Written by Cory Weller.

The Chihuahuan Desert is an atypical desert, in that it actually contains many freshwater streams and lakes. These bodies of water are fed by the Rio Grande, and many species of fish, aquatic reptiles, and invertebrates in the Chihuahuan are found nowhere else on earth. Some species in the desert are so rare that they only live in one specific stream (Wallace et al. 2005)! As the largest desert in North America, the Chihuahuan straddles the border between Mexico and the United states. It covers an area of over 250,000 square miles (657,500 square kilometers), which is nearly the size of Texas (268,820 square miles, 696,200 square kilometers).

There is concern about the health of this region, due to the expansion of agriculture into the desert. This has resulted in cattle overgrazing the native vegetation; bodies of water shrinking from being drained; and water quality becoming lowered from fertilizer and animal waste pollution. The degradation has been a result of the effort to farm and ranch in this desert, to produce food for expanding populations of humans (Hoyt 2002).

To end the degradation of the Chihuahuan Desert, water resources should be managed more effectively, and ranching practices should be further refined to limit environmental impact. There have been efforts to prevent and reverse the damages to the ecosystem (Wallace et al. 2005), but action is hindered by the desert’s location. Because the Chihuahuan Desert stretches across the Mexico-United States border, it is difficult to coordinate and enforce rules or regulations (Suza et al. 2006).

It may be easy to feel disconnected from issues such as habitat degradation, especially if the habitat is distant from oneself. However, humans are still responsible for them. As the human population continues to rise, urbanization and expansion of agriculture will continue to push into the areas of the world which had not, until recently, been used for food production. The development of more efficient practices, regulations to limit pollution, and decisions of informed individuals can help reduce food and water waste. Hopefully, this can prevent the degradation of unique habitats such as the Chihuahuan Desert.




Want to Learn More?

Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute. 2009. Fort Davis, Texas. Available from http://cdri.org (accessed October 2009).

Chihuahuan Freshwater Ecoregion Profile. 2001. World Wildlife Fund. Available from http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/g200/g194.html (accessed October 2009).

Hoyt, C. A. 2002. The Chihuahuan desert: diversity at risk. Endangered species Bulletin 27(2):16-17.

Suza, V., et al. 2006. An endangered oasis of aquatic microbial biodiversity in the Chihuahuan desert. PNAS 103:6565-6570.

Wallace, R. L., E. J. Walsh, M. L. Arroyo, and P. L. Starkweather. 2005. Life on the edge: rotifers from springs and ephemeral waters in the Chihuahuan Desert, Big Bend National Park (Texas, USA). Hydrobiologia 546:147-157.

Copyright-free photo of the Chihuahuan Desert courtesy of NASA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chihuahua_desert.jpg

Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World

Freshwater Ecoregions of the World

Marine Ecoregions of the World







This page was created from an environmental education writing project generated in the Fall 2009 Bio245 Conservation Biology class. Content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Gustavus Adolphus College.

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