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+. <br /> <br />VEGETATION <br />The Virgin River basin lies along the intersection of the Great <br />Basin desert to the north and the Mojave Desert to the south. _7he <br />Great Basin desert occurs between approximately 910 and 1,980 m, is <br />shrub and grass dominated and occurs as far. south as the Arizona <br />Strip. The Mojave Desert, considered a transition desert between <br />the more highly elevated, cooler Great Basin desert and the lower, <br />hotter Sonoran Desert, occurs to the south and west of Hurricane, <br />Utah through southern Nevada, and is dominated by shrubs. Elevations <br />above 1,820 m are dominated by pinyon-juniper and coniferous forests. <br />typical of those occurring throughout the Southwest (Armstrong 1969, <br />Lowe i9b4)(Figure 3). <br />The river, as it descends from the higher elevations, passes <br />through the following zonal vegetative communities: fir-pine, juniper- <br />pinyon, blackbrush and creosote bush. The stream channels, including <br />floodplains, and the dry washes support stream riparian and desert <br />riparian transzonai communities along elevation gradients passing <br />through the zonal communities (Bradley and Oeacon ]965).. The <br />riparian communities contain species not found in the surrounding <br />non-riparian areas but representatives from the zonal communities <br />are found mixed in along the floodplains or stream banks. <br />