Southwestern Desert Resources
Southwestern Desert Resources

Author: William L. Halvorson

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2023-01-17

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 081655241X

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The southwestern deserts stretch from southeastern California to west Texas and then south to central Mexico. The landscape of this region is known as basin and range topography featuring to “sky islands” of forest rising from the desert lowlands which creates a uniquely diverse ecology. The region is further complicated by an international border, where governments have caused difficulties for many animal populations. This book puts a spotlight on individual research projects which are specific examples of work being done in the area and when they are all brought together, to shed a general light of understanding the biological and cultural resources of this vast region so that those same resources can be managed as effectively and efficiently as possible. The intent is to show that collaborative efforts among federal, state agency, university, and private sector researchers working with land managers, provides better science and better management than when scientists and land managers work independently.

A Classification of North American Biotic Communities
A Classification of North American Biotic Communities

Author: David Earl Brown

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13:

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Building upon existing classification systems of natural environments, this visually-oriented guide--from the Arctic Circle to Central America--advocates a universal, biogeographic standard for inventorying regional habitats as now used by the Environmental Protection Agency and some state agencies. The separate digitized map, dramatically unfolding to 42x42", is color-coded to depict gradients in moisture and temperature: factors which delimit vegetation and adaptations by flora and fauna. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Organ Pipe Cactus
The Organ Pipe Cactus

Author: David Yetman

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9780816525416

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Distinguished by its slender vertical branches, which resemble the tubes of a pipe organ, and growing to the imposing height of 15 to more than 30 feet, itÕs obvious how the organ pipe cactus got its name. In the United States, these spectacular and intriguing plants are found exclusively in a small area of the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern corner of Arizona. With a landscape marked by sharp, rocky slopes and daytime highs in the summer reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the region is inhospitable for most ordinary life, whether plant or animal. But the organ pipe cactus is far from ordinary. Although it is the most common columnar cactus, it is so unusual in the United States that it is only one of three cacti to have a national preserve established to protect it. In this regard, it joins a select group of plantsÑincluding Joshua trees, redwoods, and sequoiasÑupon which that honor has been conferred. In this beautifully illustrated, large-format book, David Yetman provides an in-depth and comprehensive look at these intriguing and picturesque plants that most Americans will never have the opportunity to see. Chapters explore their ethnobotanical uses, their habitat, their distribution, and special conditions required for their germination, establishment, growth, and survival. Yetman also places the organ pipe in perspective as a member of a genus with at least twenty-three species, ranging from the prostrate Stenocereus eruca of Baja California to the 50-foot high giant S. chacalapensis of the coast of Oaxaca.