Plant Diversity in the Sonoran Upland

Desert

Ashley Straub

BIO 182

Dr. Gergus

April 2, 2019
 Abstract

According to maps depicting the Sonoran Desert’s plants, the biotic community appears

to be uniform, however is this true for all of this desert, or can more plant diversity be found

within it? Since there are different types of topography varying between desert wash and

mountain slopes within the Sonoran Desert, it can be alternatively hypothesized that there are

different types of plants in each internal region, going against the idea that the Sonoran Desert

has a uniform plant diversity. In order to prove this alternative hypothesis, 18 plots of the plant

diversity at North Mountain in the Sonoran Desert were made with 6 plots in the wash, and 6

plots on the slope, accounting for all plants within 25 meters in each separate region

documented. From this experiment, it was found that 8/12 plants measured, the Bursage,

Brittlebush, Desert Lavender, Wolfberry, Arrow weed, Trixus, Cholla cactus, and the Hedgehog

cactus were found at least two times more in one area over the other, validating the fact the

Sonoran Desert’s plant community is diverse amongst itself.

Introduction

Ecology by definition is the, “scientific study of interactions between organisms and their

environments,” (CarilloChemitry) Within this, biotic ecology includes living things such as

plants, fungi, or animals, while abiotic ecology includes physical factors such as light, minerals,

and pH (CarilloChemitry) More Specifically, ecosystem ecology includes all interactions within

communities observing both biotic and abiotic factors. (CarilloChemitry) Along ecological

hierarchies, biological communities follow under the third tier, which focuses on the
relationships between species within a community. (Wandrei) This can include, predator vs. prey

relationships, parasitism, and competition among species. (Wandrei)

A desert biome is a set of habitats that is formed by dry environments caused by little to

no rainfall. (“Desert Biome”) The desert biome of the Sonoran Desert has much more diversity

than any surrounding desert along with having legume trees and columnar cacti that

distinguishes itself from these surrounding North American Deserts. (“Sonoran Desert”) The

experiment performed in this paper was executed in the Arizona Upland part of the Sonoran

Desert at North Mountain Park. This part of the desert is considered as the Sonoran Desert’s

coldest region. (“Sonoran Desert”) It experiences 5 seasons, the Summer Monsoon, Autumn,

Winter, Spring, and Foresummer Drought. (“Sonoran Desert”) Because of the nontypical

weather patterns of this region containing many mountain ranges and narrow valleys, trees are

common along rocky mountains and saguaros are found along every part of the valley floor.

(“Sonoran Desert”) This specific community is considered as the “Saguaro-Palo Verde forest” in

which it is the only region of the Sonoran Desert to experience frequent winter frosts. (“Sonoran

Desert”) Even though this division is small, it holds more than 630 species of plant. (“Sonoran

Desert”)

The Arizona Upland is considered to have a uniform community across its entire region,

however with its various topography (desert washes vs. mountain slopes) it can be questioned

whether or not this is true. Could this desert biome have a more detailed set of plant communities

within it? This poses the perfect question for the study of both ecology and biological

communities. What does the answer to this question say about the communal relationships

among species within this desert? Moreover, how and why would these plants create a minute set

of biological communities among a presumed uniform set of plant species.

 Two alternative hypotheses can be given for the question stated above, either the plant

species in the Arizona Upland part of the Sonoran Desert has a uniform plant community or

alternatively, the plant species in the Arizona Upland part of the Sonoran Desert have different

plants living in local regions. The hypothesis kept in mind for this experiment was that there

would be different plants living in local regions of the Sonoran Upland. Since desert washes may

have access to a larger amount of water from run offs off the mountain, and mountain slopes may

have more access to light, it can be predicted that plants needing more water can be found in the

wash, while plants that need more sunlight and can survive dryer weather would live on the

slope. Since water gives rise to life, it may also be predicted that there would be more plant

diversity in the wash than the slope. In order to test the hypothesis chosen, numerous plots were

taken in the desert wash and on the mountain slope to account for the various plant species living

in each local region.

Methods

This hypothesis was tested on March 26, 2019 and on March 21, 2019 at the North

Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona in the Arizona Upland part of the Sonoran Desert at the

crossroads of 7th Avenue and Peoria. The experiment was carried out twice by two sets of 24

people put into 6 groups of 4. Each group recorded three plots of plant species within the wash

and three plots of plant species on the slope. Only dominant species were recorded, which

included the following species: Bursage, Creosote, Brittlebush, Desert Lavender, Wolfberry,

Arrow Weed, Trixus, Palo Verde, Saguaro, Barrel cactus, Cholla cactus, Hedgehog cactus. It was

made sure that every person performing the experiment was shown what each species they’d

encounter would look like beforehand. Furthermore, every group documented plants in three
separate areas in both the wash and slope, ensuring that within each group as well as between

groups, every plant would only be accounted for once. However, the experiment was performed

twice by two completely separate groups of people in the same region. The actual documentation

of plant species was done by rolling out a tape measure 25 meters horizontally across the wash

within each local region. A meter stick was then held perpendicular to the meter belt from one

end to the other, documenting every dominant plant the meter stick ran into on a paper chart and

clipboard. Once one plot was recorded, each group walked farther into the wash or slope and

repeated the same steps a total of six times. Overall, between the two groups performing the

same experiment on separate days recorded a total of 18 plots.

It’s important that numerous samples were taken for this experiment in order to get an

accurate representation of the area studied. Deeper parts of the desert wash contained different

plant species than the part of the wash near the opening of the park. Without measurements of

various parts of the wash or slope, only a minute part of the Sonoran Desert would be

represented. In addition, the less plant species documented, the less of a difference would be

seen between plant species on the wash versus the slope. A difference between 1 on the slope

and 2 in the wash of a particular species clearly isn’t as significant as 120 on the slope and only

24 in the wash of that particular species. A conclusion would not be able to be made from such a

close to negligible difference.

For this experiment, every group was given a data table including every species, where

they would make a tally for a species hit by the meter stick for both measurements in the wash

and the slope. Once everyone finished documenting their various runs, one person obtained

every groups data and combined them into one data table. From this table, the numerical

differences between the number of plants of one species in the wash versus the number of plants
of that same species on the slope can be analyzed to see if there are any significant differences

between the two numbers.

Results

Table 1: Number of plants, diversity and abundance in desert wash vs. slope habitats at North

Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona. Each number represents the total number of plants for each

species counted over 18 plots.

Species Number of plants Number of plants on Total number of plants

on Wash Slope
Bursage 24 126 150

Creosote 41 30 71

Brittlebush 42 19 61

Desert Lavendar 18 4 22

Wolfberry 10 2 12

Arrow weed 2 0 2

Trixis 6 0 6

Palo Verde 25 13 38

Saguaro 1 0 1

Barrel cactus 1 1 2

Cholla cactus 4 11 15
 Hedgehog cactus 3 1 4

Total Number of 177 207

Species

Table 2: Histogram of number of plants in desert wash versus slope.

126
NUMBER OF PLANTS

42
41

Wash
30

28

25
24

19

Slope
13

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PLANT SPECIES

Overall, a fair amount of plants for each species were found and documented at North

Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona. More plant species were documented on the slope than in the

wash, however the slope had a smaller amount of diversity recorded. The plant species reported

the most was Bursage, while the least amount of species found was the Saguaro. The most

recorded species, Bursage was found 84% more on the slope than in the wash. The Cholla cactus

was also found significantly higher on the slope than the wash at 73%. The rest of the plants with

at least a 2 times difference were found more in the wash than the slope. The plants with the

highest difference of dominance in the wash over the slope were the Wolfberry plant at 83%, and
the Desert Lavender at 81%. The Arrow weed, Hedgehog cactus, and Trixus were also all found

more in the wash than the slope. However, the Hedgehog cactus and Arrow weed may be

negligible to a conclusion since less than 4 plants were found for each species. Although, they do

both have two more plants found in the wash than the slope. The Saguaro and Barrel cactus may

also be negligible for a conclusion since there are too few of plants charted. Lastly, the only two

plants to be found somewhat equally in both the wash and the slope were the Palo Verde, and

Creosote.

Discussion

The hypothesis that the Sonoran Upland would have biological communities among local

regions of in itself is fully supported by the data collected from this experiment. Eight out of the

twelve plant species documented were found at least two times more or found only in one local

region of either the slope or wash in the North Mountain Park area. These eight species include,

the Bursage, Brittlebush, Desert Lavender, Wolfberry, Arrow Weed, Trixis, Cholla cactus, and

the Hedgehog cactus. Only two plants represented a uniform community along this part of the

Sonoran Desert, the Palo Verde and the Creosote. The other two, the Saguaro, and the Barrel

cactus have only 2 or less plants accounted for, meaning the specific region observed of North

Mountain Park did not have these plants in significant abundance. Even if the Arrow weed and

the Hedgehog cactus are too small in number to form a conclusion about these specifically, there

would be 6/8 plants species dominating in one region over the other by at least 68%. The

Bursage plant species validates the hypothesis within its own biological community. A total of

150 Bursage plants were cataloged with 126 of them being documented on the slope. Overall,

with the numerous amount of species that were cataloged more in one area versus the other, it is

clear that maps depicting the Sonoran Desert propose a problem in that it is inaccurate in
depicting the Sonoran Desert as a uniform biotic community. All this evidence together fully

supports the hypothesis that the Sonoran Desert Upland is composed of a fine tuned set of

biological communities living in different local regions rather than a single community across

this desert.

The reason for these differences may lie in the type of soil, water availability, and

sunlight in the two local regions of North Mountain park. During the rainy monsoon months of

this region, water will run off the mountain into the wash and create a moist environment for the

surrounding plants. Plant species that live within this wash may want to have access to a higher

water availability, wet soil, and may prefer the colder protection the walls of the wash have.

Likewise, plant species that live along the slope may prefer dryer soil, warmer weather, and a

sunnier climate for optimal light intake. Even though the Arizona Upland is considered to be a

certain environment, and therefore maintain a specific set of plant species, the subtly large

changes between local regions within this desert distinctly show finer biological communities

within.

Conventionally, errors may happen in every experiment that’s conducted. With the wash

being so narrow, plants were documented on higher regions to ensure a 25-meter horizontal

distance on the measuring tape. In order to obtain a more accurate depiction of plant species

within the wash, this experiment could be performed again by laying out the measuring tape

vertically within the wash in order for more specific results. In addition, another problem could

arise by measuring rectangular areas over areas created by smaller but more square regions.

Saguaros were visible all along the slope region studied, however only one was recorded, and it

was recorded within the wash. Since some plants were measured as in the wash, but were

actually on higher ground, the Saguaro may have been charted improperly. Although overall,
enough evidence was still given to give the prior conclusion. If more could be done for this

study, it would be best to scout over larger areas of land in order to get a larger pool of plants to

further support the strict biotic communities of local regions within the Sonoran Desert.

References

CarrilloChemistry, director. Chapter 18- Organism Population Ecology. Chapter 18- Organism

Population Ecology, YouTube, 11 Nov. 2013,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=an1WdZgA1do.

“Desert Biome: Climate, Precipitation, Location, Seasons, Plants, Animals.” Earth Eclipse, 17

July 2017, www.eartheclipse.com/ecosystem/desert-biome.html.

“Sonoran Desert - Sonoran Desert Region.” Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum,

www.desertmuseum.org/desert/sonora.php#azu.

Wandrei, Kevin. “What Is the Ecological Hierarchy?” Education, 29 Sept. 2016,

education.seattlepi.com/ecological-hierarchy-4489.html.