From Las Vegas to Long Beach: Desert Pedology, Land Use, and Wild Lands Tour

Abstract

On 30 Oct.–1 Nov. 2014, the Victorville MLRA Soil Survey Office; Dr. Bob Graham (University of California–Riverside, UCR), and Dr. Brenda Buck (University of Nevada–Las Vegas, UNLV) hosted the Desert Pedology, Land Use, and Wild Lands—Las Vegas to Long Beach two-day tour. The tour was planned and executed by Leon Lato and the rest of the Victorville MLRA Soil Survey, Region 8 team with a special thanks to Carrie Ann Houdeshell who originally initiated the effort before she transferred to her modelling position in Region 2. From Las Vegas, NV to the outskirts of the Los Angeles Basin, CA, there is a wide range of desert landscape, remote wilderness, unique vegetation, and soil formation. This area represents isolation and preservation and, at the same time, promises for the future of open space for renewable energy production, food and fiber production, watershed renovation, and alternative uses for new minerals for green infrastructure and modern technology. The tour started in Las Vegas at the University of Nevada with a lecture and lab tour from NCSS cooperator Dr. Brenda Buck. Her lecture on “Naturally Occurring Asbestos: Potential for Human Exposure, Southern Nevada, USA” was illuminating and a good start to understanding the issues of dust in the Mojave Desert and the southwestern U.S. to humans and the difficulties of studying the subject in an urbanizing environment. The group travelled on to California to the Mojave National Preserve (MNP). Dr. Mandy Williams of UNLV and Dustin Detweiler, NRCS ecological site specialist, started the field discussions with examples of biocrusts, ecological site descriptions, and the function of dust in these systems. Dr. Daniel Hirmas, Kansas University, explained his Ph.D. UCR thesis of Eolian deposits on mountains, and Leon Lato, NRCS soil survey project leader, Mojave National Preserve, led the discussion of the playa soil of Soda Dry Lake. The group stayed at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, CA (named by Dr. Springer, owner of this famous 1930s health spa as the “last” word in health). On the second day, the group visited the basalt flows in the Cima volcanic field with Dr. Yvonne Katzenstein, which illustrated the potential of 1 to 3 m of dust (eolian fines) inflating the landscape over measured geologic time. A highlight of the tour was the taxonomic discussion and illustration of the new master V horizon by Dr. Robert Graham, UCR. This site shows how the V horizon developed from eolian deposits under a desert pavement surface. The vesicular pores and platy structure of the silt loam surface (V horizon) contrasts strongly with the gravelly-sandy material below. The final stop was at the eastern side of the Kelso Dunes with an explanation by Dr. Katherine Kendrick, USGS, on desert dust and dune processes. Pre-meeting SSSA Pedology Tour 2014 group picture on the eastern edge of the Kelso Dune field in MNP in an area stabilized by big galleta grass. Playa soil on Soda Dry Lake looking south at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, CA—coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, hyperthermic Oxyaquic Udorthents. The tour brought together students, soil scientists, and soil taxonomists from China, Iraq, Syria, India, Europe, Canada, Australia, Africa, and throughout the U.S. Those who attended came away with a clearer understanding of the importance of the V master horizon and dust in desert environments as well as congenial memories of NRCS's work in the region. They enjoyed the spectacular weather including some overnight rain and relatively light desert breezes for the trip. Tour participants scrutinizing samples of the V horizon in MNP. Desert pavement with a V horizon in MNP—sandy-skeletal, mixed, thermic Typic Haplocalcids.