(原文)

Rain Gods in a Desert Sea: New Book Celeb利率 Southern Arizona's Mountains

从 UA新闻
出版日期:2013年11月7日，作者:Daniel Stolte

A book by two UA scientists explains the story behind the scenery of the "sky islands," the unique mountain ranges dotting southern Arizona and northern Sonora, 墨西哥.

University of Arizona scientists Wendy 摩尔 and Richard Brusca have published an illustrated book to celebrate and share the rich and unique natural history of southern Arizona's mountains — the "sky islands" — with a general, 科学观众.

摩尔, assistant professor in the department of entomology in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and curator of the UA Insect Collection, said the book came about through field research she began two years ago when she founded the Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP). 为了她的实地研究, 摩尔得到了布鲁斯卡的帮助, who is her husband as well as executive director emeritus of the 亚利桑那-索诺拉世界杯app软件推荐 and an adjunct research scientist in the UA's department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

"We collected a lot of background information about this region and needed to understand more about its biodiversity,她说. “2022世界杯下注需要拍摄动植物的照片, 所以2022世界杯下注决定把这一切写成一本书供公众阅读. 一本给住在这个地区的人看的书, so they can appreciate this landscape more fully by understanding this beautiful place in which we live."

Although "A Natural 历史 of the Santa Catalina Mountains" focuses on the Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson, its scope includes all "sky island" mountain ranges in southern Arizona and northwestern 墨西哥.

"Our book uses the Catalina Mountains as the archetypical mountain range for southern Arizona because it is the one that's best known and most accessible, 但你可以把它带到2022世界杯下注地区的任何山脉,布鲁斯卡说.

尤其是在夏天, the sky islands lure visitors looking to escape from the heat of the lowland desert in southern Arizona. 这是因为对于每一个1,海拔增加1000英尺, 读者学会了, 温度下降了大约4度, 年降水量增加约4.5英寸——相当于向北行驶300英里.

天空岛屿的神奇之处在于生物学家所说的堆叠生物群系. 山区的气候也有同样的变化, vegetation and fauna one would encounter while traveling from 墨西哥 to Canada, 所有这些都被压缩成几个狭窄的海拔范围, rising from the subtropical desert around Tucson to subalpine forests at the top of Mount Lemmon at 9,157英尺.

摩尔说，她喜欢把科学研究结合起来, teaching and creative approaches to getting the public — especially children — excited about the outdoors and the natural world. 这些利益, and particularly her research project aimed at assessing the biodiversity of arthropods — insects, 蜘蛛, scorpions and such — in the sky island region spawned the idea for the book.

She said the sky islands are a hot spot of biodiversity and researchers can look at them to study the processes underlying species diversification.

"What makes this region so special is the fact that it represents the only gap in what is often referred to as the 'spine of the continent' or the North American Cordillera — a continuous chain of mountains running from southern 墨西哥 to Alaska. Scattered in this gap are 65 mountain ranges, like islands rising from a desert sea.她说

摩尔 said arthropods are especially interesting because they have short lifespans and reproduce frequently, and therefore adapt faster to changes in climate and habitat than other groups, 比如爬行动物或哺乳动物. Populations isolated from each other on scattered mountaintops quickly can develop into separate populations and ultimately diverge into different species.

有丰富的照片和易于阅读的文字, the book starts with an overview of the sky islands and what makes them one of very few places in the world where such great biodiversity and variety in life zones are readily apparent to anyone willing to go out and explore.

"The book is spiral-bound because we want people to take it with them in the field and use it, 不要把它留在家里,摩尔说. "We hope that it stimulates a lot of research and public interest in the sky island region."

作者将此归功于他们的编辑, 琳达·布鲁尔在亚利桑那-索诺拉世界杯app软件推荐出版社报道, 在出版这本书的过程中，我做得非常出色.

"I'm so much happier with this book than I ever thought I would be because of the attention she gave to the production,摩尔说.

这些章节提供了关于天空岛屿的一般介绍, 深入时间深处，揭示塑造它们的地质力量, tell the stories of the first naturalists who explored their unique natural environments on horseback, 并解释山地岛屿如何塑造了今天的整个地区.

"One of the most fascinating aspects of the mountains to me is that they are in part responsible for our monsoon rains,摩尔说. 来自加利福尼亚湾的湿气扫过干旱地区, 地势低洼的沙漠, 当云层击中山脉时，它们会倾盆而下. There is something special about viewing the sky islands as 'our rain gods.'"

One of the book's most intriguing parts is a self-guided tour on the Catalina Highway up Mount Lemmon just north of Tucson.

"The Catalinas are the only sky islands that have a paved road to the top,布鲁斯卡指出, 让你在不到一个小时的时间里开车穿过八个生物群落. It's one of the very few places in the world where you can actually do that."

在每一站, 你会发现自己身处一个不同的生物群落，有着非常不同的植被,摩尔补充道, "and we orient you to what you're seeing — the age of the rocks there and interesting aspects about the natural history."

For those eager to leave the car behind and set out on one of the numerous hiking trails, the book contains a richly illustrated field guide section to help identify the most commonly encountered plants, 动物和真菌.

正如布鲁斯卡和摩尔在前言中所写的, 他们希望这本书能激励读者“带上一份野餐午餐”, 拿起你的指南针, 带上水和登山鞋, 把你的烦恼留在下面的山谷里."