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ISSUE 1, 1985 ENDANGERED AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS IN NORTH AMERICAN DESERTS Committee and may not always agree with those given for a taxon included in IUCN red data books. Additionally, we include extinct fishes in our ecosystem accounts and list of vanishing fishes. Inclusions of the extinct taxa complete the accounts of the native fauna and emphasize the severity of man's impact on many of these ecosystems. LIST OF RARE DESERT FISHES.-We record 182 fishes of concern from North American deserts (Table 1). These fishes represent 12 families, with cyprinids being by far the most numerous (84 fishes, 46%). All of these fishes have either exhibited recent declines in distribution and abun- dance, or are historically rare. Forty-six of them are endangered, 52 are vulnerable, 46 are rare, 20 are indeter- minate but suspected of belonging to one of the three pre- vious categories, and 18 are recently extinct. Fifty-two (29%) of the fishes in our list are undescribed, attesting to the poorly-known nature of the North American desert ich thyofauna. ECOSYSTEM ACCOUNTS.-From our analysis,. the North American desert region includes 15 aquatic ecosystems that provide habitat for four or more of the fishes of concern listed in Table 1. These ecosystems are: Cuatro Cienegas (Coahuila), Gila River (New Mexico, Arizona and Sonora), Rio Grande (New Mexico, Texas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas), Pecos River (New Mexico( and Texas), Railroad Valley (Nevada), Colorado River (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Baja California del Norte and Sonora), Green River (Wyom- ing, Colorado and Utah), Pahranagat Valley (Nevada), Parras Valley (Coahuila), La Media Luna (San Luis Potosi), Ash Meadows (Nevada), Upper White River (Nevada), Moapa River (Nevada), Rio Yaqui (Arizona, Chihuahua and Sonora), and Upper Klamath Basin (Oregon and California) (Fig. 1). CUATRO CIENEGAS, COAHUILA PLATE I. Laguna Escobeda, Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila. This laguna, which is more than 30 in across and nearly 8 in in depth, provides habitat for Cyprinodon bifasciatus. Photograph taken January 1980 by Dean A. Hendrickson.