Design and construction of solar energy conversion facilities in the arid Southwest will create a form of perturbation which is new to this region. Farming, grazing, industrialization, and urbanization are established forms of perturbation in the Southwest. Development of large solar powered electrical systems will add to the ecological disruption of a desert area that is already near the critical edge of an environmental shift. Although the Southwest has been dominated by deserts for centuries and the ecosystems appear stable, many areas have been shown to have been modified within a short time period due to man’s activities (Martin 1963, Hastings and Turner 1965). If the solar energy conversion systems are to be developed on a large scale basis in the Southwest, then it is important that the ecological disruption created by these systems be understood. It should be emphasized that the ecological changes caused by the solar conversion systems are not necessarily deleterious and might be used in an economically beneficial fashion. There are many types of solar conversion systems from thermal powered solar concentrating systems to photovoltaic dispersed power systems. Considering the wide variety of these systems and the great diversity within the Southwest desert ecosystems, the potential for different types of ecological impacts is unlimited. This project was designed to review the potential ecological sensitivity of the desert and correlate the types of environments to be created by the various solar conversion systems with the desert variables. Through developing theoretical responses of the desert ecosystem to perturbations similar to solar conversion facility construction and operation, and proposing hypotheses that, if tested, will show the desert ecosystem response, a research program can be established that will enable prediction of ecological impacts of solar conversion systems on the desert ecosystem. This report in a stepwise fashion attempts to establish a properly designed research program to accomplish this objective.
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