The curves would not be completely independent. Every organism will have a tolerated temperature range variations may be critical for life cycle cues such as emergance of aquatic insects or gonadal development in fish. Warm days and cool nights are not equal to constant intermediate temperature. Water Most obvious of all limiting factors in this climate. Vegetational zones encountered as one goes uphill from Chico are largely a result of changing water availability with changing elevation.
Water can also be unavailable when frozen to ice.
Salinity may control the availability of both water and nutrients to organisms. Desert salt flats are usually wet just under the salt crust. However no plants can grow there because of the high osmotic pressure. Plants would lose water to the soil by osmosis. Macronutrients - needed in large quantities as building blocks Micronutrients generally needed in trace amounts as cofactors for enzymatic reactions.