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A floristic‐structural gradient related to land forms in the southern Chihuahuan Desert
Author(s) -
Montana Carlos
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1654-1103
pISSN - 1100-9233
DOI - 10.2307/3235574
Subject(s) - species richness , floristics , ecology , vegetation (pathology) , geography , environmental gradient , biology , habitat , medicine , pathology
. The purposes of this study were to elucidate the floristic and structural characteristics of the vegetationin the Mapimi subdivision of the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico, and to relate them to environmental variation. The main question addressed was: How does floristic composition, total species richness and life‐form species richness vary in relation to environmental change? 154 sites, randomly selected and stratified over seven landscape units, were analyzed. Results showed the existence of a land form gradient along which vegetation types were ordered. Species richness varied along the gradient, the richest land form was bajada, indicating that the maximum species richness did not occur at one extreme of the water availability gradient but in a moderately poor situation. The lowest species richness was found in the playa land form. Cover‐based life form spectra varied significantly with land forms, while presence‐absence based life form spectra did not. It is suggested that this may be a consequence of the relatively young age of this desert.