Tag Archives: sonoran desert

Invasion in the Desert: Why Some Plant Species are Survivors

Max Li’s research could inform policies to promote sustainable native environments and curb the invasion of alien plant species.

Max Li, a University of Arizona doctoral student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is studying mechanisms that determine how competing desert plants can coexist with each other and what factors can cause the destruction of this stable coexistence.

His research could help inform policies to curb the spread of invasive species. (more…)

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World’s Longest-Running Plant Monitoring Program Now Digitized

Data from the research plots on Tumamoc Hill reveal changes in the Sonoran Desert and have been important to key advances in the science of ecology.

Researchers at the University of Arizona’s Tumamoc Hill have digitized 106 years of growth data on individual plants, making the information available for study by people all over the world.

Knowing how plants respond to changing conditions over many decades provides new insights into how ecosystems behave. (more…)

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Native Plants in Urban Yards Offer Birds “Mini-Refuges”

Landscaping with native vegetation helps local bird species

Yards with plants that mimic native vegetation offer birds “mini-refuges” and help to offset losses of biodiversity in cities, according to results of a study published on August 22, 2012 in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Native” yards support birds better than those with traditional grass lawns and non-native plantings.

Researchers conducted the study through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, one of 26 such sites around the globe in ecosystems from coral reefs to deserts, from forests to grasslands. (more…)

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Humans Have Love-Hate Relationship With the Environment

James Watson, a UA anthropologist, has published chapters describing how long-term environmental trends encourage stable adaptations within local environments.

Human/environment interactions have a history as long as the existence of our species on the planet.

Hominid ancestors began polluting their environment nearly 700,000 years ago with the control of fire, and humans have not looked back since.

The modern phenomenon of global warming is very likely the direct result of human pollution and destruction of the environment, said James Watson, a University of Arizona assistant professor in the School of Anthropology. (more…)

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Scientists, Public Team Up to Discover Biodiversity

*During the 2011 BioBlitz at Saguaro National Park Oct. 21-22, school children and volunteers teamed up with experts to embark on a 24-hour race to discover and tally as many of the park’s living creatures as possible in an effort to better understand the ecology and biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert.*

Under an afternoon sun that is beating down much too relentlessly for this time of year, our group of eleven is scrambling up a hillside in Saguaro National Park just west of Tucson.

What has brought us together is the 2011 BioBlitz, a two-day celebration of biodiversity organized by the National Park Service, National Geographic, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Friends of Saguaro National Park. For two and a half hours, we get to be field biologists on a real science mission. (more…)

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