The Jornada Basin Experimental Range (JER) covers 783km2 in the La Jornada del Muerto plain of the Northen Chihuhua Desert and is located 20km of Las Cruses, NM. The region has witnessed extensive grazing of livestocks, which is coincidental with large-scale grassland detoriation and transition to shrubland begining in the 1800s. The JER was established in 1912 to investigate the rangeland changes and has since become the central location for understanding dryland ecology. The flux tower monitors CO2 and H2O dynamics in Red Lake Playa, a large playa in the watershed of the San Andreas Mountain. Wetlands such as prairie potholes, vernal pools, and playas are both ecologically and economically important systems in North America. Playas are ephemerically flooded, depositional landforms located in topographic low areas of hydrologically closed dryland catchments. There are two main types of Playas, as defined by their primary source of floodwater:(a) Surface water and (b) groundwater playas. Surface water playas, such as Red Lake Playa, are flooded through precipitation and surface run-on from upland areas of their catchment and have the potential to be areas of groundwater recharge. The key concept of understanding how nutrients and water redistribution processes control the ecological functioning of drylands is the connectivity of ecosystem patches. Winds and water driven erosional or depositional processes occur at multiple scales in dryalnds, to shape a mosaic of high and low vegetation cover patches. These patches serve as sinks and sources of organic matter, soil particles, and plant propagules. The differential abiotic and biotic structure of these patches affects community structure and the functioning of ecosystems. In closed basin systems, surface water runoffs from uplands can lead to gains for lowland ecoystems like playas and potentially influence biogeochemical processes such as primary productivity.