Sierra Nevada

• Lower temperatures, concentrations of CO₂ and oxygen
• Higher precipitation rates, winds
• Shallow soil

Life Zones

• Life Zone Concept
• 1000ft elevation → 300mi equivalence in distance northward
• Ecotone: Blending of life zones
• 6-elevation zone more accepted; also 4-zone extant
  • Lower to higher elevation intersects with modern vegetation zones
    • Grasslands
      • Lower Sonoran
      • 1000m
    • Chaparral
      • Upper Sonoran
      • 1500m
    • Foothill Belt (Black Oak)
      • Upper Sonoran
      • 2000m
    • Ponderosa Pine Forest
      • Transition
      • 2500m
    • Red Fir Forest
      • Canadian
      • 3000m
    • Lodgepole Pines
      • Hudsonian/Sub-Alpine
      • 3500m
    • No trees
      • Alpine
      • 3852m
• 4-zone
  • Foothill woodland
    • 1000-3000ft
  • Lower Montane Forest
    • 3000-6000ft
  • Upper Montane Forest
    • 6000-8000ft
  • Subalpine Forest
    • 8000-9500ft
  • Alpine
• Fire frequency increases in transition zone; 25-30y
  • Fire suppression

Lower Montane

• Mixed forests: Oaks, pines, cedars
• Open arrangement
• Sequoias
• Air pollution and fire suppression
  • Ozone death
  • Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides
    • Acid rain

Upper Montane

• Firs and lodgepole pine
• Jeffrey Pine, Western white pine
• Timber
• Red Fir replacements
• Lake Tahoe

Subalpine

• Hemlock, Whitebark pine, limber pine
• Lodgepole pine and western white pine in ecotype
• Long lifespan trees

Alpine

• Wildflowers and meadows
• High winds, UV radiation

Lake Tahoe

• Graben (vs. horst)
  • Block of upward land (Sierra Nevada, Range,)
  • 22x12mi; 43 mi shoreline
  • Evaporates 1.4mi tons of water on a daily basis
    • Rainfall events
  • Decreasing clarity
    • 99.4% pure
    • Granitic Sierra Nevada
    • Increasing algae, erosion runoff
    • Secchi desk studies; 12in plate with quadrants

Bristlecone Pines

• Ancient dense wood trees
• Extremely slow growing
• Grow up to 5000 yeaarss
• High elevations; Sierra Nevada and White Mountain range

Limber Pines

• High elevation habitats
• 1000 years
• Rounded top (Like grey pine); darker green
• Cone scales
• White Mountains, Sierra Nevada, southern Coast Range

Giant Sequoia

• Redwood
• No stump sprouting
• 3000 years
• Endemic; Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Park, Placer County
• 2.7m lbs
• Buttressing
• Groves
• 500-800lbs water
• Small valleys with snow melts, shallow water sources; extensive root systems no more than 6ft deep
• Fire-adapted
• Fibrous, fire-retardant bark, thick
• Pyrophytic, dessicative cones
  • Squirrel chewing
• Fire clears debris

Deserts

• Tundras
• Six main characteristics
  1. Low precipitation with uneven distribution (less than 10 in per year)
  2. Extreme temperatures
  3. High winds, high evaporation rates
  4. High light intensity
  5. Nutrient-poor, alkaline soil
  6. Low rates of primary productivity
• 20m mi² and growing
  • Distance of moon
• Occurs along Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
  • 23 degrees north and south of equator
• Channels/washes/arroyos cut into slopes of basins/canyons
• 28million acres of CA; 28% state

Great Basin Desert

• East of Sierra Nevada, Northeastern CA
• Sierra Nevada Desert
• Pinyon Pine
• Rainshadow of Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada
• “Cold Desert”; moisture from winter snowfall

Mojave Desert

• East of Los Angeles
• “High Desert; winter rain
• Rainshadow of Transverse Range

Colorado/Sonoran Desert

• East of San Diego
• Rainshadow of Southern Sierra Nevada
• “Low Desert”; precipitation is winter and summer, caused by currents of Gulf of CA

Lower San Joaquin Valley

• Desert-like

Major Northern Deserts

• Sahara Desert: 3.5mi mi2
• Arabian Peninsula
• Iranian Desert
• Turkestan Desert
• Gobi Desert
• Great Basin Desert, Mojave, Colorado
• Chihuahuan Desert

Major Southern Desert

• Atacama Desert
  • Driest
• Patagonian Desert
  • Darwin
• Namib Desert
• Kalahari Desert
• The Great Outback
• Less mass in southern, so less deserts

High Pressure Systems

• Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn
• High sunlight → rising air
• Air is deflected in high pressure system at tropics, preventing rainfall
  • Greater distance for air to travel → slower travel and deflection
• Hadley Cells are closer to equator; Ferrel, Polar Cells
  • Hadley are closest, HPS
    • Radiational cooling after deflection → falls down → warms air
  • Ferrel between
    • High rainfall
  • Polar Cells

Dehydration

• Losing 1 gallon of water per hour through sweating, naked in desert
  • Physical exertion doubles loss
• 1 gallon loss causes kidney failure, wrinkling, shriveling
  • 2-3: Fever, eyeballs shrinking, blood thickening
  • 4: Delirium, body temperature rise, protein denaturation, death

Great Basin Desert

• NW NE CA, NV
• “Cold Desert”; gets moisture from winter snow
• Basin and range province
• 150 valleys between mountain ranges
• Latitudinal ranges; crumple at point of impact
  • Coast Range, Sierra Nevada, ripples in basin desert to UT mts and Rocky Mountains

Modoc Plateau Province

• Volcanic origin
• HI-like volcano
  • Thicker lava, conical structure; vs. Shasta liquid plateau lava
• Cascade Range, Warner Mountains
• Pronghorn Antelope and Wild Mustangs; characteristic, endemic

Basin-Range Province

• ~150 basins, ~160 mountain ranges
• North to South
• Elevation ~4000ft
• Specific to east Sierra NV in CA

Salt Pans

• Long-term runoff pooling in basins
• “Playa”
• Salt concentration after evaporation of water
  • NaCl, CaCO3; salt, lime, and alkali
  • Physiological drought condition
  • Low soil oxygen
• Sage brush
  • Dominant to Great Basin Desert
  • 2-3ft

Late Pleistocene Lakes

• Meltwater from Pleistocene

Lake Lahontan

• 8495mi2
• 886ft deep
• Encompasses Western NV, southern OG, NE CA
• Now evaporated into Pyramid and Walker Lake

Lake Bonneville

• 20000mi2
• 1000ft+ deep
• Western UT, edge of east NV, southern ID
• Great Salt Lake

Flora

• Slope: Gilia spp. Mentzelia spp. (stickleaf)
• Upper canopy
  • Woody: Ephedra, Grayia spinosa (hop-sage), cotton-thorn (Tetradymia spinosa var. longispina), spiny menodora (Menodora spinescens)
  • Chrysothamnus spp. (Rabbitbrush)
  • Prunus andersonii (Desert peach)
  • Purshia tridentata (Bitterbrush)
  • Perennial grasses: Elymus cinereus (Basin wildrye), Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue), Agropyron spicatum (Bluebunch wheatgrass), Orzyopsis hymenoides (Indian ricegrass)
    • Reduced via livestock grazing
  • Weedy plants: Bromus tectorum / Cheat grass
• Basin
  • Fourwing saltbrush (Atriplex canescens)
  • Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus)

Sage Brush

• Desert flatlands and edge of mountains
• Artemisia tridentata
• 800y

Horned Lizard

• Phrynosoma
• Ant-eater
• Formic acid tolerance

Pronghorn Antelope

• Only NA species of antelope
• 3ft tall
• Horns
  • Both sexes
• White ruffle patch of hair on rump
• Hair muscles oscillate; warning signal

Sage Grouse

• 18in
• Large air sacs for low-frequency call
• Spread out until springtime for mating response/display
  • 10ft diameter territories
  • Breeding grounds named
• Decreasing from human activity; overhunting, oil fields

Mono Lake

• Closed basin
  • 2.5x saltier than ocean
  • 280,000,000 tons of solids dissolve in lake
  • pH 10
• East of Sacramento by 3 hours
• Craters and volcanic activity; active tectonics
  • Long Valley Caldera; 760,000ya eruption of caldera → craters, 200mi2 depression
  • Poa Island
  • Basalt
  • Mono Craters
• 760,000-1myo

Tufa

• Groundwater with dissolved CaCO3
• Solution forms underwater in pressure
• Alkaline water; high pH
• Forms limestone structures
• Greenland, Great Basin Desert

Brine Fly

• Aquatic larvae
• Billions accumulate
• Food source for birds

Brine Shrimp

• Fairy shrimp appearance
• Endemic to Mono Lake
• Commercially harvested for fish industry
• Dense clouds around Tufa
• Underwater leakage of fresh springwater

California Gulls

• Tied to Mono Lake
  • 90% gulls born on lake islands
• Depend on Brine Fly
  • Run/snap through fly clouds to eat
  • Large amount of calories
• Nest on islands
  • 2ft apart nests; distance of striking out with beaks
  • Raise chicks
  • Dispersal through west
  • 90% return for reproduction

Long-Distance Migrators

• Eared grebe; also feeds for a month
  • 3-4000ft south in Central America for breeding
  • Uses fats from feeding
• Wilson’s Phalarope
  • Alaska
  • Brine shrimp and flies
  • Triples body weight in a month; unable to fly
  • Instinct to fly causes rapid conversion into muscles
  • Nonstop flight to Argentina (6.5-7k miles)

Mojave and Colorado Desert

• Colorado is a subset of Sonoran
• More cacti in Colorado than Mojave
• Closely linked habitats
• Basins and ranges are closely spaced together
  • North-south except for Transverse
• Afton Canyon/Great Mojave Canyon
  • Erosional feature caused by rainfall and lakes
  • Little vegetation

Desert Pavement

• Topographical features funnel air and blow away smaller material
• Ground level decreases and leaves behind solid layer of rock
• Loose material under rocks has calcified; tufa-like
  • Dissolves into rainwater and solution heats under sunlight
  • Water rises to surface and evaporates
  • Carbonate cements rocks together and forms impermeable surface; “desert pavement”
• Plants that establish are rare and old, usually before pavement solidified

Ancient Pleistocene Lakes

• 1.5my of glaciers raking across North Hemisphere
• Global cooling and accumulation year-round into ice
• Meltwater pooling due to climate warming

Creosote

• Great Basin, Colorado
• Dominant in Mojave
• Allelopathic
• Anti-herbivorial chemicals

Sand Dunes

• Quartz or feldspar
• Light transmission down 10ft into dunes
• Low-level photosynthesis; reabsorption of water
• Growth period, maintenance, resume growth under sand dunes

Joshua Trees

• Yucca monocot
• 90% of Joshua trees occur in Mojave

Cholla Cactus

• Recurb barb pines
  • Dispersal method
• Seed dispersal also possible

California Fan Palm

• Mainly in Sonoran
• Some in Southern Mojave
• Occasionally Death Valley; associated with water features
• Linear arrangement
  • Rely on groundwater
  • Shallow roots; 50-100ft
  • Groundwater (200-300) taken from earthquake faults
    • Capillary action and springs
    • Phreatophytic

Tarantulas

• Gentle
• Weak venom; honeybee strength
• Long chelicerata
• Physical damage is stronger than the sting
• Female long lifespans; male short if not able to reproduce
• Males consumed by females

Sun Spider

• Arachnid
• Sulfugid group
• Front legs are mouth palps
• Two sets of vertical mandibles

Vinegaroons

• Deliberate movement
• Modified front pair of legs into feelers
• Vinegar/acetic acid defense spray

Fairy Shrimp

Desert Pupfish

• Springs and small rivers
  • Tacopa Hotsprings; 90degree water
• Small printed minnows
• Native

Sidewinder Rattlesnake

• Sinuous movement
• Mellow
• Head touches down, undulates; only two points touching ground on length of body
  • Prevents long contact with heat; dissipation

Chuckwalla

• Iguanid lizard
• Puffs up
• Feed on vegetation, insects, small lizards; less migration to obtain prey
• Wedge into cracks and puff up in air
• Poked lungs to obtain chuckwalla
  • Dormant state when injured

Gila Monster

• One of two venomous lizards in world
• Neurotoxin; glands in back of head
• Heat receptors
• Heloderma
• Rare sightings

Spadefoot Toad

• Estivate; comatose state in summer
• Come to surface when thunder low-frequency hits ground
• Raining penetrates ground and wakes up toads
• Lays egg in vernal pools

Tiger Salamander

• Estivate; comatose state in summer
• 20-25y

Desert Tortoise

• Mojave Desert, some of Sonoran
• 85y
• Scute growth rings
• State reptile

Roadrunner

• Carnivorous; lizards, insects
• Groundbird; short wings with brief flight capability
• Dark patch between shoulderblades, above heart
  • Warms up quickly
  • Chases prey

Elf Owl

• Head size of quarter
• Insectivores
• Colorado Desert, rarely in southern Mojave

Desert Bighorn Sheep

• Large land mammal in Mojave Desert
• 600-800 remain
• Herding
• 3ft tall
• Institutional memory
  • Long-term memory of waterholes for drought

Kangaroo Rat

• Fur-lined cheek pouches
  • Cheek moisture
• Long balancing tail; saltatory action
• Countercurrent heat exchange system in nose; cooler at tip
  • Condensation of water inside
  • Specialized cells in nasal passages to absorb water
• Specialize paste excretory
• Kidney; Loop of Henley
• Never drinks water

Kit Fox

• Mojave Desert
• Predator
• Housecat size
• Kangaroo rats, mice
• Nocturnal

California Native Peoples

• Northwestern CA had the least Spaniard influence and rich resources (salmon)
• Southern CA extinction events
• Petroglyphs
  • Desert varnish from iron oxidation
  • Thousands of years
  • Chipped areas with harder rock; light diagram
• Pictographs
  • 500y old
• Middens
• Grinding rocks
  • Deeper holes older; familial inheritance
  • Leeched tannins through rocks
  • Acorn subsistence
    • Acorn granaries, bedrock mortars, mortar and pestles, soaproot bristle brushes, sand basin leeches
• Cascara bark
• Salmon
• Buckeyes
  • High in chemicals
  • Drought resource
• Obsidian and flint
• Various structures
  • Teepees and roundhouses
  • NW California Hoopas
  • SE (Desert) Chemahuevi
    • Tall brush