Present-Day Environments and Climate Change - Mountains and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes - page 29

ELEVATION (m)

1000 2000 3000

Fig. 3.2. Different species of the same plant
genus are often found at higher or lower
elevations, indicating different adaptations to
the varying environmental conditions along
mountain slopes. note that some species have
broader environmental tolerances than others.

Pinus spp.
Whitebark pine
Lodgepole pine
Ponderosa pine
Pinyon pine
Limber pine
Artemisia spp.
Alpine sagewort
Mountain big sagebrush
Wyoming big sagebrush
Black sagebrush
Basin big sagebrush
Silver sagebrush
Salix spp.
Arctic willow
Planeleaf willow
Pacific willow
Coyote willow
Peachleaf willow
Elymus spp.
Scribner wildrye
Blue wildrye
Canada wildrye
Stipa spp.
Columbia needlegrass
Needle-and-thread
Green needlegrass
Poa spp.
Alpine bluegrass
Big bluegrass
Canby bluegrass
Sandberg bluegrass

3000 5000 7000

ELEVATION (feet)

9000 11000

Scattered throughout the Great Plains and inter-
mountain basins, and in the foothills of the mountains,
are topographic features best referred to as escarpments
or ridges. they are usually composed of erosion-resistant
sandstones and limestones (fig. 3.3). the vegetation is
distinctive, primarily because of a coarse, rocky sub-
strate with very little soil and because of drifting snow.
Shrublands dominated by mountain-mahogany, big
sagebrush, and skunkbush are common, as are wood-
lands characterized by juniper, limber pine, and pon-
derosa pine (see fig. 1.5).

Some of the more erodible sedimentary bedrocks,
such as shales and siltstones, lead to the formation of
classic badland topography (for example, Adobe town
southeast of Rock Springs, Gooseberry creek badlands
east of Meteetsee, Hell's Half Acre west of casper, the
Honeycomb Buttes northeast of Rock Springs, and the
Wind River badlands near Dubois). other topographic
features in the lowlands are sand dunes, arroyos (gul-
lies), buttes, playas, deflation hollows, mima mounds,
glacial moraines, hogback ridges, bajadas (alluvial and
colluvial fans), canyons, nivation hollows, and braided