California Colorado Desert is part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It covers about 7 million hectares (2,800,000 ha), including the highly irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.
Video Colorado Desert
Geography and geology
The Colorado Desert is part of the larger Sonoran Desert covering some 7 million hectares (28,000 km 2 ) The desert includes Imperial County and includes parts of San Diego County, Riverside County, and a fraction of San Bernardino County.
Most of the Colorado Desert lies at relatively low altitudes, below 1,000 feet (300 m), with the lowest point of the desert floor at an altitude of 275 feet (84 m) below sea level in the Salton Sea. Although the highest peak of the Peninsular Ranges reaches a height of nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m), most of the mountains in the region do not exceed 3,000 feet (910 m).
In this region, geology is dominated by the transition of tectonic plate boundaries from gap to fault. The southernmost thread of the San Andreas Fault is connected to the northernmost extension of the East Pacific Rise. As a result, the area became a victim of an earthquake, and its crust was stretched, which would cause the drowning of the terrain from time to time.
Maps Colorado Desert
Climate
Colorado Desert climate sets it apart from other deserts. The region experiences greater summer daytime temperatures than the higher deserts and hardly ever experiences frosts. In addition, the Colorado Desert experiences two rainy seasons per year (in winter and late summer), especially to the southern part of the area; The more northern Mojave desert usually has only winter rain.
Peninsular Ranges west coast, or other western ranges, from Southern California-northern Baja California, blocked most of the air of the eastern Pacific coast and rain, resulting in a dry climate. Other short or long-term weather events can move from the Gulf of California to the south, and are often active in the summer wind season. These include the remnants of the Pacific storm, the storms from the southern tropical jetstream, and the northern ITCZ.
Flora and fauna
Terrestrial habitats in the region include creosote bushes; mixed scrubs, including yucca and cholla cactus; salt desert; grassland meadows; and the desert. The higher altitude is dominated by California pinyon and juniper pines, with Coulter's manzanita and pine area. In addition to hard perennials, more than half of the desert plant species are herbaceous bushes, and precise winter rain produces wildflowers early in spring are abundant. In the southern part of the region, the additional humidity provided by summer rain fosters germination of annual summer crops and supports smoketree, ironwood, and palo verde trees. The unique Joshua tree can be found in Joshua Tree National Park, as well as a small area in central or northwest Arizona.
Common wilderness wildlife include donkey deer, jungle cat, desert kangaroo, mouse cactus, black-tailed rabbit, Gamble quail, and red venomous snakes. Among the sensitive species are flat-horned apes, Coachella Valley ridge lizards, desert tortoises, hawk eagles, Andrews scarab bees, bighorn peninsular sheep, and California leaf-nosed bats. The best place to view wildlife is in wetland protection along the Colorado River, Cibola National Wildlife Refuge and Imperial National Wildlife Refuge.
In the arid environment of the Colorado Desert, aquatic habitats and wetlands are limited in size but very important for wildlife. Runoff from seasonal rain and ground springs form desert arroyo, desert palm oases, freshwater swamps, saltwater lakes, desert washing, transient and lasting streams, and riverine vegetation communities dominated by cotton, willow, and non- indigenous. Two of the most important water systems in the region are the Salton Sea and the Colorado River. While most desert wildlife rely on aquatic habitats as a source of water, a number of species, such as the arroyo frog, desert pupiti, Yuma rail, and southwestern willow flycatcher, are limited to this habitat. In some places, summer rains produce short-lived seasonal ponds that are the habitat of endangered species such as the Couch spadefoot frog.
Crazy oasis of palm oil is a rare ecological community found only in the Colorado Desert. They occur only where permanent water sources are available, such as in springs or along fault lines, where groundwater is forced to the surface by a hard, waterproof rock movement, and can be found in San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, and Little San Bernardino mountains , in the valley of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and along the San Andreas Fault in Coachella Valley. The only native California palm, Washingtonia filifera (desert palm fan), grows in an oasis.
Flora is endemic
Some sub-regions of the Colorado Desert contain endemic flora. Along the Lower Colorado River Basin, flowing canyons, lowlands, or low elevations to a higher level, at least three such flora occur: Hesperocallis undulata (lily desert), Nolina bigelovii (nolina Bigelow), and Peucephyllum schottii (pine desert).
National and State Parks
- Joshua Tree National Park
- Imperial NWR
- Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR
- Indio Hills Palms
- Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
- Ocotillo Wells State Public Recreation Area
- Picacho State Recreation Area
- Heber Dunes State Vehicle Recreation Area
- Sea Salton State Recreation Area
Environmental issues
The Colorado Desert is one of the most sparsely populated areas in California, but human activities have a huge impact on wildlife habitat and wildlife in the region. Many unique communities, in particular water systems and dunes, are limited in distribution and are separated by a vast expanse of arid and arid desert terrain. Even limited human disturbance can have a very detrimental effect on endemic and sensitive species supported by this unique regional system.
Some of the largest human-caused effects in the region have resulted from water diversion and flood control measures along the Colorado River. These measures have dramatically changed the hydrology in the region by redistributing the region's water supply to a vast expanse of irrigated agriculture and metropolitan coastal areas such as Los Angeles and San Diego. The formerly dynamic Salton Sea and Colorado River ecosystems are now controlled by human water management. Due to the scarcity of water resources in desert environments, these changes have had a major impact on wildlife and local habitats. In addition, some regions experienced substantial growth and development pressures, especially Coachella Valley.
See also
References
External links
- Colorado Desert - Overview of the California Wildlife Action Plan site
- Ã, "Colorado Desert". New International Encyclopedia . 1905.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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