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Vegetation Around Las Vegas
Vegetation Around Las Vegas
Creosote-Bursage Flats, Mojave Desert Scrub, Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands, Yellow Pine Forests, Pine-Fir Forests, Subalpine Forests, and Alpine Tundra ... the desert is not a wasteland!
North American Deserts

North American Deserts

The North American Deserts present a diverse assemblage of plants and animals that reflect regional differences in elevation, temperature, and rainfall. There are four major deserts in North America (with many subdivisions), each with a distinctive character. From northwest to southeast, these deserts are the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts. Las Vegas is located in the northeastern portion of the Mojave Desert, a region influenced by the Sonoran Desert to the southeast and the Great Basin Desert to the north. The Chihuahuan desert, primarily a Mexican desert, lies far to the southeast and does not influence the Las Vegas region.

Link to images and more information on the four North American Deserts.

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Life Zones
Link to larger image and more information about Life Zones.

Life Zones and the Vegetation Around Las Vegas

Early ecologists recognized that vegetation changes in predictable ways as we move from hot, lower-elevation sites to cool, higher-elevation sites. They developed the Concept of Life Zones, and although modern ecologists consider it simplistic, these pioneering efforts are useful if we allow the idea of an overall pattern imposed on a local mosaic of weather patterns, soils, plants, and animals. In the Las Vegas Area, the six Life Zones are represented by seven major vegetation associations.

 

Life Zones

Las Vegas Area Habitat Types

1 Lower Sonoran (dry deserts) Creosote-Bursage Flats
2 Upper Sonoran (brushy scrub) Mojave Desert Scrub
Shadscale Scrub
2 Upper Sonoran (pinyon-juniper) Pinyon-Juniper Woodland
3 Transition (yellow pine forests) Yellow Pine Forest
4 Canadian (pine-fir forests) Pine-Fir Forest
5 Hudsonian (subalpine forests) Bristlecone Pine Forest
6 Arctic (tundra above timberline) Alpine Tundra
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All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate.
copyright; Last updated 201207

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