The arrival of Anglo settlers in the 1870s marked the beginning of major vegetation changes in southeastern Arizona, including an increase in woody plants in rangelands, the degradation of riparian wetlands, and the spread of non-native plants. While many of these changes have already been linked to human land-use through comparative photographs and historic descriptions, it has long been presumed that changes in the region's climate have also contributed to vegetation change.
Geographer Conrad Bahre now challenges the view that these vegetation changes are due to climatic change....

Originating in a symposium on 'Vegetation and Flora of La Frontera' held at the American Institute of Biological Sciences to honour the late Forrest Shreve, pioneer desert ecologist, this collaboration of outstanding biologists, environmentalists, and climatologists from both sides of La Frontera presents a new agenda for study of the strikingly diverse shrub and grassland ecosystems of the US/Mexico border. The twenty-two contributors focus their expertise on historic cross-border changes in vegetation stemming from disparate land-use practices in the United States/Mexico border region -- La...