Preface

No wind. The heat bears down.

It has not rained for one year.
I love this dry land
Am caught even by blowing sand, reaches
Of hot winds. I am not the desert
But its name is not so far from mine.
Extract from 'Desert Cenote' by Keith Wilson in Bosque Redondo: The Encircled
Grove, Penny whistle Press. (Cenote is Spanish-Aztec for 'water hole, oasis')

If I had the talent of my friend Keith Wilson, I would have expressed my love and
fascination with deserts in poetry. Since I do not possess that talent, I have
resorted to narrative of a scientific nature to communicate a picture of the harsh
reality of life in the wonderful dry places of the planet. I was encouraged to write
this book by several colleagues and students. Students enrolled in my desert ecology classes provided critique's of early drafts. Without their encouragement, I
would never have attempted the daunting task that this book represents. This
book was written for them and for future generations of students. It is hoped that
this book will encourage those students to address many of the fascinating questions that this ecologist could not address in his lifetime.
'Ecology of Desert Systems' is the culmination of nearly 40 years of fascination by deserts and the organisms that reside therein. That fascination has
maintained my enthusiasm for research on all aspects of desert ecology to the
present day. The completion of the book was accomplished after I was no longer
bound by the requirements of gainful employment. The support for continuing
research and collaboration with colleagues and students postretirement has been
afforded me by the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research
Services's Jornada Experimental Range in cooperation with New Mexico State
University. I could not have completed this book without that support.
Most of my research for the past 38 years has been conducted on the Jornada
Experimental Range. The Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico has been
my frame of reference in my work in other deserts of the world. The Jornada
Experimental Range has provided the baseline for comparisons and contrasts of

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Preface

the Chihuahuan Desert with other arid lands. Although I have attempted to write
this book in a global context, my familiarity with the Chihuahuan Desert has
undoubtedly dominated my thinking about deserts. Despite this, I hope that the
reader will find this a suitable springboard for their own research and thinking
about deserts.
The ideas and concepts developed in the 'Ecology of Desert Systems' result
from collaboration and discussions with many desert scholars. Many of the
authors of papers cited in the book are colleagues, postdoctoral associates and students from whom I learned a great deal at conferences, in the laboratory, and in
the field. My mentors and students led me to research topics in desert ecology in
which I had no formal training. My colleagues in the Biology Department at New
Mexico State University, William Dick-Peddie, Ralph J. Raitt, and James R.
Zimmerman provided much needed postdoctoral mentoring by generously allowing me to tag along on field trips and patiently identified the plants, animals, and
landscapes which were all new to me. Visitors and colleagues who had a large
impact on me and served as role models in my career include: John CloudsleyThompson, George Ettershank, Robert Chew, William Nutting, Clifford
Crawford, Claude Grenot, John A. Ludwig, Gary L. Cunningham, Mark Westoby,
M. Timm Hoffman, Susan Milton, W. Richard Dean, Graham I. H. Kerley, and
John A. Wallwork.
I owe special thanks to David Tongway of CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology, who
spent hours discussing the relationships between patch dynamics and landscape
structure and landscape processes in the laboratory and while driving the hundreds of kilometers between the CSIRO laboratory in Deniliquin to Lake Mere.
He influenced my thinking about desert ecosystems and landscapes more than any
other individual. David made my visits to the Lake Mere research site in northwestern New South Wales intellectually stimulating and enjoyable.