Future Prospects for Sonoran Desert Ecosystem

          The likely future prospect of the Sonoran Desert Ecosystem is that it will continue to experience pressures from human growth. Gradually animals will be pushed to isolated regions with less desert space. This will cause population declines in wildlife for example in large mammal predators like coytes or wolves who range larger spaces. If these predators decline then the animals they hunt will increase in population causing an imbalance in the food chain of the ecosystem. It also seems that native plants will be replaced in large quantities near urban locations because exotic plants start spreading outside of residential homes. Those invasive plants like shrubs or trees start taking over and the Sonoran Desert is no longer a native plant region. Those plants also cause fires easily and so in a place like the desert where fire was unnatural it starts becoming more frequent. Fires will destroy remaining natural plants ultimately pushing animals even farther away from their natural environments. Another factor that may continue to hurt the Sonoran Desrt is water depletion from underground. The extraction of water has damaged riparian habitats where fish use to thrive. Conservation programs are trying to restore and conserve the environment of the Sonoran Desert but the populations of cities like Phoenix keep growing and surely that will continue to harm the ecosystems surrounding the city. Conservation will help protect some regions and perhaps keep them around for many future years. However, it seems it will be a tough challenge with increasing human populations and territorial expansions of cities. 

Graph showing projected population growth in Arizona
 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/images/diaz03.gif

http://urbanwildlandus.fatcow.com/SERDP%20page/SERDP%20poster%20pics/SERDP%203.jpg