Effects of land clearing on bordering winter annual populations in the Mohave Desert

Authors

Richard Hunter, Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, Mercury, Nevada
F. B. Turner, Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, Mercury, Nevada
R. G. Lindberg, Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, Mercury, Nevada
Katherine Bell Hunter, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Abstract

Construction of a 10-MWe solar thermal power plant in Daggett, California, involved clearing and leveling 53 ha of desert land. Transient offsite effects of this construction were apparent as a reduced density of annual plants within 100 m downwind of the edge of the cleared area. Schismus arabicus populations recovered within four years, but Erodium cicutarium populations did not. The effects appeared to be related more to an interaction of seed-dispersal mechanisms with the large, open space than to the obvious sand movement and deposition associated with the clearing operations.

Recommended Citation

Hunter, Richard; Turner, F. B.; Lindberg, R. G.; and Hunter, Katherine Bell (1987) "Effects of land clearing on bordering winter annual populations in the Mohave Desert," Great Basin Naturalist: Vol. 47: No. 2, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol47/iss2/8