Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2002

Abstract

The riparian vegetation of the lower reach of the Rio Grande was studied at 7 locations using 3 line intercepts at each location. There were no trees at the mouth of the river and the vegetation was similar to that found along the Laguna Madre shore of barrier islands. Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) was the dominant tree near the coast and in the western section of the river near Falcon Dam. Sugar hackberry (Celtis laevigata) was the dominant tree species at all other sites except at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, where cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia) and anacua (Ehretia anacua) were the dominant trees. Granjeno (Celtis pallida) was a dominant shrub throughout the riparian corridor. The dominant trees and shrubs appeared to be replacing themselves. Species similarity in the tree, shrub, and ground layers was greater among transects at a given site than between sites. The introduced Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) and buffel grass (Pennisetum ciliare) were the dominant species in the ground cover, displacing native species.

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La vegetación riparia de la sección baja del Río Bravo fue estudiada en siete localidades utilizando tres líneas de intercepción en cada localidad. No hay árboles en la desembocadura del río y la vegetación es semejante a la de la orilla de las islas barrera de la Laguna Madre. Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) es el árbol dominante cerca de la costa y en la sección occidental del río cerca de la Presa Falcón. El palo blanco (Celtis laevigata) es la especie de árbol dominante en todos los demás sitios excepto en el Refugio Silvestre Nacional de Santa Ana donde el olmo (Ulmus crassifolia) y la anacua (Ehretia anacua) son los árboles dominantes. Granjeno (Celtis pallida) es el arbusto dominante en todo el corredor ripario. Parece que los árboles y arbustos dominantes se están reemplazando. La semejanza de especies entre árboles, arbustos y cobertura de tierra es más alta entre transectos en un sitio que entre sitios. Las hierbas exóticas, Panicum maximum y Pennisetum ciliare, son las especies dominantes de la superficie terrestre, desplazando a las especies nativas.

Publication Title

The Southwestern Naturalist

DOI

10.2307/3672499

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