Vegetation Zones of the Southwest - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 143

FIGURE 7.8
Desert palm ( W. filifera) ) occurs in discrete palm oases in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts, in this case in the Kofa
Mountains of southwestern Arizona.
7.3.4 The Great Basin Desert
To the north of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts lies the Great Basin Desert. 11 This vast
desert extends through Nevada and Utah to southern Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.
Most of the Great Basin Desert has no drainage to the sea, resulting in a landscape with
basins existing between mountain ranges. Some basins are playas like those found in the
Chihuahuan and Mojave Deserts that contain water following spring runoff but which
are dry during the summer. Other basins contain shallow permanent salt lakes, the most
famous of which is the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Gradients in soil conditions from the center
of these basins outward significantly influence vegetation patterns across the landscape.
Compared to the other deserts, the Great Basin Desert is very cold in the winter, and
growth of plants is limited to the summer months. Rainfall occurs primarily during the win-
ter, although summer thunderstorms occur in the mountains. Dominant plants in this des-
ert include sagebrush ( Artemisia spp.), shadscale ( Atriplex spp.), and greasewood ( Sarcobatus
vermiculatus ). Big sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata ) is sensitive to salt accumulation in the soil