Engineering Commons^™

Collective Risk Of Construction Development On Desert Tortoise Populations, Paulina Smith

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) are threatened, extremely territorial reptiles living on a rapidly-shrinking landscape. This literature review was conducted with the goal of determining whether the desert tortoises of the Mojave Desert are experiencing compounded effects from construction development which are not reflected in mortality/fecundity calculations in the current literature. Seventeen peer-reviewed sources were identified from the last 20 years which related to roads, railroads, wind-harvesting, solar energy, and man-made barriers/flood control centers in the Mojave. Current literature reveals that researchers do not have the time nor resources to pursue long-term studies on all of the possible effects on this …