The Mojave Desert is a desert of the southwestern United States, lying mainly across southeastern California and southwestern Nevada with smaller portions reaching into Arizona and Utah, held in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada and the Transverse Ranges. Covering roughly 81,000 square kilometers, it is the smallest and driest of the four major North American deserts, and its basin and range topography of parallel mountain chains and valleys includes Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. Annual precipitation runs only two to six inches, most of it arriving as Pacific storm moisture between November and April, while summer temperatures regularly top 100 degrees Fahrenheit and winters can bring hard freezes. The desert is best known for the Joshua tree, a spiky yucca endemic to the region, and its wildlife includes desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, black-tailed jackrabbits and desert tortoises among roughly 230 bird species and 98 mammal species recorded across the desert. Beyond its ecology, the Mojave has long supported ranching, military training grounds and mineral extraction of silver, tungsten, iron and gold.
Facts
Classification
Biogeographic Realm Area (sq km) Connections
Demonstrates
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hosts
Source Wikidata: Bighorn Sheep
Additional Source Mojave Desert (Wikipedia)Article text
Source Common Raven (Wikipedia)
Source Desert bighorn sheep (Wikipedia)
Source Dragonfly - Wikipedia
Source Plants For A Future: Echinocereus engelmannii
Source Wikipedia: Hadrurus arizonensis
Source World Wildlife Fund
Source Wikipedia: Yucca brevifolia
Source The Gymnosperm Database: Ephedra nevadensis
Source Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology: Animal Diversity Web: Crotalus cerastes
Source Tecopa pupfish (Wikipedia)
In Biome
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Mojave Desert
WikipediaIntroductionQuote, Introduction
The Mojave Desert ( ; Mohave: Hayikwiir Mat'aar; Spanish: Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States.
2. Mojave Desert (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, desert area and land-use sentence
The 54,000-square-mile (140,000 km2) desert supports a number of human activities, including recreation, ranching, and military training.
Hosts: Bighorn Sheep, Article text
Notable species of the Mojave Desert include bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), mountain lions (Puma concolor), black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus), and desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii).
View the Source World Wildlife Fund
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Wikipedia: Yucca brevifolia
Hosts: Joshua Tree, Wikipedia intro: "cally California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada), and northwestern Mexico. It is confined mostly to the Mojave Desert between 400 and 1,800 m (1,300 and 5,900 ft) e..."View the Source Tecopa pupfish (Wikipedia)
Hosts: Tecopa pupfish, Wikipedia intro: "nsis). The small, heat-tolerant pupfish was endemic to the outflows of a pair of hot springs in the Mojave Desert of Inyo County, California. Habitat modificati..."View the Source Common Raven (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHosts: Common Raven, Conservation and managementQuote, Hosts: Common Raven, Conservation and management
In the western Mojave Desert, human settlement and land development have led to an estimated 16-fold increase in the common raven population over 25 years.
Dragonfly - Wikipedia
Hosts: Dragonfly, Distribution and diversityQuote, Hosts: Dragonfly, Distribution and diversity
In the Mojave Desert they are active in shade temperatures between 18 and 45 °C (64 and 113 °F); these dragonflies survive body temperatures fatal to individuals not adapted to that environment, even those of the same species.
Wikipedia: Hadrurus arizonensis
Hosts: Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion, HabitatQuote, Hosts: Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion, Habitat
In the United States, it is found in the western two thirds of Arizona, the Colorado Desert and Mojave Desert regions of southern California, southern Nevada, and extreme southwestern Utah.
Desert bighorn sheep (Wikipedia)
Hosts: Desert bighorn sheep, DistributionQuote, Hosts: Desert bighorn sheep, Distribution
The range of the desert bighorn sheep includes habitats in the Mojave Desert, Sonoran Desert, Great Basin Desert, and Chihuahuan Desert, as well as the Colorado Plateau.
Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology: Animal Diversity Web: Crotalus cerastes
Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of ZoologyHosts: Sidewinder, Geographic RangeQuote, Hosts: Sidewinder, Geographic Range
Sidewinder rattlesnakes ( Crotalus cerastes ) inhabit the southwest corner of the United States of America, extending as far west as the Mojave Desert in southern California and as far east as the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.
Plants For A Future: Echinocereus engelmannii
Plants For A FutureHosts: Echinocereus engelmannii, HabitatsQuote, Hosts: Echinocereus engelmannii, Habitats
It occurs in Sonoran and Mojavean Desert, montane forest, chaparral, great plain grassland and juniper-pinyon woodland
The Gymnosperm Database: Ephedra nevadensis
The Gymnosperm DatabaseHosts: Mormon Tea, Distribution and EcologyQuote, Hosts: Mormon Tea, Distribution and Ecology
US: Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada & Utah in the Mojave and Colorado deserts at 700-1900 m on dry, rocky slopes and hills, rarely in sandy flat areas (Jaeger 1969, Stevenson 1993 ).
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.