Changing Plant Life of la Frontera : Observations on Vegetation in the United States/Mexico Borderlands

by Webster, Grady L.; Bahre, Conrad J.

• ISBN13: 9780826322395
• ISBN10: 0826322395
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr

Summary

Originating in a symposium on 'Vegetation and Flora of La Frontera' held at the American Institute of Biological Sciences to honour the late Forrest Shreve, pioneer desert ecologist, this collaboration of outstanding biologists, environmentalists, and climatologists from both sides of La Frontera presents a new agenda for study of the strikingly diverse shrub and grassland ecosystems of the US/Mexico border. The twenty-two contributors focus their expertise on historic cross-border changes in vegetation stemming from disparate land-use practices in the United States/Mexico border region -- La Frontera -- a 100-km-wide strip on either side of the international boundary. The diversity of scientific approaches includes fire histories, pollen studies, repeat aerial and ground photographic analyses, botanical surveys, biogeography, and paleoecology, to name a few. This book is richly illustrated with Landstat images, repeat ground photography, vegetation and reference maps, landscape photographs, and numerous graphs and diagrams.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vi
List of Tables	viii
Foreword	ix
Frederick Gehlbach
Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(5)
Reconnaissance of the Flora and Vegetation of La Frontera	6	(33)
Grady L. Webster
Climate of La Frontera	39	(17)
M. L. Shelton
Deep History and Biogeography of La Frontera	56	(11)
Thomas R. Van Devender
Historic Vegetation Change in La Frontera West of the Rio Grande	67	(17)
Conrad J. Bahre
Charles F. Hutchinson
Climate and Herbivory in Structuring the Vegetation of the Malpai Borderlands	84	(11)
Charles G. Curtin
James H. Brown
Forest Fire Histories of the Sky Islands of La Frontera	95	(25)
Thomas W. Swetnam
Christopher H. Baisan
J. Mark Kaib
Fire and Elevational Zonation of Chaparral and Conifer Forests in the Peninsular Ranges of La Frontera	120	(23)
Richard A. Minnich
Land Use, Climate, Soils, and Forest Structure in the Animas Mountains and the Sierra de los Ajos	143	(13)
Guy R. Mcpherson
Jose Villanueva-Diaz
Grazing Impacts on Mountain Meadows of the Peninsular Ranges in La Frontera	156	(10)
Joaquin Sosa-Ramirez
Ernesto Franco-Vizcaino
Human-Induced Vegetation Changes in the Tamaulipan Scrub of La Frontera	166	(10)
Timothy E. Fulbright
Oaks of La Frontera	176	(11)
Richard Spellenberg
Coastal Strand Vegetation of La Frontera	187	(7)
Ileana Espejel
Patricia Moreno-Casasola
Michael G. Barbour
Epilogue	194	(1)
Appendix: Taxonomic Overview of the Oaks of La Frontera	195	(17)
Glossary of Latin and Vernalcular Plant Names	212	(1)
Literature Cited	212	(36)
Index	248