Summary of major ongoing scientific activities in the California or Mojave Desert

The Science Data Management Team of the Desert Managers Group is compiling a list of the major ongoing scientific activities in the California or Mojave Desert. We are collect ing this information and compiling it for the team. This will help us identify significant research gaps, opportunities to work together, and enable us to solicit support for additional scientific research needed to support desert land management.

• Alien annual grass distribution, abundance, and impact on desert tortoise habitat in the western Mojave Desert
• Seed-caching behavior and community structure in desert rodents
• MOHVEG PROJECT: Mapped the existing plant communities of the 23 million acres of the California portion of the Mojave.
• DIRECT SEEDING PROJECT: Utilizing local native perennial grasses to develop the most cost-effective methods to restore arid grassland ecosystem function.
• RELICT ANALYSIS PROJECT: To determine the extent of the extinct arid grasslands that existed across the Mojave within historic times.
• MOJAVE GENEMAP PROJECT: Genetic identification of in-situ native plant populations and mapping of seed zones.
• Desert Tortoise Distribution and Abundance Habitat Modeling
• Shadow Mtns. desert habitat restoration
• Copper Mtn. Mesa desert habitat restoration
• Cryptogam identification, ecosystem function, and feasibility of inoculation
• soil hydrology and modelling
• Soil Ecology and Restoration Group (SERG)
• Land condition relative to military impacts
• Southern California Areal Mapping Project (SCAMP)
• Geologic Mapping, Las Vegas Urban Corridor
• National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Nevada Test Site Subproject
• Mojave Desert Ecosystem Science Program
• Geographic variation and environmental determinants of reproductive output in the desert tortoise
• Analysis and Assessment of Impacts on Biodiversity: A Framework for Environmental Management on DoD Lands within the California Mojave Desert
• Research Conducted at Desert Studies Center, Zzyzx, California
• Biological support for BLM's west Mojave coordinated management plan
• Experimental program to shoot ravens
• Effectiveness of desert tortoise barrier fence
• Raven ecology in the Mojave Desert.
• Ecology of raven predation on desert tortoises.
• The ecological impacts of invasive exotic species
• The Desert Tortoise Research Project
• Anthropogenic degradation of the southern California desert ecosystem
• Ecology of the western pond turtle in the Mojave River

   

Compiled by Leonard Gaydos, USGS, for the Science Data Management Team

16 October 1998