ERDC/CERL SR-02-8 ERDC/CERL A Bibliography of Important Plant Species in the Chihuahuan Desert of North America (1904 – 2002) Tamara Hochstrasser, Debra Peters, Jeffrey Fehmi, and July 2002 Kevin VonFinger 1. Construction Engineering Research Laboratory Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 2 ERDC/CERL SR-02-8 Foreword This study was conducted for the Office of the Directorate of Environmental Pro- grams (DAIM), Assistant Chief of Staff (Installation Management) (ACS[IM]) under project 622720896, “Environmental Quality Technology”; Work Unit CNN- T081, “ATTACC/EDYS Integration.” The technical monitor was Dr. Vic Diersing, DAIM-ED-N. The work was performed by the Ecological Processes Branch(CN-N) of the Instal- lations Division (CN), Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL). The CERL Principal Investigator was Dr. Jeffrey S. Fehmi. The work was per- formed under contract by Dr. Tamara Hochstrasser and Dr. Debra Peters of new Mexico State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service – Jornada. The technical editor was Gloria J. Wienke, Infor- mation Technology Laboratory. Mr. Stephen Hodapp is Chief, CEERD-CN-N, and Dr. John T. Bandy is Chief, CEERD-CN. The associated Technical Director was Dr. William D. Severinghaus, CEERD-CV-T. The Director of CERL is Dr. Alan W. Moore. CERL is an element of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Commander and Executive Director of ERDC is COL John Morris III, EN and the Director of ERDC is Dr. James R. Houston. DISCLAIMER: The contents of this report are not to be used for advertising, publication, or promotional purposes. Citation of trade names does not constitute an official endorsement or approval of the use of such commercial products. All product names and trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners. The findings of this report are not to be construed as an official Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents. DESTROY THIS REPORT WHEN IT IS NO LONGER NEEDED. DO NOT RETURN IT TO THE ORIGINATOR. ERDC/CERL SR-02-8 3 Contents Foreword............................................................................................................................................ 2 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 Background......................................................................................................................... 5 Army User Requirements ..............................................................................................................5 Chihuahuan Desert Region ...........................................................................................................5 Objective............................................................................................................................. 6 Approach ............................................................................................................................ 7 Scope.................................................................................................................................. 7 Mode of Technology Transfer ............................................................................................. 8 2 Community Structure and Dynamics in Arid Lands............................................................. 9 3 Bouteloua eriopoda (Torr.) Torr. (Black grama) ................................................................... 33 4 Pleuraphis mutica Buckl. (Tobosa) ....................................................................................... 71 5 Larrea tridentata (DC.) Cov. (Creosotebush)........................................................................ 85 6 Prosopis glandulosa Torr. (Honey mesquite) ....................................................................153 7 Flourensia cernua DC. (Tarbush).........................................................................................217 8 Gutierrezia sarothrae (Pursh) Britt. & Rusby (Broom snakeweed) ................................229 9 Annual species.......................................................................................................................237 CERL Distribution.........................................................................................................................246 REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE ............................................................................................247 ERDC/CERL SR-02-8 5 1 Introduction Background Army User Requirements Documentation of the Army’s environmental technology requirements has been an iterative process that began with a series of meetings in 1993 and the Office of the Directorate of Environmental Programs’ publication, U.S. Army Environ- mental Requirements and Needs. The Army’s environmental technology re- quirements describe the critical research, development, test, and evaluation needs for accomplishing the Army’s mission with the least impact or threat to the environment. These requirements are Army-level requirements that were reviewed for their impacts to readiness and quality of life, impact or threat to the environment, and timeliness needed for the Army to maintain compliance with environmental regulations. All major commands, major subcommands, the Of- fice of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, and the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics were involved in establishing the prioritized and vali- dated list of the Army’s environmental technology requirements. Land Capacity and Characterization is the third priority conservation user re- quirement. This user requirement defines the Army’s need to estimate training land carrying capacity. Twenty-eight exit criteria were identified in the Land Capacity and Characterization user requirement. Each exit criteria defines a specific product required to address a specific aspect of the overall requirement. Several of the exit requirements require detailed understanding of installation natural resources. A comprehensive bibliography of current research in this area aids synthesis of the available data and analysis and is important to the success of the project. Chihuahuan Desert Region The warm deserts of North America cover an area of about 868,000 km2 (MacMahon 1988). Within this area three different deserts are distinguished according to climatic and biogeographic criteria: the Mojave, the Sonoran, and the Chihuahuan deserts. The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest of the three, covering an area of 453,000 km2 in the United States and Mexico. It is charac- 6 ERDC/CERL SR-02-8 terized by pronounced summer precipitation (generally about 60 to 90 percent of the annual precipitation falls in summer) and relatively high elevation (gener- ally over 1200 m) (MacMahon 1988). Generally the Chihuahuan desert is cooler than the other warm deserts of North America and has more rainfall. The yearly mean temperature for a suite of stations across the whole desert is 18.6° C (14- 23° C), and the average precipitation is 235 mm (150-400 mm) (Schmidt 1986). Outwash plains, valleys, and foothills of the Chihuahuan desert have historically been dominated by grasslands (Schmutz et al. 1992). These grasslands merge at lower elevations into desert shrublands and at higher elevations into shortgrass or plains grasslands, and piñyon-juniper, oak woodlands or chapparal. Over the past century, extensive areas of these desert grasslands have been encroached by shrubs (Van Auken 2000). The species of focus in this bibliography were selected because of their importance in the desert grassland and shrubland communities of the North American Chihuahuan desert. In this area, desert grassland com- munities are generally dominated by Bouteloua eriopoda (black grama) on sandy loams to clay loams, whereas in the clay rich soil in floodplains and swales (pla- yas) extensive grasslands dominated by Pleuraphis mutica (=Hilaria mutica, to- bosa) can be found (Schmutz et al. 1992). Desert shrublands can be dominated or co-dominated mainly by the following three shrubs: Larrea tridentata (creo- sotebush), Prosopis glandulosa (honey mesquite), and Flourensia cernua (tar- bush). Objective The objective of this work was to assemble as much published ecological informa- tion as possible about five dominant arid land species found in the Chihuahuan Desert of North America. Chapter 2 contains selected references that significantly contribute to the under- standing of arid land ecology, but do not specifically speak about the species of interest. Chapter 3 contains reference information on Bouteloua eriopoda (black grama). Chapter 4 contains references on Pleuraphis mutica (=Hilaria mutica, tobosa). Chapter 5 contains Larrea tridentata (creosotebush). Chapter 6 con- tains Prosopis glandulosa (honey mesquite). Chapter 7 contains Flourensia cer- nua (tarbush). Furthermore, information gathered on an important subdomi- nant half-shrub, Gutierrezia sarothrae (=Xanthocephalum sarothrae, broom snakeweed), is presented in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 contains reference informa- tion on the ecology of annual species. Even though the selection of the species was based on their importance in the North American Chihuahuan desert, the literature search done for this bibliog- ERDC/CERL SR-02-8 7 raphy was not restricted to this particular geographic area. Both work com- pleted in vegetation dominated by the