Article Introduction: Efforts to define water needs for riparian and aquatic ecosystems in arid and semi-arid systems are critical because riparian areas are essential for the survival of desert life, with stream corridors providing a large proportion of ecosystem services in these landscapes (Poff, Koestner, Neary, & Henderson, 2011; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). To create a one-stop-shop for published ecological water needs information and illuminate critical knowledge gaps in the desert watersheds of the U.S. and Mexico, the University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center and the Northern Arizona University School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability created the Desert Flows Database. Funded by the Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative, the database is a geospatial tool that synthesizes environmental flow needs and ecosystem responses to changes in flows from 408 articles or reports related to ecological water requirements. The database includes studies from 105 streams and 312 species or genera from across the 839,000 square mile study area.
