 |
| The Sierra Nevada looms above the Owens Valley in eastern California. Water flowing from the peaks create oases in the otherwise parched land. Here, cottonwoods dot the valley where waters run or spring to the surface. |
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9
Chapter 8 Islands in the Sky
|
| The Sierra Nevada looms above the Owens Valley in eastern California. Water flowing from the peaks create oases in the otherwise parched land. Here, cottonwoods dot the valley where waters run or spring to the surface. |
Life Zone Concept of C. Hart Merriam summarizes the communities on Southwest mountains. From CP-LUHNA.
C. Hart Merriam is a short biography of this biogeographer. From the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research at Northern Arizona University.
Southwestern Sky Island Ecosystems describes the scattered desert mountains that extend from southern Arizona and New Mexico into Mexico. By Peter Warshall of the University of Arizona.
1. C. Hart Merriam's Life Zone concept, as simple and erroneous as it was, went far in describing the patterns of communities on desert mountains. Describe Merriam's Life Zones and the major shortcomings of his sweeping tenets.
2. Describe how aspect and soils can blur elevational zonation on a desert mountain.
3. Brown applied island biogeography theory to the species diversity
of small mammals on desert mountains in the Great Basin. He found that
while there was a correlation between mountain size and species
diversity,
there was no correlation between remoteness of the mountain and species
diversity. a) Briefly explain MacArthur and Wilson's island
biogeography
theory. b) Brown's results are both in accord and in conflict with the
theory. What is the biological explanation for these results?
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9