The Sonoran Desert has ”diverse vegetation” and is considered to be the most tropical desert in all of North American (2). Because the desert stretches out two four different states in two different countries, it is apparent how distinctive the temperate zones are from each other when passing through each state or area. Historically, the desert did not start off being as large as it nor did the desert contain the same animals and plants that we see today. In fact, it wasn’t until about five or six million years ago that the Baja California Peninsula actually formed, breaking off the mainland of Mexico and becoming surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California (2). Due to its isolation, the plants and animals that were on the peninsula have become endemic to Baja California in particular (3). Moreover, the desert area in the Baja California Peninsula is even more diverse with plants that are “unique to this region” such as boojum tree and the Baja California rock squirrel (3, 4).
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A map of what Mexico would have looked like before
the formation and separation of the Baja California Peninsula.
(About 5-6 million years ago) |
According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, the first humans to move to the Baja California Peninsula was around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, during the time large “Pleistocene mammals roamed the area” (5). Approximately around 1533, there lived 60,000 to 70,000 Indians in the desert area in different groups “exploiting a definite territory for hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants” (5). After Baja California’s independence from Spain in 1822, the Spanish population began to abandon the area and was left to a small population of “mestizo farmers and cattleman” (5). This was followed by Mexico gaining possession of the peninsula after the Mexican War in 1848 (5). Up to this time, human impact was not severe and the desert remained predominantly intact due to its isolation from the rest of Mexico and having the border separation between the United States and Mexico. It wasn’t until the 1960s that highways, construction, agriculture, mining, and tourism began and has since continued demolishing habitats such as the “mountains ranges, plains, and vast extensions of coastal dunes”, home to various plants and animals (1, 5).
