The Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center is one of the original seven of the total 39 sites in the University of California Natural Reserve System. It contains lands originally donated to the University by regent

Philip L. Boyd Philip Linnaes Boyd (October 8, 1900 – September 9, 1989) was the first mayor of Palm Springs, California, a regent of the University of California and the namesake of the Deep Canyon Desert Research Center. Personal life Philip Boyd was ...

in 1958. The Research Center is contained within

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve The Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve designated by UNESCO in 1984 to promote the ecological conservation of a cluster of areas in the Mojave and Colorado deserts of California. A principal feature is Death Valle ...

Background

Deep Canyon, immediately east of the Palms to Pines Scenic Byway, is located inside the

Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a National Monument in southern California. It includes portions of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, the northernmost ones of the Peninsular Ranges system. The national ...

at the western edge of the

Colorado Desert California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna. Geography and geology The Colorado D ...

. The canyon cuts into the north face of the Santa Rosa Mountains creating cliffs high. The canyon, created by an intermittent stream carrying moisture from the mountains, extends dropping in elevation down to where an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

pours into the

Coachella Valley , map_image = Wpdms shdrlfi020l coachella valley.jpg , map_caption = Coachella Valley , location = California, United States , coordinates = , width = , boundaries = Salton Sea (southeast), Santa Rosa Mountains (southwest), San Jacin ...

. The temporary flows of Deep Canyon Creek seldom reach the alluvial fan and never meet

Salton Sea The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gul ...

. Because the canyon lies in a

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is ca ...

the climate is very arid and summertime temperatures reach . The upper Sonoran, lower Sonoran, and transitional

life zone The life zone concept was developed by C. Hart Merriam in 1889 as a means of describing areas with similar plant and animal communities. Merriam observed that the changes in these communities with an increase in latitude at a constant elevation ar ...

s are represented across this expanse. The flora includes creosote bushes, palo verde trees, and

ocotillo ''Fouquieria splendens'' (commonly known as ocotillo (), but also referred to as buggywhip, coachwhip, candlewood, slimwood, desert coral, Jacob's staff, Jacob cactus, and vine cactus) is a plant indigenous to the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan ...

. In places where water collects California fan palms and

bighorn sheep The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subsp ...

can be found. The first scientific expedition to the site was carried out in 1908 by Harry Swarth and

Joseph Grinnell Joseph Grinnell (February 27, 1877 – May 29, 1939) was an American field biologist and zoologist. He made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as ...

on behalf of

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

Museum of Vertebrate Zoology The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908. Alexander recommended zoologist Joseph Grinnell as museum director, ...

. Philip L. Boyd, a Regent of the University of California, leased the land for the

Living Desert Zoo and Gardens The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, formerly the Living Desert Museum, is a non-profit zoo and desert botanical garden located in Palm Desert, Riverside County, California, United States. The Living Desert is home to over 500 animals representing ...

and invited faculty of the newly opened

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban dist ...

to use the property for research. When the need for a non-public range became evident, Boyd donated the initial of land in Deep Canyon in 1958 as well as the funding to spur the University to acquire other contiguous properties. Construction began on the first hard facilities on site in 1961 and commemoration of the site with a bronze plaque took place on March 7, 1970 naming the center after Boyd. The first director of the research center was Irwin P. Ting. As of 2015 the director of the research center is Dr. Chris Tracy. The cactus ''

Opuntia acanthocarpa ''Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa'', commonly referred to as buckhorn cholla, is a cholla native to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado Deserts of North America. Along with ''Cylindropuntia bigelovii ''Cylindropuntia bigelovii'', the teddy-bear ...

'' has been studied at Agave Hill. In 2010 a study of 35 species of Mutillid wasps revealed four new species, two of which (''Odontophotopsis hammetti'' and ''Sphaeropthalma mankelli'') are only known to exist at the center. The center was the study ground for a 2013

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

grant to develop a new method for identifying species of

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant- parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a bro ...

s. A series of five books (''Mammals of Deep Canyon'' in 1968, ''Ants of Deep Canyon'' in 1973, ''Deep Canyon, a Desert Wilderness for Science'' in 1976, ''Birds of Deep Canyon'' in 1979, and ''Birds of Southern California's Deep Canyon'' in 1983) discuss the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...

of the area. Because of the remoteness of Deep Canyon, it hosts one of the 300 worldwide

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass ( silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair Hair is a protein filament that grows ...

infrasound Infrasound, sometimes referred to as low status sound, describes sound waves with a frequency below the lower limit of human audibility (generally 20 Hz). Hearing becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency decreases, so for humans to perce ...

sensors (OFIS) used to implement the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nati ...

Notes

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * *

Background

Notes

References

Further reading