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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #174839
Title: SHRUB-GRASS TRANSITIONS AND MULTISCALE TEMPORAL VARIATION IN WATER AVAILABILITY

Author
item Snyder, Keirith
item TARTOWSKI, SANDY

Submitted to: Chihuahuan Desert Symposium
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/2006
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Interpretive summary not required.

Technical 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.