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Diversity and Uniqueness at Its Best: Vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert

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Plant Diversity and Ecology in the Chihuahuan Desert

Part of the book series: Cuatro Ciénegas Basin: An Endangered Hyperdiverse Oasis ((CUCIBA))

Abstract

About 10,500 years ago at the beginning of the Holocene, the first humans in the north of Mexico found themselves in the middle of an aridification process that culminated about 4000 years ago in the modern Chihuahuan Desert, which is the largest desert in North America and the second most diverse on Earth with about 3400 plant species, including cacti that reach their greatest diversity in this region. Nearly 25% of the species are endemic, most notably in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin with 86 plant taxa. The climate is hot-dry with summer rain. Most of the region has calcareous soils, although there are important outcrops of gypsum in patchy arrangements throughout the region. These environmental pressures have generated a variety of adaptive strategies among the organisms evolving here, resulting in great species’ richness. Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) dominates in the driest sites, frequently accompanied by lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla) and tarbush (Flourensia cernua); in the bajadas (lowlands) we find the less drought-tolerant plants such as yuccas (Yucca spp.) and sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri). Grasslands integrate grass and shrub mosaics, with species such as bush muhly (Muhlenbergia porteri), bluegrass (Bouteloua gracilis), and purple three-awn (Aristida purpurea). In gypsum outcrops a diverse flora with several endemics is found. The vegetation is highly variable, responding to water availability, physical–chemical and biological dynamics of soils and fires, among other factors. Currently, there are serious pressures modifying the natural dynamics of the desert, such as the indiscriminate extraction of water, agricultural and livestock practices, water and soil contamination, and invasive species that threaten this unique place.

to Carlos Montaña and Francisco González-Medrano, in memoriam

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Acknowledgements

We thank Evelyn Rosas-García and Eduardo Casas who kindly provided the pictures included in this chapter. We also thank Luisa Granados, Irene Pisanty, and Meli (María C.) Mandujano for their detailed and constructive review of the draft of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología, Área de Ecología, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Mexico

    José Alejandro Zavala-Hurtado & Monserrat Jiménez

Authors
  1. José Alejandro Zavala-Hurtado
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  2. Monserrat Jiménez
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Correspondence to José Alejandro Zavala-Hurtado .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

    Maria C. Mandujano

  2. Departmento Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

    Irene Pisanty

  3. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

    Luis E. Eguiarte

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Zavala-Hurtado, J.A., Jiménez, M. (2020). Diversity and Uniqueness at Its Best: Vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert. In: Mandujano, M., Pisanty, I., Eguiarte, L. (eds) Plant Diversity and Ecology in the Chihuahuan Desert. Cuatro Ciénegas Basin: An Endangered Hyperdiverse Oasis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44963-6_1

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