CHAPTER EIGHT. My First (and Last) Rodeo: Catching Corvina in the Sea of Cortés

2012 ◽  
pp. 97-116
Keyword(s):  
Sea Of Cortes

Island Biogeography in the Sea of Cortés II

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted J. Case ◽  
Martin L. Cody ◽  
Exequiel Ezcurra
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Island Biogeography ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Marine Fisheries ◽  
Gulf Region ◽  
Strong Interest ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Mexican Government ◽  
Sea Of Cortes

This updated and expanded A New Island Biogeography of the Sea of Cortés, first published nearly 20 years ago, integrates new and broader studies encompassing more taxa and more complete island coverage. The present synthesis provides a basis for further research and exploration in upcoming years of the biologically fascinating Sea of Cortés region. The Gulf region is increasingly being exploited, for its natural resources by way of marine fisheries, and for its stunning natural beauty by way of a burgeoning tourism industry. Further, the region's human population is increasing apace. It is appropriate, therefore, that this volume discusses these evolving circumstances, and the efforts of the Mexican government to regulate and manage them. The new Biogeography includes a section on the conservation issues in the Sea of Cortés, past accomplishments and conservation needs as yet outstanding. This book should be of strong interest to conservation biologists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists more generally.

Seri Indian traditional knowledge and molecular biology agree: no express train for island-hopping spiny-tailed iguanas in the Sea of Cortés

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina M. Davy ◽  
Fausto R. Méndez de la Cruz ◽  
Amy Lathrop ◽  
Robert W. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Express Train ◽  
Sea Of Cortes ◽  
Seri Indian

Grupo México: Epítome de la deshumanización y la barbarie del extractivismo

2020 ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Sol Pérez Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Monarch Butterfly ◽  
Power Elite ◽  
Development Discourse ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
The North ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
Sea Of Cortes ◽  
Mining Projects ◽  
The Power Elite

The hegemonic development discourse continues to promote mining as an activity that generates progress despite the considerable evidence to the contrary. The article analyzes Grupo Mexico’s history, the largest mining consortium in the country, as part of the power elite. It shows how it achieved a monopoly of the leading copper deposits in the north of the country thanks to its alliances with the Mexican State. Later on, we present the cartography of the expansion of its operations in the north of the country, including the opening of controversial mining projects in strategic areas for biodiversity conservation such as the Sea of Cortés, the Baja California peninsula and, the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán. Therefore, it is argued that it is important to consider companies’ environmental and social records when evaluating mining concessions’ renewal or revocation.

Reptiles: Ecology

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted J. Case
Keyword(s):  
Island Biogeography ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Character Displacement ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Ecological Release ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Sea Of Cortes

The reptiles of the islands of the Sea of Cortés have provided many opportunities to test ecological and biogeographical hypotheses because they support a diverse fauna with much insular endemism; are numerous and of varying ages and degrees of isolation; are relatively undisturbed by human activity and introduced species; and have a relatively well-understood geological history (see chap. 2). In particular, contrasts of mainland and island reptile populations in the region have resulted in significant progress in testing theories of island biogeography, principles of ecological character displacement, ecological release, density compensation, and vicariance biogeography (see chap. 8). The reptiles, being conspicuous in these arid habitats, have attracted relatively more research attention than other vertebrates, and today we have a reasonably complete picture of at least which species are on which islands. Since the first edition of this book, nearly 20 years ago, there have been only 15 new records for the major islands, of which all but one are of snakes. In this chapter I review the basic elements of reptilian island biogeography in the Sea of Cortés with an emphasis on ecological factors shaping distributions and evolutionary trajectories. I first examine the patterns of species diversity and association across islands. I then take a closer look at some particular island forms, reviewing features of their life history that seem divergent from mainland relatives. In this regard I present some new data from a long-term study of two insular species of chuckwallas. Finally, I review patterns of population density across islands and their possible determinants. A recurrent debate in island biogeography centers on the relative importance of contemporary and ongoing ecological factors relative to historical circumstances in accounting for the number and the identities of species on islands. Historical biogeographers typically view the number of species on an island as being determined by the availability of appropriate habitats. They see changes in species composition chiefly as a consequence of alteration of the mix of habitats due to climatic change (e.g., Pregill and Olson 1980; Olson and Hilgartner 1982); extinctions are posited to occur in waves, as old habitats disappear and new ones become available.

Plants

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin L. Cody
Keyword(s):  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Rock Masses ◽  
Introductory Section ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
Coastal Cliffs ◽  
Sea Of Cortes ◽  
Pachycereus Pringlei

This chapter deals with the general features of plant diversity and distribution on the Sea of Cortés islands and to a lesser extent with adaptive features of plants such as morphology and phenology. This review is based mainly on the plant lists in appendixes 4.1-4.5 describing the island floras, endemics, and relicts. In our interpretations of these lists we draw from various floristic, systematic, and distributional works that pertain to the Gulf of California region and beyond. After an introductory section, we work from broader biogeographical questions to matters that have more local, specific, or taxonomically restricted perspectives. There must be few experiences in the biologist’s world to compare with approaching a “new” island by boat. The ingredients are adventure and suspense, mystery and perhaps even a little danger. There are feelings of discoveries to be made, knowledge to be extended, curiosity to be both piqued and satisfied. Such feelings are shared not only among natural historians but by any adventurous and curious traveler; the more difficult the island is to reach, the keener the excitement of the visit. The islands in the Sea of Cortés would seem ideally qualified to generate this sort of bioadventurism. They are mostly uninhabited and have been little explored biologically, and the mounting of small-scale expeditions to successfully reach (and leave) the islands is not always a trivial matter. First appearing as blurry, near-colorless breaks between the unrelenting blue of gulf and sky, the islands leave early impressions of abrupt topography and a seeming lack of vegetation. The dull-green smudge of plant life on foothill outwash fans and in the arroyos eventually becomes apparent, but almost up to the point of a landing the islands preserve the impression of rock masses broken only occasionally by bajadas on which a few cardons (Pachycereus pringlei) are conspicuous. Islands larger than a few square kilometers have well-developed drainage courses that reach the coasts as dry arroyos and provide breaks in the generally steep coastal cliffs. The beaches where the larger arroyos reach the coast are logical landing points, and here the visitor gets the first close look at the vegetation.

Ants

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
April M. Boulton ◽  
Philip S. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Ant Community ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Causative Agents ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Deterministic Processes ◽  
Sea Of Cortes

The distribution and abundance of ants on islands has attracted considerable attention from ecologists and biogeographers, especially since the classic studies by Wilson on the ants of Melanesia and the Pacific islands (Wilson 1961; Wilson and Taylor 1967a,b; see also updates by Morrison 1996, 1997). The species-area curve for Polynesian ants was an important contribution in the development of island biogeography theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Subsequent studies of other island ant faunas, such as those of the Caribbean (Levins et al. 1973; Wilson 1988; Morrison 1998a,b), Japan (Terayama 1982a,b, 1983, 1992), Korea (Choi and Bang 1993; Choi et al. 1993), and island archipelagos in Europe (Baroni Urbani 1971, 1978; Pisarski et al. 1982; Vepsäläínen and Pisarski 1982; Ranta et al. 1983; Boomsma et al. 1987) and North America (Goldstein 1976; Cole 1983a,b), have confirmed the general features of this relationship, although the underlying causative agents and the relative contribution of stochastic and deterministic processes to ant community composition remain points of controversy. The islands in the Sea of Cortés are particularly interesting from a biogeographic standpoint because they vary considerably in size, topography, and isolation. In addition, both oceanic and landbridge islands occur in the gulf, allowing comparisons between faunas that resulted from colonization (assembly) versus relaxation. Nevertheless, the ant assemblages of the gulf islands have received little study. There are a few scattered island records in taxonomic and faunistic papers (Smith 1943; Cole 1968; MacKay et al. 1985). Bernstein (1979) listed 16 ant species from a total of nine Gulf of California islands, but a number of evident misidentifications occur in her list. To the best of our knowledge, no other publications have appeared on the ant communities of these islands. In this chapter, we document the ant species known from islands in the Sea of Cortés and analyze species composition in a selected subset of the better sampled islands. Most of the data come from recent collections made within the last two decades.

History of Scientific Exploration in the Sea of Cortés

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Lindsay ◽  
Iris H. W. Engstrand
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Imperial Valley ◽  
Scientific Exploration ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
San Marcos ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sea Of Cortes ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Well Differentiated

The Sea of Cortés (el Mar de Cortés), also known as the Gulf of California, is the body of water that separates the California peninsula from the mainland of Mexico. It extends in a northwest-southeast axis for 1070 km, varying in width from 100 to 200 km. The gulf was formerly much longer, but sediments carried by the Colorado River created a delta and dammed off its upper end, forming what is now the Imperial Valley. The western side of the gulf is dotted with islands, the longest of which is Ángel de la Guarda, measuring 67 km long, up to 16 km wide, and 1315 m high (see app. 1.1 for a list of island names and measurements). Most of the islands are geological remnants of the peninsula's separation from the mainland, a continuing process that started 4 or more million years ago. One central gulf island, Tortuga, is an emerged volcano, whereas San Marcos Island to its west is largely gypsum, possibly precipitated from an ancient lake. The largest island in the gulf is Tiburón, with an area of approximately 1000 km2. It is barely separated from the mainland to the east and has a curiously mixed biota of peninsular and mainland species. One tiny island, San Pedro Nolasco, is only 13 km off shore in San Pedro Bay, Sonora, but has an unusual flora that includes a high percentage of endemics. The isolation of organisms that colonized or were established previously on the Sea of Cortés islands provided an opportunity for genetic and ecological change. In one plastic and rapidly evolving plant family, the Cactaceae, about one-half of the 120 species found on the islands are endemic. Similarly, populations isolated by climate on peninsular mountains are well differentiated. Because of the topographical diversity of the area and its effect on the disruption and integration of populations, the Sea of Cortes and its islands have been called a natural laboratory for the investigation of speciation.

Return to the Sea of Cortés

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 1551-1552
Author(s):  
Lawrence R. Heaney
Keyword(s):  
Sea Of Cortes
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