HR: 1330h
AN: H42C-1102    [PDF]
TI: Coupled Environmental Processes: Implications for Landscape Development in the northern Mojave Desert
AU: * Shafer, D S
EM: dshafer@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 755 East Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89145 United States
AU: Young, M H
EM: Michael@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 755 East Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89145 United States
AU: Zitzer, S F
EM: stephen@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 755 East Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89145 United States
AU: McDonald, E
EM: emcdonald@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512 United States
AU: Caldwell, T
EM: tcaldwel@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512 United States
AB: Hypotheses were developed that several environmental processes in the near-surface biosphere are intimately linked or "coupled" and can lead to the development of highly stable landscapes in arid climates. Evaluation of these hypotheses can be used to design vegetated, evapotranspiration (ET) covers that could be long-term stable components of waste disposal sites, and to understand how disturbed land (from development or military activities) can be restored or rehabilitated. To define these links quantitatively through time, field and laboratory studies were conducted on changes in soil structure, soil hydraulic properties, vegetation establishment and diversity, and bioturbation processes at a series of four analog sites (~30, 2000-3000, 7500-12,500, and 125,000 years in age) on the Nevada Test Site, Nevada, USA. Tests included soil textural and structural determination; soil hydraulic property measurements in sub-canopy and plant interspaces; and vegetation, faunal and geomorphic surveys. Result
DE: 1818 Evapotranspiration
DE: 1824 Geomorphology (1625)
DE: 1851 Plant ecology
DE: 1875 Unsaturated zone
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting