Western Great Plains Saline Depression Wetland

Geology

Sometimes associated with the Tahoka Formation or the Ogallala Formation, but may occur over other substrates including Quaternary alluvium.

Landform

Somewhat circular basins, or sometimes forming linear bands adjacent to drainages.

Soils

High Lime, Salty Bottomland, and Wet Saline Ecological Sites.

Parent Description

Saline lakes and salty bottomlands often with salt encrusted surfaces and sometimes sparsely vegetated. Some of these lakes were thought to form from wind deflation and/or dissolution of subsurface strata and some have associated springs, with evaporation causing concentration of salts at the surface. Dominant species of the sites are often halophytic, or at least salt tolerant, including Sporobolus airoides (alkali sacaton), Distichlis spicata (saltgrass), Hordeum jubatum (foxtail barley), Sporobolus pyramidatus (whorled dropseed), Schoenoplectus spp. (bulrushes), Suaeda suffrutescens (desert seepweed), Allenrolfea occidentalis (pickle-weed), Salsola tragus (prickly Russian thistle), and Bassia scoparia (kochia). Woody species including Atriplex canescens (four-wing saltbush) and Prosopis glandulosa (honey mesquite) may also be present and sometimes develop significant cover. During periods of high rainfall and as one moves further from the salt encrusted surfaces into surrounding habitats, species composition becomes less dominated by halophytes with species such as Bothriochloa laguroides ssp. torreyana (silver bluestem), Sporobolus cryptandrus (sand dropseed), Aristida purpurea (purple threeawn), and Ziziphus obtusifolia (lotebush). Tamarix spp. (saltcedar) may be present to dominant.