An Ecological Reconnaissance of Quitobaquito Spring, Arizona'

Reprinted from the 3(9// JOURNAL OF THE ARIZONA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vol. 3, No. 3 — April 1965

AN ECOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE OF QUITOBAQUITO SPRING, ARIZONA'

GERALD A. COLE and MELBOURNE C. WHITESIDE2 ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION. — An important water hole above the level of impoundment. The total flow from along the old Camino del Diablo, a trail which ran the various seeps could not be estimated, but was from Sonoyta, Sonora, to Yuma, Arizona, was Quito- certainly lower in 1964 than Gould's (1938) figure baquito Spring, now a part of Organ Pipe Cactus of 43 gal/minute (ca. 163 1/min). We calculated National Monument. The spring is a series of seeps the rate of outflow from the pond, which is of course from which water flows about 100 m by way of less than the inflow because of seepage, evaporation, shallow ditches, perhaps 30 cm broad, to a small and transpiration losses. An overflow pipe 7.1 m pond, which is best described as a desert oasis. The long leaves the pond at the shore opposite the original ditches and impoundment are said to be the influent ditches. We measured the volume of water work of Papago Indians, but in recent years National in the pipe and the speed of fluorescein dye passing Monument personnel have maintained them and have through it, arriving at an outflow rate of 5.1 1/min. rejuvenated the pond by removing much of the This may represent an unusually low condition, and emergent aquatic vegetation and dredging the sedi- is certainly far from the order of magnitude reported ments. by Gould. Dr. Dammann reported the ditches carried Little biological information has been published water approximately 7.5 cm deep in June 1963, but about the seeps and the pool. Hensley (1954) made in 1964 only 2 cm of water were flowing. an ecological study of the birds of Organ Pipe Cactus A survey of the spring pond was made using com- National Monument in the late 1940's, and furnished pass, calibrated chalk line, and sounding line. The some descriptions of the springs, the pool and asso- surface area is about 0.22 ha and the pool is almost ciated biota. Hubbs and Miller (1948) have written uniformly one meter deep. A volume estimate of 2,200 in3 of the unique form of Cyprinodon macularius Baird applies whenever the pond is high enough and Girard which occurs in the pool, and is probably to flow through the outlet pipe. endemic to it and the nearby Sonoyta River, a dis- PHYSICO-CHEMICAL FEATURES OF THE rupted segment of the Colorado River drainage. WATERS.—Dr. Dammann recorded a temperature of 27.8°C at a spring in 1963; eleven months later On June 28, 1963, Dr. Richard S. Peckham col- we measured 23.9°C. We are not sure temperatures lected plankton from the pond, and Dr. A. E. Dam- and collections were from the same place both years, mann collected water from one of the seeps. We are but apparently there was a greater flow in 1963. Dr. grateful to them for bringing us their samples. Dammann's notes describe his water collection as Further studies of the spring were made on May 24 being from the ". . . main source . . ." We were and 25, 1964. It is the purpose of this paper to dis- forced to dip from a nearly stagnant pool below a cuss the 1963 collections and our own later investi- seep, from which water was moving at a very low gations although we are well aware of the cursory rate. Whatever the case, there were some differences and superficial nature of this report. between the seep samples of 1963 and 1964 (Table DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA.—Qui- 1) tobaquito Spring lies almost exactly on the Inter- Water from the hillside springs showed no tur- national Boundary at about N lat 31°55', long ° bidity when compared to distilled water. Unfiltered 113 01' and approximately 355 m above sea level. pond water of May 1964, however, showed a tur- It is in the Lower Sonoran Life-zone in a magnificent bidity of 70 on a standard silica scale supplied by region of cacti and other plants typical of the Sono- the Hach Chemical Company, Ames, Iowa. ran Desert (see Lowe 1964:24-31). The annual The 1963 sample had a pH of 8.15 after aeration precipitation averages 7.7 inches, May and June being in the laboratory. Our 1964 hydrogen-ion data were the driest months and September usually the wettest. lost except those from the pond surface. These The area receives 85% of the possible annual solar waters were 7.8 at sunset May 24, and 7.6 at dawn radiation. August is the hottest month of the year the 25th. with a mean temperature of 87.6°F. The temperature of the pond surface water was The water of the spring originates from an ancient 31.1°C at 2:30 PM on May 24, 1964; at 0.5 m it fault in granite-gneiss rook. It is believed to be was 30.6°; and 30.0° at the bottom. At dawn the derived from deep water forced up seams of broken next morning it was uniformly 27.2°C, indicating a rock created by the fault. It issues from a hillside loss of roughly 240 g cal/cm'. Dissolved oxygen at a depth of 0.5 m in the pond 'Supported by National Science Foundation Grant GB-154. 'Present Address: Department of Zoology, Indiana Univer- ranged from 5.46 to 5.82 mg/1 during the after- sity. noon. At the prevailing water temperature these

159 160 JOURNAL OF THE ARIZONA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vol. 3

Table 1. Major chemical constituents in the waters of Quitobaquito, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona. Expressed as mg/l. Ion or Compound Quitobaquito Spring (source) Quitobaquito Spring (pool) Pool Compared to Source June 1963 May 1964 May 1964 May 1964 Na 191.0 284.0 350.0 + 66.0 IC+ 4.5 6.0 7.0 + 1.0 Ca .+ 34.0 36.8 27.2 - 9.6 ivig,., 12.6 11.7 17.5 - 5.8 Total Alkalinity as -IIC01- 316.0 402.0 411.0 + 9.0 Cl- 148.0 318.0 383.0 + 65.0 71.0 91.0 100.0 + 9.0 F- - 4.3 5.3 + 1.0 Si0,2 28.0 41.0 43.0 + 2.0 Total Iron 0.09 0.08 0.08 0 Copper 0.1 trace trace 0 Manganese 0 0 0 0 Ammonium-N 0.09 - - - 1\103-N + Na-N 2.59 2.25 0.007 - 2.243 Ortho-Poi 0 0 0 0

Computed Total 808 1198 1344

oxygen concentrations represent a saturation of about phosphorus following hydrolysis by boiling with acid. 105%. Ammonium nitrogen was assayed by direct Nes- The pool water collected in May 1964 shows some slerization in the seep water of 1963, but was not effects of concentration when compared with the determined in later samples. Brucine nitrogen was spring issue (Table 1). The gain in computed dis- determined for all three samples. This includes both solved solids is more than 100 mg/1, and changes NO,-N and NO3-N. The Brucine nitrogen of the in relative composition are especially instructive. The pool was in trace quantities in spite of high values most conspicuous gains are in sodium and chloride, each year in the spring (Table 1). This almost com- a trend to be expected in cases of concentration (see plete depletion of the high ground-water nitrogen Hutchinson, 1957). Also, the Ca/Mg ratio changes must have been associated in some way with plant from 3.1, by weight, in the spring water to 1.5 in activity both in the entering ditches and in the pool. the pond. This relative enrichment of magnesium The saline nature of the Quitobaquito waters is may be a reflection of the greater solubility of its one of its major ecological factors. Although rela- compounds compared to those of calcium. tively dilute when compared with many western wa- Some chemical features of Quitobaquito waters ters, the white evaporite along the shallow ditches which might be expected in inland sodium waters implies occasional strong concentrations associated are the fairly high concentrations of silica and with drying. fluoride (Hem, 1959:57, 113). A comparison between the Quitobaquito waters Total iron was determined for the three samples, and those of Dripping Springs, one of the other but differentiation was made between soluble and major permanent water holes in Organ Pipe Cactus particulate iron only in the 1963 spring water. The ,National Monument, can be made (Table 2). Drip- water contained 0.025 mg/1 soluble iron, and 0.075 ping Springs is about 10 km north of Quitobaquito mg/1 particulate iron retained by membrane filter, in the Puerto Blanco Mountains and is different in pore size 0.8 micron. many respects. This is a small, north-facing grotto No phosphate could be determined by the molyb- on a mountain slope. Water drips down the inner 2 denum blue method, using stannous chloride as the rock surface to form a small pool of about 4 m , reducing agent, in any of the three samples. Water and 1.3 m deep. The turbid water (ca. 40 on a was assayed for soluble ortho-phosphate and for total silica scale standard) was 15.6°C on May 25, 1964. April 1965 COLE-WHITESIDE — QUITOBAQUITO SPRING, ARIZONA 161

Table 2. Chemical constituents of the water of Drip- Mearns collected this during early expeditions of ping Springs, Organ Pipe Cactus National the International Boundary Survey. C. laevigatus is Monument, Arizona. May 25, 1964. widespread in the tropics and occurs throughout Ion or Compound mg/1 desert and coastal southern California (Mason, 1957: Na+ 90.0 269). However, we saw no plants referable to K+ 2.5 Cyperus at Quitobaquito, and the most conspicuous Total Hardness as CaCO3 20.0 plant there is Scirpus olneyi. Total Alkalinity as —HCO3- 93.3 Submerged macrophytes in the Quitobaquito pool C1- 46.0 induded charophytes and Najas marina L. Hevly 804-- 35.0 (1961) stated that Chara sejuncta had been identi- F- 0.1 fied from the pool, but Donald R. Tindall, to whom 8102 67.5 we are indebted for determining our material, did Total Iron 0.28 not find it. He reported, "C. globularia Thuill. abun- Copper trace dant; plant immature; C. contraria A. Br. ex Kutz., Manganese sparse; and C. zeylanica Klein ex Willd., sparse, but NO2—N NO2—N 2.5 abundant germinating spores seem to be of this Ortho—PO4 0.675 species." Some macrophytes at Quitobaquito reflect the Computed Total 358 saline nature of the environment. This can be said for S. olneyi, N. marina and Anemopsis, at least. It contained no obvious macroscopic life except VERTEBRATE ANIMALS.—Although we made larvae and pupae of the mosquito Culiseta incidens no plans to study vertebrate animals, we observed a (Thomson). few things which should be reported. The Desert The water had a pH of 7.3 and contained only Pupfish, Cyprinodon macularius, was very much in about 25% the computed weight of dissolved solids evidence about the margin of the Quitobaquito pool, found in Quitobaquito (Tables 1, 2). Other con- although it did not appear until rather late on the spicuous differences were the low calcium and mag- cloudy morning of May 25. There were a great many nesium values implied by EDTA hardness, the much tiny young-of-the-year fish. This species occurs in lower fluoride content, and the higher silica level in only two Arizona localities, and if the Quitobaquito Dripping Springs. Comparing relative percentages of and Sonoyta River populations represent a distinct the principal anions, and using the categories pro- subspecies (see Hubbs and Miller, 1948; Miller, posed by Clarke (1924), the Quitobaquito seeps, and 1943), a most precarious situation exists. A catastro- especially the pond, lie midway between carbonate- phe such as the introduction of Gambusia or some chloride and chloro-carbonate waters, while Dripping other exotic species could destroy this entire popula- Springs, although dilute, contains triple water. tion; almost the entire gene pool is contained by this THE AQUATIC MACROPHYTES. — At the tiny body of water. shores of the pool are some Cottonwood trees (Popu- On the pond there were several Coots (Fulica lus fremontii Wats.) and many seep willows (Bac- americana Gmelin), a species which Hensley (1954) charis glutinosa Pers). There are a few clumps of noted very rarely. There were also some small grebes the conspicuous, introduced grass Polypogan monspe- which were not identified, but may have been the liensis (L.) in moist places. Occasional plants refer- Mexican Grebe, Podiceps dominicus (L.) which was able to Anemopsis californica (Nutt.) were flower- reported from the pool in 1941 and 1943 (Monson ing in the white saline soil near the ditches. This is and Phillips, 1964). They were not referable to the a plant of ". . . alkaline floodlands . . ." (Mason, Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps (L.). 1957). Small succulents also occurred along these A few specimens of the Boat-tailed Grackle, Cas- shallow water courses. Where the ditches enter the sidix mexicanus (Gmelin) were evident in the trees pond and along the ditches leading from the springs about the pond. Hensley did not find this bird in are luxuriant stands of the spike rush Eleocharis Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument during 1948 geniculata (L.) Roem. and Schult. (=E. caribaea and 1949, and it would be expected to occur only Blake) . rarely so far west (see Monson and Phillips, 1964: The conspicuous emergent aquatic plant is the 235). halophytic rush Scirpus olneyi Gray (=S. chilensis BIOTA OF THE DITCHES.—The small ditches, Nees and Meyen) which forms a magnificent mar- leading from the seeps to the pond, contained about ginal stand some five meters broad. At the lakeward two cm of water in which mats of filamentous algae edge of the S. olneyi there occurs a small Scirpus grew. The commonest type was either a small species which is very much like Scirpus smithii Gray. of Mougeotia Agardh or a member of Debarya Wit- Hensley (1954) stated that the ". . . small pond trock; the filaments were all vegetative with no evi- at Quitobaquito supports a fine stand of the sedge dence of conjugation or gametangia. A species of Cyperus laevigatus. . . ." Furthermore, he wrote that Zygnema Agardh was also present, exhibiting many 162 JOURNAL OF THE ARIZO NA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vol. 3 zygospores. Coenobes of Pediastrum integrum Naeg. and has been collected in southern USA and south- were scattered among the filaments as were many ward (Birge, 1918; Brooks, 1959). There is, there- diatoms. The most abundant diatom was referable to fore, a Southern Hemisphere affinity shown by these Cocconeis Ehrenberg. Species of the blue-greens, two crustaceans. Lyngbya Agh., Chroococcus Naeg., and Merismopedia BOTTOM FAUNA AND SWIMMING IN- Meyen were also present, although not common. SECTS. — The benthic fauna of the Quitobaquito The most abundant animal among the algal fila- pool was sampled quantitatively by Ekman dredge. ments was Limnocythere inopinata (Baird), a cytherid The samples were screened through a No. 40 Tyler ostracod crustacean. A second ostracod was present sieve, so only macrobenthic forms were retained. in far fewer numbers. This was Candonacypria Two dredge samples contained a total of 41 animals, osborni Furtos, the only described species of this implying about 882/m2. Of the total obtained, 38 unusual genus. Limnocythere and Candonacypria were chironomid larvae and pupae, two were water lack effective natatory setae and are typical crawling mites, and one was a tubificid oligochaete. The species. formalin weight of the total was 29 mg, from which A few small gastropods referable to Physa were 6.24 kg/ha can be calculated for comparative pur- present on the algal mats of the ditches. poses. The standing crop at the time of sampling PLANKTON.—The plankton of the Quitobaquito must be considered very low on a weight basis. The pond was sampled with nets of No. 20 bolting silk common midge species was very small. There may on June 28, 1963, and May 24, 1964. Because of the be several generations a year, however, and annual extreme shallowness of the pool, the net samples productivity may be far greater than implied by the contained some species more typical of the micro- low mass of our sample. benthos than the plankton community. The margins of the ponds and the Scir pus beds Net phytoplankton was not abundant. There were were sampled qualitatively with a dip net. Several some filaments of the Mougeotia and Zygnema which insects were present, the most conspicuous forms flourished in the ditches. In addition, Spirogyra being odonatan naiads and beetles. The damsel flies Link, Pleurotaenium Naeg., Oscillatoria Vaucher, were referable to Agria Rambur, Neoneura Selys, and Closterium Nitsch were present sparsely. and Teleallagma Kennedy; the dragonflies were libel- The zooplankton was predominantly of the Rota- lulids referable to Tramea Hagen. toria with a species of Hexarthra Schmarda the most Most of the Coleoptera were adult, but a few abundant type in the 1964 collection. Brachionus spectacular larvae of the dytiscid Cybister Curtis quadridentata Hermann was also present. In the also were collected. This form probably preys on June 1963 collection this was the most abundant small individuals of Cyprinodon in Quitobaquito. species and only questionable fragments of Hexarthra Other beetles included: the hydrophilids, Tropister- occurred. At least two species of Monostyla Ehren- nus ellipticus (LeC.) and T. lateralis (Fahr.); the berg were present each year; one of these was prob- dytiscids, Deroneaes roffl nebulosus Sharp, Dytiscus ably M. quadridentata Ehrenberg. habilis Say, and Laccophilus fasciatus terminalis Microcrustaceans were uncommon in the plankton Sharp; a dryopid referable to Helichus Erichson; and both years. There were no calanoid copepods and no the haliplid, Pelodytes dispersus Roberts. cladocerans which could be considered typically PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY.—Most of the pri- limnetic. The cyclopoid copepod Macrocydops albidus mary productivity in the shallow Quitobaquito pond (Jurine) was represented by many nauplii and a probably can be attributed to the emergent macro- few adults. A swimming ostracod of the genus Cypri- phytes. We attempted to estimate planktonic primary dopsis Brady, but not the common C. vidua (0.F.M.), productivity by gathering data on diurnal oxygen was present. There were a few of the Limnocythere changes. A light-dark bottle experiment failed when which were so common in the ditch, and some indi- the dark bottle was broken, and the 25th of May, viduals of Herpetocypris reptans (Baird). for which we had planned an experiment, was over- The most interesting species in the collections of cast and dull. In spite of these misfortunes, we both years were two chydorid cladocerans, referable obtained some information. to Alona Baird. Alona diaphana King and A. pul- The net gain in oxygen during the last two hours chella King were originally described from Australian and 37 minutes of the sunny afternoon of May 24 material (King, 1852:260). The latter is probably was 0.36 mg/1 at 0.5 m depth. Ignoring atmospheric synonymous with A. cambouei Guerne and Richard, exchange, this implies a rate of about 0.0138 mg and has been reported rarely. Harding (1955) found 02/cm2/hr. Daylight was 14 hours that day, per- it in Lake Titicaca, and in collections from Africa mitting us to calculate a net gain of 0.193 mg 2 (Harding, 1957). This species occurs also in Dead 02 /cm /day. Man Lake, N. M., on the flat crest of the Chuska The loss of oxygen overnight was 0.98 mg/1; Mountains which extend into northeastern Arizona assuming 10 hours of darkness this would be 0.0098 2 (Megard, 1964). mg 02/cm /hr. The gain and loss data may be A. diaphana also is known from South America referred to 14 hours and summed to derive a gross April 1965 COLE-WHITESIDE -QUI TOBAQUITO SPRING, ARIZONA 163

2 primary productivity rate of 0.33 mg 02 /cm /day. us and helped with the field work. Taxonomic aid ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.-We are indebted to received from several specialists is very much appre- the personnel of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monu- ciated. They include: Dr. John N. Belkin, Culicidae; ment, and especially to Chief Naturalist Victor L. Dr. Edward Ferguson, Jr., cytherid ostracods; Dr. Jackson, for making information in the Monument Robert 0. Megard, chydorid Cladocera; Dr. Frank N. files available to us, and for extending other cour- Young, Coleoptera; and Dr. Donald R. Tindall, tesies. We also wish to acknowledge the help re- Characeae. ceived from Leo Ryan of Tempe, who accompanied

LITERATURE CITED BIRGE, E. A., 1918. The water fleas (Cladocera) In Ward Hunas, C. L., and R. R. MILLER, 1948. Correlation between and Whipple's Fresh-water Biology. 1st ed. pp. 676-740. fish distribution and hydrographic history in the desert basins of western United States. pp. 17-166 ± figs. 10- BROOKS, J. L., 1959. Cladocera. In Ward and Whipple's 29, 1 map. In Fresh-water Biology. 2nd ed. (Ed. W. T. Edmondson), The Great Basin with emphasis on glacial and postglacial times. Bull. Univ. Utah 38. PP. 587-656. HUTCHINSON, G. E., 1957. A treatise on limnology. Vol. I. CLARKE, F. W., 1924. The data of geochemistry. 5th ed. Geography, physics, and chemistry. John Wiley and U.S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 771:1-841. Sons, New York. 1015 + xiv p. GOULD, C. N., 1938. Geology of Organ Pipe Cactus Na- KING, R. L., 1852. On Australian entomostracans. Royal tional Monument. Southwestern Monuments Rep. 455. Soc. Van Diemen's Land (1852, 1853):253-263. Suppl. for June. Santa Fe, N. M. LOWE, C. H., 1964. Arizona landscapes and habitats. Part I. HARDING, J. P., 1955. Crustacea: Cladocera. The Percy In The Vertebrates of Arizona (Ed. C. H. Lowe). Univ. Sladen trust expedition to Lake Titicaca in 1937. Trans. Arizona Press: Tucson. pp. 1-132. Linn. Soc. London 1:329-357. MASON, H. L., 1957. A flora of the marshes of California. , 1957. Crustacea: Cladocera. Exploration hydro- Univ. California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles. biologique du lac Tanganika (1946-1947). Resultats 1-878 p. scientifiques. Inst. Roy. Sci. Nat. Belgique. 3:55-89. MEGARD, R. 0., 1964. Biostratigraphic history of Dead Man HEM, J. D., 1959. Study and interpretation of the chemical Lake, Chuska Mountains, New Mexico. Ecology 45: characteristics of natural water. Geol. Surv. Water- 529-546. supply Pap. 1473. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. Washington. MILLER, R. R., 1943. The status of Cyprinodon macularius 1-269 i-ix p. and Cyprinodon nevadensis, two desert fishes of west- HENSLEY, H. M., 1954. Ecological relations of the breeding ern North America. Occ. Papers Mus. Zool., Univ. bird population of the desert biome of Arizona. Ecol. Michigan 473:1-25. Monogr. 24:185-207. MONSON, G., and A. R. PHILLIPS, 1964. An annotated HEVLY, R. H., 1961. Notes on aquatic non-flowering plants checklist of the species of birds in Arizona. Part 4. In of northern Arizona and adjoining regions. Plateau The Vertebrates of Arizona, (Ed. C. H. Lowe). Univ. 33:88-92. Arizona Press: Tucson. pp. 175-248.