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Amargosa Desert

Ecoregion in Great Basin in CA, NV

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The Amargosa Desert ecoregion is an arid, internally drained basin. It has greater temperature extremes and less Sonoran influence than the Eastern Mojave Basins (14a). This is due in part to the Spring Mountains that border Ecoregion 14g on the east and block summer rainfall. In the Amargosa Desert, rainfall occurs mostly between October and April, with annual amounts of about 4–6 inches in California. Creosotebush and white bursage predominate in this ecoregion as they do in Ecoregion 14a, but there is less diversity of shrub species in Ecoregion 14g. The Amargosa Valley is a discharge point for an underground water system. Where the Amargosa River surfaces, it creates important wetland oases in the Mojave. A larger, but isolated, system of seeps and springs at Ash Meadows in Nevada is a wetland area of international importance, providing habitats for a large number of endemic plants and animals. In California, the ecoregion includes part of the Amargosa Valley, as well as the Stewart, Chicago, Pahrump, California, and Mesquite Valleys.

— EPA

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