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Climate-induced Vegetation Change: Past and Future
Ironically, freezing temperatures strongly influence vegetation in North America's hottest desert, in part determining both its overall boundary and distributions of plant species within. This fact motivated us to include examination of recent freezing temperature variability in the Sonoran Desert as part of our studies on climate and ecosystem interactions in southwestern North America. Below is an updated figure from our article on this topic that shows freezing temperature variability at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southwestern Arizona. Winter 2009-2010 had the earliest last freeze of the 'freeze season' on record (December 27), and tied the shortest 'freeze season' length on record (22 days, tied with winter 1992-1993).
Variability of freezing temperatures and freeze-free season at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ, winter 1944-1945 to winter 2009-2010, after Weiss and Overpeck (2005). Locations of month names on Winter Year Day axis denote the calendar day beginning of particular months. T-bars for number of days ≤ 0°C represent the number of days missing data between 1 October and 31 May of a given winter year. For example, there were ten days missing data in winter year 2009-2010. Time step of first and last days of minimum temperatures ≤ 0°C, their five-year moving averages, and the number of days ≤ 0°C per winter year time series is one year.
Regional Climate Science and Assessment
Weiss, J.L. and J.T. Overpeck. 2005. Is the Sonoran Desert losing its cool? Global Change Biology 11: 2065-2077. |
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Studies Laboratory, Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona Last updated
March 1, 2011
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