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Desert ecosystems
Biological communities and habitats in arid areas with little precipitation, sparse, highly adapted vegetation, and extreme temperatures.
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Biological resource status and trends: Desert ecosystems [New Window]
Information concerning status and trends of biological resources, focusing on desert ecosystems
Recoverability and vulnerability of desert ecosystems [New Window]
Research results (publications, photographs, maps) on ecological processes within the Mojave Desert Ecosystem to provide land managers with scientific understanding and tools needed to conserve and restore threatened desert landscapes.
PDF Biological soil crusts: webs of life in the desert [New Window]
Fact sheet on the need to protect biological soil crusts in the desert. These crusts are most of the soil surface in deserts not covered by green plants and are inhabited by cyanobacterium (blue-green algae) and other organisms useful to the ecosystem.
Desert tortoise research at Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) [New Window]
Links to research studies, conservation information, and general information on desert tortoises at the Western Ecological Research Center in Sacramento, California.
Deserts, geology and resources [New Window]
Online edition of booklet describing desert geology and mineral resources.
Our dynamic desert landscape [New Window]
Overview of studies of fragile and active landscape of the American Southwest deserts, including projects on geologic mapping, surface processes, remote sensing research, ecological processes, and earthquake hazard applications.
Biological soil crusts [New Window]
Explains biological soil crusts, organism-produced soil formations commonly found in semiarid and arid environments, with special reference to their biological composition, physical characteristics, and ecological significance.
Cryptobiotic soils: holding the place in place [New Window]
Describes biological soil crusts, with special reference to their role in resisting soil erosion, improving soil fertility, and increasing water infiltration in the deserts of the Colorado Plateau region.
Fire ecology research [New Window]
Study of wildland fire history and fire ecology such as plants in the Sierra Nevada forests, California shrublands, the Mojave, and Sonoran deserts to develop management techniques that will reduce hazards.
TerraWeb [New Window]
Terrestrial remote sensing program with links to coastal and marine, arid and semi-arid, other land environmental data and digital image products plus software Mini Image Processing Sensing System (MIPS).
Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) [New Window]
Links to research at the field stations of the Western Ecological Research Center with direct links to web pages for wildlife videos, satellite telemetry, fire ecology, invasive species, herpetology field guide, and coastal ecosystems.


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