The Desert Southwest: Natural History and Climate Change

1. The Desert Southwest: Natural History and Climate Change To accompany the Natural History Lab Funded by and created for AWC’s USDA HSI ACIS grant

2. What is Natural History? Natural history is the study and research of living organisms in their natural environments • Includes the study of plants, animals, and fungi • A classic science dating over 5,000 years that relies on observation, not experimentation • Data are usually documented in scientific journals • Some naturalists include Aristotle, Carl Linnaeus, and Charles Darwin

3. Natural History of the Desert Southwest Includes the study of climate, geology, plants, animals, and human impacts in desert environments within the American Southwest. • What are some of the biggest factors associated with desert environments? • How might these influence the organisms found in these environments? • How can we observe and determine these influences?

4. Adaptations By looking at the form and function of an organism, one can begin to see adaptations resulting from the organism’s interaction with its natural environment • Not all features are adaptations • To be an adaptation, the feature must be unique to that species or its close relatives, in a specific environment • Adaptations can be structural (physical), behavioral, or physiological

5. Scientific Journals A primary method used to document observational field data • Joseph Grinnell (1877-1939), a naturalist, founded the modern formatting method used today by naturalists • Scientific journals contain data that describe one’s observations, which may be with words, sketches, or numeric data • These journals are scientific records and treated as data • How does a scientific journal differ from a personal journal?

6. Natural History and Climate Change Climate change is a shift in Earth’s global climate; global warming is a type of climate change • While climate change is a natural process, humans are causing unnatural climate change in the last 200 years through our use of fossil fuels • Release of chemicals from burning fossil fuels causes chemical reactions in the atmosphere and changes its physical properties • As a result, Earth’s climate is affected, as more heat is trapped and water vapor evaporates

7. Natural History and Climate Change With a quickly changing climate, organisms are unable to adapt to these changes before they are at risk or become extinct • Natural climate change occurs over millions of years, which allows species evolutionary time needed to adapt • In the last 200 years, a very short time geologically speaking, scientists have determined that humans have caused a drastic change in Earth’s climate • This puts many species and ecosystems at risk for extinction • Natural history plays an important role in documenting simple observations of organisms and their natural environments

8. Natural History and Climate Change Desert ecosystems are particularly susceptible to climate change • How might changes in climate impact desert environments? • What are some consequences of this for plant and animals? • What are some other factors caused by humans that impact desert environments?

9. Natural History and Climate Change Desertification is the degradation of a landscape into a desert, due to drought, deforestation, or unsustainable agricultural practices • What are some examples of ways humans cause desertification in the desert southwest? • Thinking of humans, what effects might desertification have for us? • Natural history is invaluable to understanding our impacts on and changes within the environment from global climate change to local desertification

10. Natural History and Climate Change at AWC AWC’s Outdoor Learning Lab is a grant-funded project to educate and research climate change on campus! • Using natural history, we can document species interactions, effects of climate on organisms, and better understand the desert southwest ecosystem • Observation is key, and in today’s lab we will study our environment as naturalists • Over 200 species are found within the Outdoor Learning Lab, and the observations are limitless!