Mojave Desert
Basic information
Sample name: Mojave Desert

Reference: L. N. Rich, S. R. Beissinger, J. S. Brashares, and B. J. Furnas. 2019. Artificial water catchments influence wildlife distribution in the Mojave Desert. Journal of Wildlife Management 83(4):855-865 [ER 3514]
Geography
Country: United States

State: California


Coordinate: 34° 53' N, 115° 43' W
Coordinate basis: based on nearby landmark

Geography comments: "Our study area was in the southern portion of the Mojave Desert ecoregion of California"
Coordinates based on the Mojave National Preserve, located in the study area
"Elevations range from 147–2,414 m"

Environment
Habitat: desert/xeric shrubland

Protection: other protected area

Substrate: ground surface

Disturbance: grazing

Habitat comments: "Rainfall is limited, with just 0–20 mm of precipitation per month"
"The dominant plant species is creosote scrub, but the area encompasses a mosaic of vegetation types including saltbrush, Joshua trees, single-leaf pinyon, and mesquite"
"Most of the land is designated as federally protected, or as recreation management areas"
"Federally protected land is used primarily for recreational purposes, with limited livestock grazing"

Methods
Life forms: bats,carnivores,ungulates,other small mammals,birds

Sampling methods: baited,automatic cameras,call recordings

Sample size: 5760 captures or sightings

Years: 2016, 2017

Nets or traps: 200

Net or trap nights: 6365

Camera type: digital

Cameras paired: no

Sampling comments: "We surveyed 200 sites between March and July of 2016–2017"
"We identified survey locations by first selecting a spatially balanced random sample of hexagons ... (hexagon radius is ∼2.6 km)"
"We then randomly selected 1–3 survey locations within each hexagon, which were spaced by 1–2 km and stratified by vegetation community"
"At each survey location, we concurrently deployed a PC900 camera trap (Reconyx, Holmen, WI, USA) and a SM3-BAT bioacoustic recorder with microphone (Wildlife Acoustics, Inc., Maynard, MA, USA)"
"We cable-locked cameras and acoustic recorders to securely placed T-posts 1 m and 2 m above the ground, respectively; T-posts were separated by ≥30 m"
"We deployed cameras for an average of 34  ± 7.6 (SD) days and baited them during their initial deployment with a 250-g salt lick, 100 mL of rolled oat-peanut butter mixture, and 150 g of fish cat food"
"We programmed cameras to take 3 photos at each trigger event, with a delay of 1 second between trigger events"
For bird identification: "We programmed acoustic recorders to record 3 5-minute sessions on 3 consecutive days during the survey period"
"The first session was at 30 minutes before sunrise, the second at sunrise, and the third at 30 minutes after sunrise" (for a total of 1794 recordings)
For bat identification: "We also programmed the acoustic recorders to record full spectrum (i.e., 6–192 kHz) ultrasonic triggers from 30 minutes before sunset until 0400 the following morning for 8 consecutive days on average (range = 3–10 days)" (for a total of 1574 acoustic recorder nights)
"We used Kaleidoscope Pro version 4.3.2 with the KPro classifier (Wildlife Acoustics, Maynard, MA, USA) to auto-classify file recordings to the bat species level" (which were then manually reviewed)

Metadata
Sample number: 3830

Contributor: Benjamin Carter

Enterer: Benjamin Carter

Created: 2021-06-21 12:10:38

Modified: 2021-06-21 02:20:54

Abundance distribution
44 species
0 singletons
total count 5760
geometric series index: 44.9
Fisher's α: 6.479
geometric series k: 0.9134
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.9415
Shannon's H: 3.2440
Good's u: 1.0000
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
Register
Canis latrans5712 kg carnivore-insectivore
Lepus californicus3072.1 kg
Lynx rufus419.0 kg carnivore
Odocoileus hemionus3665 kg browser
Ovis canadensis2255 kg
Sylvilagus audubonii184869 g
Taxidea taxus187.0 kg carnivore
Urocyon cinereoargenteus404.1 kg frugivore-carnivore
Vulpes macrotis1701.4 kg
Amphispiza bilineata75613.5 g insectivore-granivore
Artemisiospiza belli28
Auriparus flaviceps946.8 g
Callipepla gambelii141170 g
Calypte costae193.0 g
Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus23938.9 g
Catherpes mexicanus323.4 g insectivore
Chordeiles acutipennis676.9 g insectivore
Corvus corax124 omnivore
Eremophila alpestris1832.4 g insectivore-granivore
Haemorhous mexicanus207
Icterus parisorum516.0 g
Lanius ludovicianus70
Mimus polyglottos16148.5 g insectivore
Myiarchus cinerascens27828.2 g insectivore-frugivore
Phainopepla nitens3222.1 g
Phalaenoptilus nuttallii1847.2 g
Dryobates scalaris26
"Picoides scalaris"
Polioptila melanura905.2 g
Salpinctes obsoletus1922.5 g insectivore
Sayornis saya5920.9 g
Spizella breweri2510.9 g insectivore-granivore
Streptopelia decaocto25152 g granivore
Thryomanes bewickii829.9 g
Toxostoma crissale4162.7 g
Toxostoma lecontei5161.9 g
Zenaida macroura302123 g granivore-frugivore
Zonotrichia leucophrys1352.0 g insectivore-granivore
Antrozous pallidus4716.5 g insectivore
Corynorhinus townsendii29 insectivore
Eumops perotis2463.4 g insectivore
Myotis californicus3004.1 g insectivore
Myotis thysanodes166.7 g insectivore
Parastrellus hesperus7863.7 g insectivore
Tadarida brasiliensis15511.3 g insectivore