These areas are some of the most valuable habitat because of the limited water availability in such harsh desert climates. Salt cedar has several adaptive advantages that allow them to out compete native riparian vegetation for this valuable habitat, with a limiting factor being water Salt cedar is a facultative phreatophyte, this means that they do not need to constantly be in the water table for survival. Unlike salt cedar, native vegetation are obligate phreatophytes, which means they have to be rooted in the water table in order to survive. Another advantage salt cedar has over native vegetation is that it is capable of living in highly saline soils. This is helpful for salt cedar because native vegetation can not survive in such conditions.
Salt cedar can also produce several hundred thousand seeds in a single growing season.
Salt cedar plants are also vigorous sprouters and can take advantage of natural disasters. Because of these competitive advantages salt cedar is causing serious ecological problems in the southwest. Salt cedar has been known to use high amounts of water leading to a high rate of evapotranspiration. They also drop salt saturated leaves on the ground causing highly saline soils in which native vegetation can not grow. Salt cedar is also known to change flow rates, river channels, and increase sedimentation that can lead to the widening and narrowing of floodplains.