The scientific baseline for the Mojave in one accessible volume. Geology and how the basins and ranges got there, climate and why so little rain arrives, soils and desert pavement and cryptobiotic crust, the plants from creosote clones thousands of years old to the Joshua tree, the animals and how each solves water, then the human history and the current pressures — grazing, off-road use, solar development, invasive grasses feeding fires the desert never evolved with. Written for the general reader and referenced well enough for anybody who wants the papers.
A Natural History of the Mojave Desert