Water use, productivity and interactions among desert plants. Final report
On the Colorado Plateau, precipitation comes either from winter storms generated in the Gulf of Alaska or from summer convection storms generated by the Arizona monsoon system. Understanding the current seasonal and regional patterns of precipitation inputs into an ecosystem has ramifications at several levels: on carbon and mineral cycling at the ecosystem level, on biodiversity at the community level, and on productivity and adaptation at the population and species levels. The interior deserts of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah represent the driest regions of western North America, resulting from a combination of rainshadow effects and either the southern limits of winter moisture input or the northern limits of summer moisture input or both. Shifts in strengths of storm-generating conditions in the Pacific and in the Gulf influence both the magnitude and seasonality of soil moisture availability and therefore constrain periods of primary productivity activity in these aridland ecosystems. One major consequence predicted by global climate change scenarios is a change in monsoonal (summer) precipitation; it will increase in some areas and decrease in others. A second is increased soil temperatures and increased interior drought associated with ocean-land temperature disequilibrium. This project focused on the influence of variations in summer moisture input on structure-function relationships within a cold desert ecosystem on the Colorado Plateau. The primary field sites were located at Stud Horse Point, Utah, located on the Utah-Arizona boundary in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and at the Arizona monsoon boundary region.
- Research Organization:
- Utah Univ., Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Dept. of Biology
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-89ER60775
- OSTI ID:
- 515529
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/60775-T2; ON: DE97008011; TRN: AHC29718%%44
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Sep 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Impact of the Desert Dust on the Summer Monsoon System over Southwestern North America
Multiyear Analysis of the Fate and Transport of Contaminated Soils at Plutonium Valley and the Smoky Site, Nevada National Security Site