Treesearch

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...

As persistent wetlands in arid regions, ciénegas represent important resources for the maintenance and preservation of regional biodiversity. The history of ciénegas in the American Southwest over the last 8,000 years provides information on the dynamics of growth, longevity, and stability of these habitats under previous climate conditions. Proxy data such as sedimentology, pollen, charcoal, and isotopes preserved in ciénega sediments provide information on the formation, disturbance, resilience and state changes within these systems. This long-term perspective is compared to the recent...

Conservation biologists, NGOs, and the USFWS have established a goal of returning a viable population of jaguars into the United States. The source population for this recovery will come from Sonora, Mexico, the closest sub-population of the species. To maintain a viable population there must be females and an active corridor that allows passage of jaguars between Sonora, Arizona, and New Mexico. While considerable attention has been paid to the corridor, little attention has been paid to the potential rate of expansion of the existing population and the importance of female jaguars to...

The Northern Jaguar Reserve is in the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental and in a broad transition zone between Nearctic and Neotropical faunal realms. We have assessed the distribution and abundance of birds across all four seasons in foothills thornscrub, oak woodland, and adjacent riparian areas, and discuss issues relevant to conservation and management. Since 2007, we have observed 205 species of birds including 131 that are Neotropical migrants, 104 that likely breed on the reserve, and 35 species of binational conservation concern. Observations suggest this 20,140 -ha...

The Northern Jaguar Reserve is 50,000 acres and one of the largest privately owned wildlife preserves in Sonora. Buying land in remote parts of Sonora takes special knowledge as ownership rules may not be clear and boundaries may not be defined in the records. There are complex legal procedures to guarantee ownership in which letters of intent play a crucial role, and there are special complexities for ejido lands. In addition, only a presidential decree as a natural protected area can prevent mining in the long term. The lessons learned at the Northern Jaguar Reserve for conservation land...

To compare and contrast herpetofaunas at Ranchos Los Fresnos and El Aribabi in north-central Sonora, México, we conducted herpetological surveys during 2006-2011, contacted others working in these two areas, and queried 27 museums and collections for specimens collected at or near these ranches. Based on this work, nine and seven amphibian, and 27 and 24 reptile species are known to occur at Ranchos El Aribabi and Los Fresnos, respectively. Significant findings at Los Fresnos include presence of presumed Sonora tiger salamanders (Ambystoma mavortium stebbinsi), of which there are only...

Contemporary climate change is driving transitions in many Madrean ecosystems, but the time scale of these changes is accelerated greatly by severe landscape disturbances such as wildfires and insect outbreaks. Landscape-scale disturbance events such as wildfires interact with prior disturbance patterns and landscape structure to catalyze abrupt transitions to novel ecosystem configurations. These reorganized landscapes are characterized by new disturbance regimes and potentially dramatic departures in species diversity and distributions, community composition, carbon storage, landscape...