Demography of nocturnal desert rodents was monitored for nine years. Three dissimilar areas were sampled with three distinct trapping configurations and time regimes. All three areas contained similar rodent species. Increased plant growth and seed production resulting from variations in rainfall seemed to have the most profound effect on both rodent densities and species composition. Deviations from the bimodal rainfall pattern occurred in the latter parts of 1972, 1977, and 1978 and early 1973, 1978, and 1979. During these times there was a 2-4 fold increase in rainfall. This pattern produced "desert blooms" in the spring of 1973, 1978, and to some extent 1979. In addition, 1972 and 1978 were years of high rainfall. The reaction of the rodents to the increased plant production was rapid and dramatic. Heteromyid numbers increased approximately six fold with some species increasing twelve fold within a matter of five months. The smaller heteromyids, Perognathus amplus and P. penicillatus, were the first to increase substantially, while the larger rodents reached peak populations in the following year. The resulting population crash that followed the high densities was as dramatic as the increase. Neotoma albigula populations did not increase substantially after the first rainfall phenomenon but did so dramatically after the second period of aberrant rains. The densities of N. albigula remained high long after the heteromyid populations decreased to "normal" levels. The three areas were found to be dominated by different species while the overall rodent densities in the three areas were very similar within the same time frame.

Survey of crops of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in Sonora, Mexico revealed the presence of two isometric viruses and one flexuous rod virus on the basis of host reaction, particle morphology, serology and physico-chemical properties. The isometric viruses were identified as Bean Southern Mosaic Virus (BSMV) and Cowpea Chlorotic Mottle Virus (CCMV); the flexuous rod virus was identified as Bean Common Mosaic Virus (BCMV). Using bean cultivar differentials, two strains of the potyvirus BCMV were identified, NY-15 and a previously undescribed strain designated YV-1. Host range, serological tests, and RNA electrophoresis indicated that the Sonoran BSMV cultures are similar to BSMV-strain A. Serology and RNA-electrophoresis indicated that the Sonoran CCMV isolates are identical to CCMV-strain A. BSMV and CCMV were always isolated as a mixture from seed lots and from field collected bean tissue. BCMV occurred alone or in mixed infections with BSMV and CCMV. BCMV was seed transmitted with an average efficiency of 58 percent. The BSMV-CCMV mixture was transmitted with an efficiency of 6 percent. BSMV and CCMV were seed transmitted together, but separate transmission of BSMV or CCMV was not detected. Commercial seed lots from two major bean growing regions of Sonora (Hermosillo Coast, Sonora River) were contaminated with the BSMV-CCMV mixture but not with BCMV. The average contamination level was 13 percent. Two common weeds present in Sonoran agricultural areas were found to be potential alternate hosts of CCMV. Both Sisymbrium irio L. and Melilotus indica L. were infected systemically, although the infection in M. indica was latent. Potential losses due to Sonoran bean viruses were measured in greenhouse experiments with the cultivar Pinto 111. BCMV strains caused a 29.4 to 60.1% reduction, whereas BSMV-CCMV mixtures induced a 22.5 to 74.6% yield reduction. A synergism occurred between the BSMV-CCMV mixture and BCMV resulting in more severe symptoms and a yield reduction of 92.7%. Synergistic effects were also observed between BSMV and CCMV. Actual yield reduction resulted from impaired flower production and, consequently, reduced pod production. Significant effects on plant tissue production, flower fertilization and seed quality were not observed. Cowpea chlorotic mottle virus infected mung bean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) a previously unreported host. Infection of mung bean by BSMV was only possible when CCMV was present in the inoculum. Both BSMV and CCMV could be isolated from symptomatic plants infected with the BSMV-CCMV mixture, however, symptoms on mung bean were unchanged from infection by CCMV alone.

Variability is a universal, but poorly understood, property of ecosystems. A common belief that environmental variability has a destabilizing effect on species coexistence is being challenged by a growing body of theoretical research; variance in resource abundances may actually promote species coexistence. Here, I develop three models which give ecological conditions for coexistence on a single resource. The first considers a resource whose abundance varies seasonally. Coexistence may be possible if there is a tradeoff between foraging efficiency and maintenance efficiency. The first species can forage profitably on low resource abundances while the second uses dormancy to "travel" inexpensively between temporal periods of high resource abundance. The second considers a resource whose abundance varies spatially. Coexistence may be possible if there is a tradeoff between foraging efficiency and the cost of travel. The first species forages patches to a lower giving up density while the second can inexpensively travel between patches with high resource abundances. The third considers an environment in which foraging costs change seasonally. Coexistence may be possible if there is a tradeoff between the cost of foraging during different seasons. The species which is the most efficient forager changes seasonally. Because coexisting species often exhibit little apparent diet or habitat separation, seed-eating desert rodents offer a promising community for testing the three aforementioned mechanisms of coexistence. In a community of four granivorous rodents, (Perognathus amplus, Dipodomys merriami, Spermophilus tereticaudus, and Ammospermophilus harrisii), I used artificial seed patches to measure species and habitat specific foraging efficiencies. The third mechanism of coexistence appears to explain the presence of P. amplus, D. merriami, and S. tereticaudus in the community. Each enjoys a season during which it is the most efficient forager. The second mechanism of coexistence explains the presence of A. harrisii in the community. This species preferred to forage a large number of widely spaced patches to a high giving up density rather than foraging a few patches to a low giving up density.

A mathematical model study was made to compare simulated soil temperature variations with a field situation. The study involved the use of two plots, one of which was cleared of all vegetation and the other left in its natural vegetative state. Each plot was watered at the beginning of three different trial periods and as drying occurred, the following atmospheric parameters were measured on an hourly basis: incoming solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, and wind speed. The above parameters provided input for solution of the energy budget equation to determine soil surface temperature variation. Using the soil surface temperature variation as an upper boundary condition, and assuming heat movement by conduction, the temperature at 5 cm increments down to 70 cm in the soil was calculated. The two plots provided model testing for a bare soil surface and also for a soil surface beneath a 30 percent and a 40 percent plant cover. Actual and calculated temperature difference was in most cases less than 2°F. The mathematical model is applicable to any area where the above parameters may be monitored.

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

Land conversion is one of the greatest threats to terrestrial ecosystems around the world, and understanding its impacts on the biota is crutial for the management and conservation of species in and around human-modified landscapes, particularly in those where local declines can quickly translate into the extinction of endemic species or Evolutionary Significant Units.I investigated how habitat loss and fragmentation impacted dispersal and extinction risk in three small vertebrates (a phrynosomatid lizard Urosaurus nigricaudus, and two heteromyid rodents Chaetodipus arenarius and Dipodomys simulans), in a highly fragmented agricultural valley from the Sonoran Desert in the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico, where reptiles and rodents show high endemism and phylogenetic diversity. After reconstructing the history of habitat loss at the valley during the last 60 years, my approach involved the development and genotyping of 10 DNA microsatellite loci in 800 individuals from the three species that were sampled from continuous and fragmented habitat and analyzed using various population genetic methods.Although genetic diversity was not significantly affected by habitat loss and fragmentation, I observed an increase in genetic structure, relatedness, the spatial scale of individual movement and reversal of sex-biased dispersal in the three species, compared to continous habitat. I found evidence of a large and spatially localized extinction debt in the lizard, that showed individual dispersal restricted to<400 m in the fragmented habitat, while the two heteromyids seemed capable of dispersing over distances of few kilometers. Several observations supported a higher extinction risk in kangaroo rats compared to pocket mice. Continuous areas surrounding the fragmented landscape where identified as important sources of individuals to habitat fragments located nearby. Even the vegetation associated with a narrow wash across the fragmented landscape appeared to act as a corridor as high levels of dispersing individuals were inferred in the three species over a scale of several kilometers. This study provided an approach to evaluate the effects of distinct landscape features in preventing or allowing individual dispersal in multiple co-distributed species towards their conservation in human-modified landscapes.

The number of desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) in Pusch Ridge Wilderness (PRW), Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona has declined to between 50 and 100 animals. Sheep have restricted movements to the southwest corner of PRW. I developed a model based on nitrogen (N) content of forage and forage quantity to measure seasonal changes in nutritional carrying capacity of sheep use areas in PRW. Forage based estimates of animals numbers were greater for April to September than for October to March. My study suggests that forage is not limiting desert bighorn sheep in PRW and illustrates the potential to support more desert bighorn sheep in PRW than the current population. Seasonal fluctuations in range productivity should be examined in relation to human disturbances proximal to desert bighorn sheep habitat and fire management programs for PRW.

Chemical sediments in a variety of geomorphic environments (pedogenic, fluvial, palustrine, lacustrine and pan) were investigated from seven regions (SW Kalahari, Kgalagadi, Kalkweissrand, Etosha, Linyanti, Okavango and Ngami) in the Kalahari of southern Africa. These primary and multi-phase sediments were characterised by a range of pure and intergrade silcrete, calcrete and dolocrete fabrics which contained an array of structures indicative of the crystalline and biogenic processes responsible for their precipitation, epigenesis and paragenesis. Petrography, mineralogy and isotope geochemistry provided significant insight regarding the environmental and geochemical conditions at the time of precipitation. Petrography indicated that the majority of chemical sediments were undergoing epigenetic modification as a consequence of the desiccation induced transition from phreatic to vadose diagenetic and geochemical conditions. The role of rapidly infiltrating meteoric water, associated with unstable wetting fronts, is believed to be instrumental in vadose diagenesis and the precipitation of crystalline/alpha fabric carbonate. Salinisation within the capillary fringe and deeper vadose zone is believed to be responsible for the sequence dolomitisation of crystalline calcite within mature sequences. Highly saline pan conditions instigate the precipitation of authigenic dolomite, calcite and K-feldspar within the surface sediments and authigenic silica at depth. Phreatic water beneath the islands, floodplains and fluvial systems of the Okavango, which undergoes evapotranspirational and transmission salinisation and ultimately terminal desiccation, are similarly precipitating silcrete. Pedogenic processes principally associated with C₄ vegetation are responsible for the gratification of carbonate mud within desiccating lacustrine, palustrine and pan sediments. Within the thin sandy Kalahari soils, pedogenesis is limited, but biogenic/beta fabric precipitation linked to mycorrihizae and tree/shrub savanna vegetation is instrumental in the formation of hardpans and the modification of upper calcrete horizons. The dominance of a distinct assemblage (smectite/kaolinite or sepiolite/palygorskite) of authigenic clay minerals present within all the environments provides evidence of semi-arid precipitation within Mg and Ca enriched saline/rapidly evaporating water or brackish/reduced permeability environments.

Visually guided navigation represents a long standing goal in robotics. Insights may be drawn from various insect species for which visual information has been shown sufficient for navigation in complex environments, however the generality of visual homing abilities across insect species remains unclear. Furthermore variousmodels have been proposed as strategies employed by navigating insects yet comparative studies across models and species are lacking. This work addresses these questions in two insect species not previously studied: the field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus for which almost no navigational data is available; and the European desert ant Cataglyphis velox, a relation of the African desert ant Cataglyphis bicolor which has become a model species for insect navigation studies. The ability of crickets to return to a hidden target using surrounding visual cues was tested using an analogue of the Morris water-maze, a standard paradigm for spatial memory testing in rodents. Crickets learned to re-locate the hidden target using the provided visual cues, with the best performance recorded when a natural image was provided as stimulus rather than clearly identifiable landmarks. The role of vision in navigation was also observed for desert ants within their natural habitat. Foraging ants formed individual, idiosyncratic, visually guided routes through their cluttered surroundings as has been reported in other ant species inhabiting similar environments. In the absence of other cues ants recalled their route even when displaced along their path indicating that ants recall previously visited places rather than a sequence of manoeuvres. Image databases were collected within the environments experienced by the insects using custompanoramic cameras that approximated the insect eye viewof the world. Six biologically plausible visual homing models were implemented and their performance assessed across experimental conditions. The models were first assessed on their ability to replicate the relative performance across the various visual surrounds in which crickets were tested. That is, best performance was sought with the natural scene, followed by blank walls and then the distinct landmarks. Only two models were able to reproduce the pattern of results observed in crickets: pixel-wise image difference with RunDown and the centre of mass average landmark vector. The efficacy of models was then assessed across locations in the ant habitat. A 3D world was generated from the captured images providing noise free and high spatial resolution images asmodel input. Best performancewas found for optic flow and image difference based models. However in many locations the centre of mass average landmark vector failed to provide reliable guidance. This work shows that two previously unstudied insect species can navigate using surrounding visual cues alone. Moreover six biologically plausible models of visual navigation were assessed in the same environments as the insects and only an image difference based model succeeded in all experimental conditions.

Extreme precipitation events that occurred between March 24 and March 26 of 2015 in the region of the Atacama Desert (26-29 degrees S) left around 30000 victims, being one of the biggest events over the past 50 years, with total a cost of reconstruction of about 1.5 billion dollars. The mudflows which increased during the flashflood inundated much of the city of Copiapo and Tierra Amarilla. This manuscript aims to model the mudflow of March 2015 in the Rio Copiapo, specifically in the towns of Copiapo and Tierra Amarilla. The modeling process is performed using the Rapid Mass Movement Simulation Model (RAMMS) that allows modeling the dynamics of the mudflow in two dimensions, only using the topographic features of the modeling domain. Calibration of the model was carried out successfully using data from inundation heights captured around the city after the 2015 event. A detailed analysis of the hydrometeorological event is carried out using satellite images obtained from Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), and pluviometric and hydrographic data available in the Copiapo River basin. The simulation of the flood is reproduced with maps of inundation heights associated with two modeling scenarios. The maximum flood heights are ultimately used for developing risk maps at both sites. According to our results, the RAMMS model is an appropriate tool for modeling mudflow and mapping flood risk to improve hydrological risk management in arid and semiarid basins of Chile.