Treesearch

Amphibians and reptiles were observed in the Sierra La Madera (59 species), an isolated Sky Island mountain range, and the Sierra Bacadéhuachi (30 species), the westernmost mountain range in the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) range in east-central Sonora. These preliminary herpetofaunas were compared with the herpetofauna of the Yécora area in eastern Sonora in the main SMO, where 92 species are known from the Río Yaqui to the Chihuahua border. The Yécora area, as we have defined it, extends from the Río Yaqui to the Chihuahua border along Mexico Federal Highway 16 and other areas accessible...

We compared the distribution of riparian forest and woodlands relative to water resource availability for a 2.3 million-acre region for the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP). Most of Pima County’s riparian vegetation occurs along stream reaches that classify as ephemeral. Ninety percent or more of the mesquite woodlands, riparian scrub, and riparian strand classifications of the Brown, Lowe and Pase system are associated with ephemeral stream reaches in Pima County. Over half of the Sonoran cottonwood-willow vegetation is associated with stream reaches that classified as ephemeral....

San Bernardino Creek is a northern tributary of the Río Yaqui that originates in the United States and crosses the International Border just east of Douglas, Arizona/Agua Prieta, Sonora and immediately south of San Bernardino/Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge. Six of eight Río Yaqui native fishes occur in this reach:four minnows, a sucker, and a poeciliid. Information is presented on the annual and seasonal distribution of these fishes during 2008–2011.

The Ciénega de Saracachi area, including Arroyo Santo Domingo and Cañón Quemado, is in the Municipio de Cucurpe in north-central Sonora (30°21’33”N 110°35’29”W), ca. 105 km south of the Arizona border. The vegetation is cottonwood-willow riparian forest in the Ciénega and rocky stream canyons with desert grassland on the slopes above. These upper tributaries of the Río San Miguel are natural corridors on the west side of the Sierras San Antonio and Azul. The flora contains 419 species in 99 families and the fauna 301 species of animals in 83 families. Invertebrate animals with only 87 taxa...

The biogeographic affinites of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea and Hesperidae), damsel and dragonflies (Odonata), and ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) reported from the State of Sonora, Mexico were analyzed using published species lists. The combined distribution of these taxa was proportionally greater (47.4%) for those species within the Mega-Mexico3 biogeographic category (Southwestern United States south to northern Central America). Formicidae was the most highly restricted taxon with greater proportions of Sonoran desert endemics. Butterflies had a greater proportion of...

Museum records indicate that the peak number of bee species occurs around the Mediterranean Sea and in the warm desert areas of North America, whereas flowering plants are most diverse in the tropics. We examine this biogeographic pattern for the bee species known from a limited area of northeastern Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico/United States. This topographically complex area has been studied for more than 50 years for bees, which allows us to compare faunas in nearby areas that vary from low elevation desert scrub to high elevation montane forest. Our analysis indicates that bee diversity in...

The Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP) is a new multi-disciplinary research program at the University of Arizona that combines systematics, biogeography, ecology, and population genetics to study origins and patterns of arthropod diversity along elevation gradients and among mountain ranges in the Madrean Sky Island Region. Arthropods represent taxonomically and ecologically diverse organisms that drive key ecosystem processes in this mountain archipelago. Using data from museum specimens and specimens we obtain during long-term collecting and monitoring programs, ASAP will...

The Sierra de Bacadéhuachi is a poorly sampled extension of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) located in east-central Sonora near the town of Bacadéhuachi. Sampling of moths using mercury vapor and ultraviolet lights occurred in summer and fall 2011, and spring 2012 at Rincón de Guadalupe, located in pine-oak forest at 1680 m elevation. Approximately 400 taxa of moths were identified from this locality. Species occurrences demonstrate connections to the famously diverse Yécora area, to the higher, more mesic SMO in Chihuahua, as well as the Rocky Mountains to the north. Several unidentified...

Addressing the increasing effects of climate change on natural resources requires multiple organizations, agencies, and institutions working cooperatively to incorporate climate change into resource management. In the Sky Island region of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, Sky Island Alliance, a non-governmental organization, has convened a series of climate change adaptation workshops in cooperation with a variety of partners. This paper describes a process and methodology for bringing together federal and state agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations,...

In the Sky Island region, cienegas are rare marshlands amidst arid surroundings where groundwater perennially intersects the surface. Their unique physical properties give rise to a characteristic plant community dominated by wetland graminoids. Evaporation usually causes the water to be alkaline, and vegetation around a cienega commonly includes halophytes and other unusual species. Depending on their age and size, they may also harbor high levels of endemism. Cienegas are far from pristine, and like many wetlands and riparian areas, they have probably been exploited for millennia. In the...