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Knowledge about the biodiversity of Baja California has been obtained mainly from natural protected areas (NPAs), while some unprotected natural areas have been poorly studied. The Sierra Cucapá in the northeast of the peninsula is one example. The objectives of this study are 1) to integrate existing knowledge of bird, mammal, and reptile diversity in Cucapá from public databases, citizen science platforms, and information generated from fieldwork, 2) to identify the spatial distribution of records in the study area, 3) to compare the composition of vertebrate species of Cucapá with that of NPAs of northern part of the peninsula, and 4) to assess the biological conservation value of Cucapá. We obtained records of 150 species of native vertebrates (102 birds, 34 mammals, and 14 reptiles) of which 10 species of birds, four mammals, and seven reptiles are included in a risk extinction category. The different sources of information contributed in a complementary way to the species inventories. Large areas in western and northern Cucapá lack records. The total difference in species composition between Cucapá and nearby NPAs ranged between 58 and 69% for birds, 61 and 79% for mammals, and 69 and 87% for reptiles. The species richness of Cucapá, its particular species composition, the presence of species in risk extinction categories, and the number and size of unexplored areas indicate that this area represents an opportunity for biological conservation in the northern part of the Peninsula. This work provides compelling data for the protection of Cucapá. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mexicali valley is an important region in the production of meat and milk of bovine origin with acceptance in other countries, mainly the United States of America, Japan and Korea. For this reason, quality forage is required to feed cattle such as triticale, used in various areas of Mexico; however, in the Mexicali valley, there is no information on agronomic behavior. The objective of this study was to evaluate the dry biomass and grain yield of 10 varieties of triticale in the 2014- 2015 and 2015-2016 A-W cycles, in the Mexicali valley. The experimental design was randomized complete blocks with three replications. 10 varieties of triticale of different growth types were evaluated, 4 spring, 2 facultative, 4 winter and oats. In the first evaluation cycle, the highest total biomass production corresponded to the variety AN105 and AN125 with 10.7 and 10.5 t ha-1, in grain yield the varieties AN105, AN38, AN125, AN31B, ABT and Eronga produced from 7.3 to 5.4 t ha-1. For the second cycle, the superior varieties in total biomass were AN31B, ABT, AN38, AN34, AN31P and Eronga with 6 to 4.9 t ha-1 and in grain yield AN38, AN123, Eronga and AN125 from 4.1 to 3.1 t ha-1. In conclusion, the winter varieties AN31B and AN34 showed potential for the production of total biomass, the facultative variety AN38 and the spring varieties AN125 and Eronga, showed superiority in grain yield in the two evaluation cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]