AmeriFlux AmeriFlux US-Jo1 Jornada Experimental Range Bajada Site

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Jo1 Jornada Experimental Range Bajada Site. Site Description - The Jornada Basin Experimental Range (JER) covers 783 km2 in the La Jornada del Muerto Plain of the northern Chihuahuan Desert and is located 20km of Las Cruces, NM. Extensive livestock grazing at the JER and througout the US Southwest was coincident with large-scale grassland deterioration and transition to shrubland begining in the 1800s. The JER was established n 1912 to investigate these rangeland changes and has since become a central location for understanding dryland ecology. This flux tower monitors CO2 and H2O dynamics in a representative shrubland on the piedmont slope (bajada) of the San Andreas mountains. The dominant shrubs are evergreen Larrea tridentata (Creosote) and winter-deciduous Prosopis glandulosa (Honey Mesquite). Other cover types include Flourensia cernua (tarbush) and patchy occurences of the grasses Muhlenbergia porteri (Bush Muhly) and Dasyochloa pulchella (Fluff Grass). The site is occasionally visited by stray domestic cattle, free-ranging introduced Oryx, and other native herbivores (Jack Rabbits, Desert Pronghorn). Soils at the site are Ustic Calciargids and parent material consists of limestone, other sedimentary rock, and some igneous rock. Virtual Site Visit: https://youtu.be/v1uJCKuicqs