Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert covers an area of approximately 320,000 km² one of the largest and one of the most versatile and most diverse desert regions of the world.
In Mexico it determines a large part of the state of Sonora of the same name , the eastern coastal area of Baja California and in the north-bordering USA the southwestern part of the state of Arizona and the southeastern part of the state of California . In California, it is also called the Low Desert to separate it from the higher-lying Mojave Desert bordering on the north . The Chihuahua Desert joins in the east . From the flat coastal regions in the west it rises to an altitude of 3000 m to the east, whereby elongated mountain ranges ( ranges ) alternate with basins in between and shallow lakes ( playas ) can arise in areas without water runoff after rainfall , which leads to the formation of salt pans after evaporation of the water . In California, near the Arizona border, there is also a classic sand desert with the Algodones dunes .
The Sonoran Desert is home to the large and strictly protected saguaros and many other cactus species . It is also a habitat for many reptiles, e.g. B. several rattlesnake species , the Gila crustacean , the California gopher tortoise and one of the largest land newts , the tiger salamander . There is also an extraordinary density of different bird species, e.g. B. the road cuckoo ( Roadrunner ). To protect biodiversity, various parts of the Sonoran Desert have been declared nature reserves with different protection status. Other parts are used intensively, such as the southern Algodones dunes for off-road vehicles. The detailed first description of the fauna, flora and way of life in the Sonoran Desert was written by the German Jesuit monk Ignaz Pfefferkorn at the end of the 18th century .
The Sonoran Desert is mainly threatened by livestock and agriculture , intensive groundwater abstraction , urbanization and mining .
See also
- Saguaro National Park (Sonora Conservation Area in Arizona)
- Sonoran Desert National Monument
- Anza-Borrego Desert State Park ( State Park in California, part of Sonora)
- Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
- Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge (Sonora Wildlife Sanctuary, Arizona)
- Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
- Yuma Desert (part of Sonora)
Web links
- World Wildlife Fund
- Exhibition in the Museum Wiesbaden (German) ( Memento from April 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- Arizona Sonora Desert Museum ( specialized zoo and botanical garden near Tucson, Arizona)
- The first geologic map of Sonora PDF 245 kB
Coordinates: 32 ° 16 ′ N , 112 ° 56 ′ W