Abstract
Bajadas are transition zones between the foothills of the mountainous areas and the valleys in the arid zones of North America; given their microclimatic characteristics (geomorphological composition, high humidity, and low solar radiation) they are probably a refuge for many plant species; however, there are no reports for the bajadas in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin. This work describes the structure, composition, and diversity of the plant community found in bajadas in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) in the Chihuahuan desert, where we sampled 0.6 ha. We found 38 plant species, 26 genera, and 11 families. The Shannon diversity index was 3.2, higher than those registered in other arid zones. The Cactaceae family includes the greatest number of species (22 species), seven of them are classified under some threat category; other cacti species had a restricted distribution into the so-called mega Coahuilan region. The most important species based on their density and volume were: Grusonia bradtiana (importance value, IV =35.3%), Larrea tridentata (IV=15.9%), and Jatropha dioica (IV=14.12%), these species might strongly contribute to the composition of bajadas since they function as nurse plants for other plant species. As the CCB is one of the most diverse of the Chihuahuan Desert, the knowledge of the diversity, structure, and composition of bajadas is relevant to define important sites and strategies for the conservation of North America’s largest desert.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the APFF Cuatro Ciénegas (CONANP) office and the people in charge. We thank the owners of Rancho Orozco, Juan Manuel González and Alfonso González. This contribution is in partial fulfillment of the Graduate Program of Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) of the first author MSc. Juan Carlos Flores Vázquez, who also acknowledges the scholarship and financial support provided by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT), fellowship 176604. To Valeria Souza for her hospitality in Cuatro Ciénegas and Carlos Slim Foundation. To Marco A. Romero Romero for helping with figures edition.
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Flores Vázquez, J.C., Rosas Barrera, M.D., Golubov, J., Sánchez-Gallén, I., Mandujano, M.C. (2020). Ecological Importance of bajadas in 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_8
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