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.
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.
Links to research studies, conservation information, and general information on desert tortoises at the Western Ecological Research Center in Sacramento, California.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.