ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on Sonoran Desert vegetation from sea level to approximately 1000 m above sea level. At elevation increases, ascending above about 1000 m elevation in the mountains, or Sky Islands, within the basin-and-range Province of the Sonoran Desert, there is a transition from one vegetational community to another. Temperatures fluctuate throughout the year throughout the Sonoran Desert, and extreme maximum and extreme minimum temperatures present stress to plants of the desert. Increasing temperatures in the mountains within the Sonoran Desert have been found to enable some plant species to expand their flowering range uphill. Intense summer monsoon storms in the Sonoran Desert mainly impact only upper soil layers due to high runoff rates and high evapotranspiration rates. Hot drylands, such as the Sonoran Desert, typically receive high solar radiation and as a result have high potential evaporation rates, high diurnal ranges in temperature, low precipitation and low atmospheric humidity.
