Chihuahuan Desert

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Map of the Chihuahua Desert. Satellite image from NASA. Ecoregion boundary based on World Wide Fund for Nature ecoregions. The US-Mexico border is shown as a black line.

The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. On the U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico and Texas west of the Pecos River; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexican state of Chihuahua and most of Coahuila. It has an area of about 140,000 square miles (~362,600 km²).^[1]

[edit] Geography

The terrain mostly consists of basins broken by numerous small mountain ranges.

Several larger mountain ranges include the Sierra Madre, the Sierra del Carmen, the Sacramento Mountains, the Sandia-Manzano Mountains, the Magdalena-San Mateo Mountains, the Chisos, the Guadalupe Mountains and the Davis Mountains. These create "sky islands" of cooler, wetter, microclimates within the desert and have both coniferous and broadleaf woodlands and even forests.

Yucca, Creosote, and Mesquite typify the plants in the Chihuahuan desert

Lechuguilla—one of the indicator plants of the Chihuahuan desert

The Chihuahuan Desert is higher in elevation than the Sonoran Desert to the west, mostly varying from 600 m to 1,675 m (1,970-5,500 feet) in altitude. As a result, it tends to have a slightly milder climate in the summer (though usually daytime June temperatures are in the range of 35 to 40 °C, or 95 to 104 °F). Winter weather varies from relatively mild to quite cold depending on altitude. Precipitation is somewhat more abundant than most of the southern Great Basin and the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, however it is still less than 10 inches (254 mm) per year, with much of the rain falling during the "monsoon" of late summer. Snowfall is scant except at the higher elevations.

The Chihuahuan Desert is an ecoregion that has received little exploration and study. Therefore, it has not been classified and had subdivisions applied to it, as has the Sonoran Desert to the west.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Chihuahuan Desert may be the most biologically diverse desert in the world, whether measured on species richness or endemism, although the region has been heavily degraded over time. Many native species have been replaced with creosote shrubs. The Mexican wolf, once abundant, has been extirpated. The main cause of degradation has been grazing.^[2]

[edit] Vegetation

See: Agave, Creosote bush, Lechuguilla, Mesquite, Prickly pear, Sotol, Yucca, Grasses

[edit] See also

• Big Bend National Park
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park
• Lechuguilla Desert
• List of deserts by area
• Malpai Borderlands
• Sky islands
• Sonoran Desert
• White Sands National Monument

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Chihuahuan Desert images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu (slow modem version)
• Pronatura Noreste in the Chihuahuan Desert