Title | Shrub-grass transitions and multiscale temporal variation in water availability |
Publication Type | Conference Proceedings |
Year of Publication | 2006 |
Authors | Snyder K.A., Tartowski S. |
Conference Name | Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium on the Natural Resources of the Chihuahuan Desert Region |
Date Published | 2006 |
ARIS Log Number | 174839 |
Keywords | multiscale, shrub-grass transitions, temporal variation, water availability |
Abstract | Desert regions in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico exhibit a high degree of temporal variability in water availability with important consequences for transitions between grasslands and shrublands. This temporal variability is a result of: shifting climate regimes over centuries and decades, interannual variation in weather patterns, seasonal differences in the nature of winter and summer precipitation, within-season variability in precipitation frequency and magnitude, and feedbacks between vegetation and soil water. |