|
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Colin Robins and collaborators have published a paper describing how subtle differences in similar-seeming habitats profoundly affect plant life. In the journal Catena, Robins and Brenda J. Buck and Amanda J. Williams, both from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, describe the role of different soils and Earth surface processes—such as water, wind, exposure to sunlight—on the distribution of a rare shrub, the Las Vegas buckwheat, Eriogonum corymbosum var. nilesii (Polygonaceae family), in the Mojave Desert around Las Vegas, NV. The species grows only on a few gypsum-rich soils in Clark County in southern Nevada. This rare plant’s habitat is threatened by urban development, off-road vehicle use and climate change. |
|