Nevada's Hidden Water

With an average of less than 10 inches of rainfall each year, Nevada is the nation’s driest state. However, underground water supplements rainfall to enable incredible biodiversity in Nevada. The state has the 11th highest biodiversity in the U.S. with more than 350 species found nowhere else in the world.

Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems

The precious underground water resources in The Silver State are increasingly being tapped, with about half of Nevada’s 256 administrative groundwater basins being over-appropriated. Because surface water is scarce, most of Nevada’s native species live in groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs), which are natural communities that rely on groundwater for all or part of their water needs. GDEs provide important resources for plants and animals and are critical sources of drinking water, recreation and economic benefit for Nevada’s people.

TNC recently released the Indicators of Groundwater-Dependent Ecosystems (iGDEs) database, a publicly available electronic resource that reveals critical sources of water hidden below the soil surface in Nevada. 

The new, mobile-friendly database is a visual and spatial illustration of the state’s GDEs, their various types, their distinctive features, and species dependent on them. Users can click to see examples of GDEs and species, learn definitions of various terms and more. Presented through an interactive, user-friendly story map, the database is intended to provide Nevadans with in-depth, relevant, easy-to-understand facts about where the state’s groundwater dependent ecosystems are located and why they’re important.