Soil horizon development and the tempo and modes of vegetation change during the Holocene in a Sonoran Desert basin, USA

Abstract

Silt-rich and clay-rich vesicular horizons (V horizons) that develop beneath desert pavements limit infiltration and plant-available soil moisture. A radiocarbon date from buried charcoal constrains the timing of emplacement of a Sonoran Desert alluvial fan deposit to the very end of the Pleistocene (approximately 12.7 ka). The surface of the fan is dotted with 1.5–3 m light-colored plant scars that mark places once occupied by larger perennial plants. A few very large, ring-like clones of Larrea tridentata have persisted on the surface and represent plants that may have initially established as long ago as the early Holocene. The gravelly fan deposit initially would have possessed high infiltration capacities and fostered the establishment of vegetation. Two principal sets of factors have driven vegetation change over the course of the Holocene. During the first part of the Holocene, differences in life history attributes of various species (dispersal and colonization vs. competitive abilities) would have contributed to a succession of perennial plant occupants, culminating with the predominance of the slow-growing, long-lived, but competitively dominant L. tridentata. During the latter part of the Holocene and continuing to the present, continued development of the pavement and associated V horizon has increasingly diminished the capacity of the surface to absorb precipitation and is responsible for the more recent phase involving progressive elimination of vegetation. Development of soil features that markedly influence soil hydrology is a major component of vegetation change during the late Quaternary in the more arid portions of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts.