Books in the Cuatro Cienegas Basin: An Endangered Hyperdiverse Oasis series

Astrobiology not only investigates how early life took hold of our planet but also life on other planets - both in our Solar System and beyond - and their potential for habitability.

The Chihuahuan desert is the warmest in North America, and has a complex geologic, climatic and biogeographical history, which affects today's distribution of vegetation and plants and generates complex phylogeographic patterns.The high number of endemic species reflects this complex set of traits.

This volume investigates the contemporary fauna that inhabit the Cuatro Cienegas Basin. The Cuatro Cienegas Valley is a unique oasis in the south-central region of the State of Coahuila, part of the Sonoran Desert, in Mexico.

The aim of this first book is to introduce the readers of the series to why Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB) is so unique, starting with the reason why astrobiologists became interested in this oasis in the first place;

Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are three of the most important elements used to build living beings, and their uptake from the environment is consequently essential for all organisms.

The Chihuahuan desert is the warmest in North America, and has a complex geologic, climatic and biogeographical history, which affects today's distribution of vegetation and plants and generates complex phylogeographic patterns.The high number of endemic species reflects this complex set of traits.