Relationships between landforms, geomorphic processes, and plant communities on a watershed in the northern Chihuahuan Desert

Abstract

The close correlation of plant communities to landforms and geomorphic surfaces resulted from differences in the redistribution of water and organic matter between landform in the northern Chihuahuan Desert. Biotic processes are limited by water and nitrogen, and the interactions between landforms, geomorphic processes, soils, and plant communities control the redistribution of these limiting resources within internally drained catchments. Geomorphic processes are regulated by the geologic structure and gross topographic relief of internally drained catchments over geological time scales. Land forming processes can be viewed as static at time scales of 10's to 100's of years, with individual landforms regulating geomorphic processes, namely erosion and deposition resulting from the horizontal redistribution of water within the catchment. The vegetation composition is a critical feedback, reinforcing the erosional or depositional geomorphic processes that dominate each landform.