|
Science
Friday > Archives
> 1997
> November
> November 14, 1997
Hour One: Desert Ecosystems:
How plants, animals, and people keep cool and quench their thirst in scorching desert environments, from biological adaptations to water management programs.
While the desert can be an unforgiving place for species that haven't evolved adaptations to allow them to survive, it's far from a sterile environment. Despite the common idea of the desert as a vast area of nothing but hot, hot sand, many species form the basis of a complex ecosystem that calls the desert home.
The Sonoran Desert, which stretches across Arizona and into Mexico, is North America's hottest desert area. But still, hundreds of plant and animal species inhabit several different environments (such as the palm oases, mountain islands, desert grasslands, and desert flats) within the Sonoran. These species have evolved special adaptations that let them live where temperatures are high and water is scarce. | Some species have developed behaviors that allow them to avoid the heat, such as burrowing. Some are nocturnal. And some, like the round-tailed ground squirrel, take heat-avoidance to the extreme, sleeping through the hottest parts of the summer. Desert toads burrow deep into the earth of dry lake beds and lie there dormant, wakening only during the rainy season that fills up their home. Other animals have developed ways to dissipate heat from their bodies better. And some have become extremely efficient at acquiring and retaining water -- some species can even manufacture the water they need to survive merely from the metabolism of dry seeds.
| 
Saguaro Cacti, Sonoran Desert
(photo courtesy National Park Service) | Humans moving into the desert regions have had to contend with the same hot days and parched conditions, and have developed their own behaviors to deal with the desert environment. On this hour of Science Friday, broadcast live from the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, AZ, we'll talk about desert ecosystems, from the native flora and fauna, to the water managment programs used by human interlopers in the desert environment.
Guests:
John Hetrick
Water Resources Specialist, Office of Colorado River Management
State of Arizona Department of Water Resources
Phoenix, AZ
Kathy Rice
Curator, Rare and Endangered Plants
Desert Botanical Garden
Phoenix, AZ
Glenn Walsberg
Professor, Biology
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
Jeff Williamson
Executive Director
Phoenix Zoo
Phoenix, AZ
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
The Arid Lands Newsletter
The Arizona Native Plant Society
The Desert Research Institute
Bureau of Land Management educational site about the Sonoran desert
Arizona Dept. of Water Resources
Western States Water Council
Water Resources Research Center at University of Arizona
Life in the desert
Desert Ecology
|
