Desert gallery forests collapse when groundwater pumping drops the water table
Along desert rivers, cottonwoods, willows, and mesquite form narrow green galleries whose roots tap shallow alluvial aquifers. Lower the water table beyond root reach and canopy dieback races through the stand.
Birds, mammals, and amphibians that depend on that shade and insect bloom lose an oasis chain across an otherwise hostile basin. Surface flow may still appear seasonally while the living corridor is already dead.
In drylands, trees are hydrology made visible. Gallery forest decline is often the first green signal that an aquifer has been overdrawn.
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