Two riparian habitats in southeastern Arizona provide the setting for a study of 127 plants useful to human foragers. A view of plant part availability is based on annual phenological profiles, and on historic and prehistoric records of plant use. Food choice is limited in March and April, but high August through November. Riparian plants also offer numerous non-food resources. Trees and shrubs serve more needs in relation to number of available species than do perennial herbs (including grasses) and annuals. Southwestern ethnographic literature hints that certain native taxa (Panicum, Physalis, Populus, Salix, Typha and Vitis) might receive special care. Inherent qualities of parts, coupled with ethnographic records of preparation and use, provide a basis for speculation on which parts might survive in an ancient record. Most are expected to disintegrate in open sites. Parts sought for different needs can enter a dwelling via diverse routes that produce confusingly similar archaeological debris. Modern experiments to wash pollen from 14 separate harvests permit evaluation of plant fruit and leaves as pollen traps, to help interpret pollen recovered from ancient dwellings. High amounts of Berberis, Rumex and Ribes pollen, sometimes in clumps or as tetrads, travel on harvested fruit. Arctostaphylos, Monarda, Oxalis, Rhus, Rhamnus, Vitis and Juniperus parts carry lower amounts. Quercus and Gramineae pollen grains travel on parts of other taxa, as well as on their own fruit. The phenological profiles offer insight into group life-form activities in response to local temperature and precipitation trends. Rising and maximum temperatures coincide with intense vegetative and reproductive activity for trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. Increased levels of precipitation coincide with maximum flowering and fruiting of herbaceous perennials and fall annuals. Limited data on six taxa from Utah generally agrees with observations in this study, suggesting strong genetic control in the phenology of some riparian taxa.

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / The contribution of flows from small watersheds to groundwater recharge is of interest. Water disposition depends on infiltration and evaporation characteristics. This study had the objective of developing an infiltration equation for estimating transmission losses during a flow event in an ephemeral stream near Tucson, Arizona, in the rocky mountain forest and range experiment station. Palo Verde, desert hackberry, cholla, marmontea and mesquite are the major bank species of the sandy channels. A climatic section consisting of a hydrothermograph recording rain gage and class a evaporation pan was installed. A water balance method was used to estimate evapotranspiration. A specially designed infiltrometer was used to simulate flow events. The data allowed the following conclusions: Philip's infiltration equation is an excellent mathematical model, initial moisture affects initial infiltration rate, the Philip coefficients are determinable by the infiltrometer constructed, soil moisture affects infiltration rates, and transpiration rates diminish linearly proportional to the ratio of available water to field capacity.

MSc (Zoology) / Department of Zoology / See the attached abstract below