus a high pH; the low rainfall limits calcium dilution within the soil. The gradient in soil pH likely governs the range of several species (e.g., Ambrosia deltoidea, A. dumosa, and Larrea tridentata) that were delineated by calcic soils in western areas from eastern regions with lower soil pH and higher precipitation. Thus, the distribution of the dominant species reflects a temperature—precipitation—calcium—pH gradient. We found that the pH gradient follows the precipitation gradient as much as the dominant species follow the pH or rainfall gradients. Although climate is thought to dominate the distributions of these species, we found that soil pH and texture are intimately intertwined and that their removal from analyses resulted in poorer explanatory power of species distributions.
Journal Article
Spatial Heterogeneity of Stream Water Nutrient Concentrations over Successional Time
Nutrient availability in ecosystems is patchy both in space and in time. Whereas temporal trends have often been studied, less information exists on spatial patterns of nutrient availability, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. The goals of this study were (1) to describe and quantify patterns of nutrient concentration in surface waters of an arid land stream and (2) to compare spatial patterns of nutrient availability across nutrients and over a successional sequence. We describe changes in the spatial pattern of stream water nutrient concentrations over successional time (between floods) using quantitative measures of heterogeneity. Samples were collected from the middle of the channel every 25 m over a 10-km section of a Sonoran Desert stream during three periods: early succession (2 wk post-flood), middle succession (2 mo post-flood), and late succession (9 mo post-flood). Nutrient concentrations were extremely variable in space (coefficients of variations as high as 145%). Coefficients of variation increased over successional time and were consistently greater for nitrate-nitrogen than for soluble reactive phosphorus. Semi-variogram analysis showed that nutrient concentrations were spatially dependent on all dates, but to different degrees and over different distances. The distance over which nutrient concentrations were spatially dependent, as measured by the semi-variogram range, tended to decrease with successional time. The strength of spatial dependence, as measured by the slope of the ascending limb of the semi-variogram, increased with successional time. The limiting nutrient, nitrogen, was consistently more spatially heterogeneous than phosphorus or conductivity, both in terms of patch size (range) and strength of spatial dependence. In streams, downstream transport combined with nutrient transformation produces patches of similar nutrient concentrations that are elongated compared with nutrient patches in terrestrial soils. Variation in nutrient concentration is likely to affect the spatial distribution of organisms and rates of ecosystem processes.
Journal Article