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SCALE 1:1,150 000

100 0 100 MILES

100 0 100 KILOMETERS

ALBERS EQUAL AREA PROJECTION; STANDARD PARALLELS 291⁄2° N and 451⁄2° N

! Populated Place

Major Roadway:

State Boundary

Waterbody (includes lakes, reservoirs, swamps and marshes)

Dry Waterbody

Intermittent Waterbody

Phreatophytic Land Cover

Complete coverage of land cover classes with dominant phreatophytic vegetation. 

Phreatophytic coverage is derived from Shrubmap, California GAP, and Wyoming 

GAP datasets and equals approximately 31 million acres.

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Interstate

LAND COVER CLASS TYPES

Waterbody Classes

Vegetated Classes

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Great Basin Ecoregion Boundary

Study area merges the "Northern Basin and Range" and "Central Basin and Range" 

Level III Ecoregions established by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NAMED WATERBODY FEATURES

1 Lake Simtustus

2 Lake Billy Chinook

3 Prineville Reservoir

4 Paulina Marsh

5 Silver Lake

6 Thompson Reservoir

7 Summer Lake

8 Lake Abert

9 Drews Reservoir

10 Warner Valley Lakes and Wetlands

11 Flook Lake

12 Foster Lake

13 Harney Lake

14 Malheur Lake

15 Alvord Lake

16 Coyote Lake

17 Warm Springs Reservoir

18 Lake Owyhee

19 Antelope Reservoir

20 Lake Lowell

21 C. J. Strike Reservoir

22 Lake Walcott

23 American Falls Reservoir

24 Blackfoot Reservoir

25 Big Sage Reservoir

26 Massacre Lake

27 Moon Lake

28 Eagle Lake

29 Winnemucca Lake

30 Stampede Reservoir

31 Washoe Lake

32 Lahontan Reservoir

33 Sheckler Reservoir

34 Carson Lake

35 Toulon & Humboldt lakes

36 Rye Patch Reservoir

37 Humboldt Salt Marsh

38 Newark Lake

39 Ruby Lake

40 Franklin Lake

41 Snow Water Lake

42 Goshute Lake

43 Cutler Reservoir

44 Woodruff Narrows Reservoir

45 Sevier Bridge Reservoir

46 Bridgeport Reservoir

47 Walker Lake

48 Lake Crowley

49 Columbus Salt Marsh

50 Mud Lake

51 Antelope Lake

52 Groom Lake

53 Desert Lake

54 Delamar Lake

55 Pine Valley Hardpan

56 Wah Wah Valley Hardpan

57 Minersville Reservoir

58 Piute Reservoir

59 Little Salt Lake

60 Panguitch Lake

Phreatophytic Land-Cover Map of the Northern and Central Great Basin Ecoregion:

California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Wyoming

By

Amy M. Mathie, Toby L. Welborn, David D. Susong, and Mary L. Tumbusch

2011

Phreatophytic land cover of the Great Basin ecoregion was derived by assessing 

vegetation species composition against geomorphology, elevation, hydrology, 

and the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Soil Survey Geographic 

(SSURGO) data. The USGS 2005 Shrub Map product, which depicts a distribution of sagebrush and associated vegetation in the Columbia Basin and Southwestern Regions at a 1:100,000 scale (http://sagemap.wr.usgs.gov), was utilized 

as the main source for the vegetation land cover in the spatial analysis process. 

Additional sources of vegetation land cover data were obtained from California 

GAP (http://www.biogeog.ucsb.edu/projects/gap/gap_home.html) and Wyoming 

GAP (http://www.sdvc.uwyo.edu/wbn/gap.html). The phreatophytic land cover 

displayed in this product retains the same 30 m2 pixel resolution as Shrub Map. 

Data used in analysis from California GAP (90 m2 pixels) and Wyoming GAP 

(100 m2 pixels) were resampled to the resolution of Shrub Map based on the 

large footprint of that effort in relation to the overall study area. See accompanying pamphlet for more information on methodology and discussion of results.

Land-cover classes included in analysis (listed by source):

Shrub Map Land-cover

 Inter-Mountain Basins Greasewood Wash

 North American Warm Desert Wash

 Inter-Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Shrubland

 Sonora-Mojave Desert Mixed Salt Desert Shrub

 Inter-Mountain Basins Greasewood Flat

 North American Warm Desert Riparian Mesquite Bosque

 North American Arid West Emergent Marsh

 Mediterranean Californian Alkali Marsh

 Temperate Pacific Freshwater Emergent Marsh

 Riparian

 Invasive Southwest Riparian Woodland Shrubland

California GAP Land-cover

 Great Basin Mixed Scrub

 Big Sagebrush Scrub

 Rabbitbrush Scrub

 Desert Greasewood Scrub

 Alkali Meadow

 Great Basin Wet Meadow

 Modoc-Great Basin Cottonwood-Willow Riparian Forest

 Modoc-Great Basin Riparian Scrub

 Wyoming GAP Land-cover

Wyoming Big Sagebrush

 Greasewood Fans and Flats

 Forest-dominated Riparian

 Shrub-dominated Riparian

Produced as part of the Integrated Landscape 

Monitoring (ILM) Science Thrust Great Basin Project

Manuscript approved for publication August 9, 2011

Image base from the North America Shaded Relief data 

derived from the GTOPO30 elevation data. GTOPO30 is a 

global digital elevation model (DEM) with a horizontal grid 

spacing of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 km). GTOPO30 

was developed through a collaborative effort led by staff at 

the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) 

Center. North America Shaded Relief data is also currently 

available at http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html.

Geomorphic features were identified from a landform data set created by the 

USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (Denver, CO), which 

utilizes the MoRAP method of automated landform extraction from elevation 

data (Cress and others, 2009).

Hydrographic, transportation, State boundary, and populated places data 

displayed on map available at http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html.

Image base from the North America Shaded Relief data derived from the 

GTOPO30 elevation data. GTOPO30 is a global digital elevation model (DEM) 

with a horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 km). 

GTOPO30 was developed through a collaborative effort led by staff at the 

USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. North 

America Shaded Relief data is also currently available at 

http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html.

Other information sources:

Board on Geographic Names, 1995, Geographic Names Information System: 

U.S. Geological Survey, available at http://geonames.usgs.gov/.

Carman, R.L., 1993, Measurement of evapotranspiration in phreatophyte areas, 

Smith Creek Valley and Carson Desert, west-central Nevada, 1983: U.S. 

Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 89–4118, available at http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/wri/wri894118.

Czarnecki, J.B., and Stannard, D.I., 1997, Geohydrology and evapotranspiration 

at Franklin Lake playa, Inyo County, California, with a section on Estimating evapotranspiration using the energy-budget eddy-correlation technique: 

U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 2377, available at 

http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/wsp/wsp2377.

Munz, P.A., and Keck, D.D., 1968, A California flora: Berkeley, CA, University 

of California Press, 1,681 p.

Nichols, W.D., 2000, Regional ground-water evapotranspiration and groundwater budgets, Great Basin, Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional 

Paper 1628, available at http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/pp/pp1628.

Robinson, T.W., 1958, Phreatophytes: U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply 

Paper 1423, available at http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/wsp/wsp1423.

Robinson, T.W., and Waananen, A.O., 1970, Evapotranspiration by woody 

phreatophytes in the Humboldt River valley near Winnemucca, Nevada, 

with a section on Soil-moisture determinations: U.S. Geological Survey 

Professional Paper 491–D, available at 

http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/pp/pp491D.

Times Groups, Ltd., 1999, The Times Atlas of the World (10th comp. ed.): New 

York, NY, Crown Publishers, plates 99 and 107.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2008, Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) 

Database: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, accessed July 2008, at http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov.

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3169

Pamphlet accompanies map

Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not 

imply endorsement by the U.S. Government

This map was printed on an electronic plotter directly from digital files. Dimensional calibration may vary 

between electronic plotters and between X and Y directions on the same plotter, and paper may change 

size due to atmospheric conditions; therefore, scale and proportions may not be true on plots of this map.

Digital files available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3169/

Suggested Citation: Mathie, A.M., Welborn, T.L., Susong, D.D., and Tumbusch, M.L., 2011, Phreatophytic 

Land-Cover Map of the Northern and Central Great Basin Ecoregion: California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, 

Oregon, and Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3169, scale 1:1,150,000, 10 p., 

[http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3169/].

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EXPLANATION

Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study 

Boundary

Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study 

Potential Areas of Groundwater Discharge

Inter-Mountain Basins Greasewood Wash

North American Warm Desert Wash

Inter-Mountain Basins Big Sagebrush Shrubland

Inter-Mountain Basins Greasewood Flat

North American Arid West Emergent Marsh

Riparian

Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study (BARCASS) potential areas 

of groundwater discharge from Smith and others, 2007. Great Basin study area 

from Omnerick, 1987. Shaded-relief base from GTOPO30 data sets from the U.S. 

Geological Survey EROS Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (EDC 

DACC), 1996. Albers Equal-Area Conic projection, North American Datum of 

1983. Standard parallels 25°30’00’’ and 45°30’00’’, central meridian, 96°00’00’’ 

W, latitude of origin 23°00’00’’

Figure 2. Areal comparison between Great Basin Integrated Management Phreatophyte Map and Basin 

and Range Carbonate Aquifer System Study Potential Areas of Ground Water Discharge Nevada and Utah. 

For more detail, enlarge view.

115°W

116°W

114°W

39°N

39°N

38°N

40°N

40°N

Butte

Valley

Cave

Valley

Jakes

Valley

Lake

Valley

Long

Valley

Newark

Valley

Spring

Valley Steptoe

Valley

Tippett

Valley

White

River

Valley

Little

Smoky

Valley

Snake

Valley

0 25 50

0 25 50 100 Kilometers

100 Miles

NV

UT

AZ

OR

ID

CA

MT

WY

Approximate

area of figure 2