Wyoming Basin shrub steppe

Wyoming Basin shrub steppe
Ephemeral wetland in the Red Desert of south-central Wyoming
Ecology
Biome	Deserts and xeric shrublands
Borders	South Central Rockies forests Colorado Rockies forests Northern short grasslands Wasatch and Uinta montane forests Colorado Plateau shrublands Great Basin shrub steppe
Bird species	189
Mammal species	83
Geography
Country	United States
States	Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Montana
Conservation
Habitat loss	4.5412%
Protected	42.58%

The Wyoming Basin shrub steppe ecoregion, within the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, is a shrub steppe in the northwestern United States.

This ecoregion is located almost entirely within the western and central portions of the US state of Wyoming, but does extend minimally into southeastern Idaho, south-central Montana, north-central Utah and northwestern Colorado. It is located within multiple high altitude intermontane basins largely surrounded by various subranges of the Rocky Mountains. These basins are in the rain shadow of the North American Cordillera and as such have an arid to semi-arid climate with long, very cold winters and short, hot summers.

The dominant vegetation of this ecoregion is sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), often associated with various Agropyron species or fescue grass. At its upper altitudinal limit, the shrub steppe grades into the bordering mountain ecoregions, namely the South Central Rockies forests, the Colorado Rockies forests and the Wasatch and Uinta montane forests. Ecotones between the shrub steppe and mountain forests may occur as high as 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in some areas. Between mountain ranges, this ecoregion grades into the Northern short grasslands to the east and in a very small portion to the north, the Colorado Plateau shrublands to the south, and the Great Basin shrub steppe in a very small portion in the far west.