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Numerous basins of the intermountain area often have extensive playa surfaces that are nearly devoid of vegetation. Margins of these playas support sparse communities dominated by chenopod shrubs Allenrolfea occidentalis (iodine bush) and Sacrobatus vermiculatus (black greasewood). These plants establish and persist in an environment where halomorphic soils induce extreme osmotic stress and atmospheric precipitation is very low and erratic and occurs largely during the winter when temperatures are too low for growth. We measured net CO2 assimilation rates, leaf conductances, transpiration rates, water-use efficiencies, and stem xylem potentials for these two C3 species. Data were collected in above-average (1991)...
Natural and anthropogenic changes in basin lake levels in the western U.S. expose saline, alkaline substrates that are commonly colonized by shrubs in the Chenopodiaceae. On a chronosequence of recently exposed substrates at Mono Lake, California, Sarcobatus vermiculatus has greatest biomass accrual, seed production, seedling establishment, and leaf N at younger sites where soils are extremely saline and alkaline. These field observations and an understanding of the role of N-containing compatible solutes in salinity tolerance of halophytes led to our prediction that Na and N interactions stimulate Sarcobatus performance. To test this, we grew Sarcobatus juveniles for 2 years in the greenhouse at 4 levels of NaCl...
Nutrients, in addition to water, limit desert primary productivity, but nutrient limitations to fecundity and seed quality in desert ecosystems have received little attention. Reduced seed production and quality may affect recruitment, population, and community processes. At the Mono Basin, CA, USA where the alkaline, sandy soil has very low availability of N, P, and most other nutrients, seed production, recruitment, and dominance of the desert shrub Sarcobatus vermiculatus decrease over a dune successional sequence. Concurrently, Sarcobatus leaf N, P, and Ca/Mg ratio decline from early to later successional dunes. At two later successional dune sites, we fertilized adult Sarcobatus shrubs for 2 years and determined...