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Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs

Abstract

This report further describes the distribution and ecological characteristics of the natural vegetation at the Mojave Desert-Great Basin Desert interface. The region studied is one of extraordinary biological interest because of its geographic location straddling the boundaries of two large deserts of the western United States, and because of the kind and manner of its past land use (atmospheric and underground testing of nuclear devices). The present analysis determines the magnitude of variations in the phytosociological structure in this region and evaluates some relationships between its vegetation and environment. Vegetation and soils were sampled in 66 stands representing many possible physiographic variations. Relative density and relative coverage were determined for each perennial species and summed to provide an estimate of its importance value (I.V.). Importance values were used to ordinate stands to provide a synthesis of the phytosociological data and to portray the compositional relationships of species. The results of this study indicate that the area is dominated by several interrelated vegetational groupings. Correlations between the vegetational groups and the different environmental variables indicate that the distributional pattern of the vegetation is controlled largely by soil physical properties, salinity, and fertility levels.

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