Vehicular Recreation in Arid Land Dunes: Biotic Responses and Management Alternatives

摘要: Sand dunes are a biologically unique fraction of arid land ecosystems. In the southwestern United States they make up only about 0.6% surface area (Clements et al., 1957). Throughout this region have disjunct distribution and highly variable, occurring at different elevations climatic regimes. Desert vary from hummocks less than 1 m high in washes or around dry lake beds to continuous masses covering 500 km2 with peaks 200 above surrounding land. Most North American geologically recent, formed by wind-blown deposits dating Pleistocene (10,000+ years B.P.) earlier. Among larger inland systems those Great Dunes National Monument (Colorado), White Sands (New Mexico), Big Dune (Nevada), Algodones (= Imperial Hills), Eureka, Dumont, Kelso, Garnet, Panamint Valley (California). Several these tourist attractions because intrinsically scenic provide wilderness solitude.