Where Desert Meets City:
Vulnerability and Recoverability of the Mojave Desert Ecosystem
USGS conducts a Mojave Desert Ecosystem Science Program as part of its Place-Based Studies Program, to improve scientific understanding of desert ecosystem processes and apply that understanding to land management needs.
Abstracts
for the 2001 Desert Symposium, California State University's Desert Studies
Center,
Zzyzx,
California, April 20-23, 2001
Climate
Variation since 1900 in the Mojave Desert Region Affects Geomorphic Processes
and Raises Issues for Land Management
Richard
Hereford and Robert H. Webb
Geologic
mapping projects in the Mojave Desert area sponsored by the U.S. Geological
Survey
David M.
Miller, Douglas M. Morton, Ren A Thompson
"Ghost
Towns Tell Tales of Ecological Boom and Bust"
An
article by Kathryn Brown in SCIENCE (Oct. 6, 2000; pp. 35 - 37) describes
scientific research
on going as
part of this and other USGS desert projects. It highlights the key
role of soil age in vegetation
and compaction
recovery.
The
Lasting Effects of Tank Maneuvers on Desert Soils and Intershrub Flora
Douglas
V. Prose and Howard Wilshire; USGS Open File Report OF 00-512
Recovery rates for Mojave vegetation and soils following military maneuvers
with tanks in the 1940s and 1964.
Recovery
of Perennial Vegetation in Military Target Sites in the Eastern Mojave
Desert, Arizona
John W. Steiger and Robert H. Webb; USGS Open File Report OF 00-355
A study of the effect of the age of geomorphic surfaces on the recovery of desert vegetation in military target sites in the Mojave and Cerbat Mountains for northwestern Arizona.
USGS Place-Based Studies Program
This is one of six on-going interdisciplinary ecosystem
projects managed
through the interdivisional Place-Based Studies Program.