grass land Large-scale land change, such as the conversion of more than 70,000 acres of grasslands near Janos to crop rings in a five-year span leads us to ask – what if human practice instead generated grassland refugia? Not a 1:1 replacement of agriculture with refugia but an augmentation of how life dwells in this environment. As happened with the species retreat to Pleistocene refugia during the last ice age, grassland species by 2090 should have been able to retreat to grassland refugia focused on surviving, albeit with population decreases, until a time with more favourable conditions arrives. The structure and systems of a refugia generate the conditions, a range of microclimates and habitats, for heterogenous grassland community pockets to grow and adapt.
Let's say it is 2090, 65 years after the last grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion disappeared. An infrastructural system of grassland refugia are all that remain to support grassland species, at least until the climate changes again. As with ice-age refugia, soil composition plays an important role in determining the matrix of grass and forb-based plants, and by extension other associated species such as migratory birds – certain plants adapted to soils too harsh for others. Keystone species, such as the Black-tailed Prairie Dog further increased the biodiversity of the grasslands by creating habitats and food sources for numerous other organisms.
Speculative image of refuge through bird ultraviolet vision. Crumbling adobe seed bank walls provide materials and shelter.
Janos irrigation circles, overlaid with multispecies condenser refugia (the small black dots) provoke a different land use approach. They are spaced to provide an overall regeneration of the Chihuahuan Desert eco-region.
90% of grassland birds that breed in the US Great Plains, winter in the various Chihuahuan Desert grasslands. In the Janos Grassland Priority Conservation Area, the six most common migratory bird species each prefer a different type of grassland habitat – for example, the Horned Lark prefers bare ground near prairie dog colonies, the Chestnut-Collared Longspur avoids grass taller than a foot.
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on site review 41 :: infrastructure
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