Forrest Shreve worked at the Desert Laboratory from 1908 until 1940, and was the director of the Desert Laboratory from 1925 until 1940. He studied individual climatic tolerances and distributional limits of various plant species, as well as the demography of little-leaf paloverde and saguaro. Shreve also researched the episodic establishment of desert perennials, and the importance of physical environment to seedling survival. In 1928 and again in 1936, Shreve remapped perennial plants on the permanent plots established by Volney Spalding, and he added two additional plots by 1928. His work also included the delineation and description of the Sonoran Desert and its six subdivisions, and of the four North American deserts. Forrest Shreve was a founding member and president of the Ecological Society of America, as well as an editor of Plant World (later Ecology).
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