Life Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of Ground Water Depletion On The Mesquite Community At Edwards Air Force Base, Western Mojave Desert, California, Jonathan E. Campbell, M. Rasoul Sharifi, Philip W. Rundel

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) provides a habitat refugium for mesquite woodlands in the western Mojave Desert of the Antelope Valley. Although many mesquite communities in the arid southwest are considered invasive as they reduce the extent of grazing lands, the community at EAFB is composed primarily of large, widely spaced trees that provide food and shelter for local wildlife species and recreational opportunities for base personnel. Unfortunately, the range of these mesquite trees appears to be contracting as mature and old individuals dominate the community. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that the fall in the local groundwater table is responsible …