Great Basin Desert
The Great Basin Desert is the largest US desert[citation needed] and covers 190,000 square miles. It is bordered by the Sierra Nevada Range on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east, the Columbia Plateau to the north and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts to the south. The Great Basin Desert, unlike the Mojave or Sonora deserts, characteristically "lacks creosote bush" as defined by J. Robert Macey in a 1986 report distinguishing between "Great Basin scrub desert" and "creosote bush desert."[1] Rainfall within the Great Basin Desert region varies from seven to twelve inches per year. The Great Basin Desert includes several arid basins lacking Larrea tridentata (chaparral) such as the "Chalfant, Hammil, Benton, and Queen valleys," as well as all but the southeast portion of the Owens Valley. Conversely, the "Panamint, Saline, and Eureka valleys" have creosote bush, unlike the Deep Springs Valley which includes part of the Great Basin scrub desert.[1]
The Great Basin Desert is a cold desert caused by the rain shadow effect from the Sierra Nevada to the west.[2] The predominant flora are "continuous shadscale and…sagebrush."[3]
The ecotone demarcating the north of the Mojave Desert is the edge of creosote bush habitat and is also the south demarcation of the Great Basin shrub steppe and Central Basin and Range ecoregions.[1] The ecotone is established by elevation increase, temperature decrease at higher elevations, and rainfall (less rain shadow at higher latitudes).[1]
References
- ^ a b c d Macey, J. Robert (May 28, 1986). The Biogeography of a Herpetofaunal Transition Between the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 2011-11-22.
Banta & Tanner (1964) felt that the Great Basin Desert [sic] deserved recognition…and defined it…as the interior drainage lying between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. For the purpose of this study, I am defining the Great Basin Desert as the high elevation desert that lacks Creosote Bush.
--versus the region(s) with <10 in (250 mm) annual precipitation. NOTE: The term "Great Basin Desert" does not appear in the 1964 Great Basin report by Banta and Tanner:- Banta, Benjamin H.; Tanner, Benjamin H. Banta (June 11, 1964). "…Herpetological Studies in the Great Basin…" (Biostor.org viewer). The Great Basin Naturalist. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
- ^ National Park Service, Great Basin National Park
- ^ Trimble, Stephen (1999). The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin. ISBN 0-87417-343-4. Retrieved 2010-01-13.