@proceedings {51131,
	title = {Mesquite-grassland ecotones in the Chihuahuan Desert},
	volume = {RMRS-P-11},
	year = {1999},
	month = {August 12-14, 19},
	pages = {84-87},
	publisher = {U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station},
	address = {Ogden, UT},
	abstract = {Many plains and uplands of the Chihuahuan Desert in southern New Mexico are in transition from perennial desert grassland to a mesquite <i>(Prosopis glandulosa)- </i>dominated shrubland.  On the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center north of Las Cruces, from 1982 to 1996, mesquite aerial cover increased from 1.9 to 4.5\% and density increased from 123 to 176 plants ha<sup>-1</sup>, with recruitment averaging 3.5 plants ha<sup>-1</sup>yr<sup>-1</sup>.  Shrubs encroach into grasslands by individual plants becoming established and, over time, creating patches of mesquite.  These patches expand into islands of mesquite with a greater biodiversity than the surrounding grasslands.  The mesquite islands eventually coalesce into the mesquite "front" and biodiversity decreases.  Thus, the current grass-shrublands may best be considered as ecotones, both spatially and temporally.},
	url = {/files/bibliography/99-001.pdf},
	author = {Reldon F. Beck and R.P. McNeely and Gibbens, Robert P.},
	editor = {McArthur, E. Durant and Ostler, W. Kent and Wambolt, Carl L.}
}
