Natural Resources at Grand Canyon National Park

Cape Royal at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Michael Quinn

The Grand Canyon National Park encompasses 1.2 million acres in northern Arizona. It is bounded to the north by the Kaibab and Kanab plateaus, which comprise the North Rim, to the south by the Coconino Plateau, which forms the South Rim, to the east by Navajo Nation lands, and to the west by the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Initially set aside as a forest reserve in 1893, then designated a national monument in 1908, Grand Canyon NP was established in 1919, and enlarged in 1975. The park was established to preserve and protect the natural and cultural resources, ecological processes, and scenic, aesthetic, and scientific values of an area considered to be one of the natural wonders of the world.

Its horizontal strata reveal the geological history of the past 2 billion years, and within its boundaries are evidence of more than 10,000 years of human habitation. In 1979, Grand Canyon NP was named a World Heritage Site in 1979.

Grand Canyon NP is the most biologically diverse in the Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN), and encompasses 129 vegetation communities which cover 1750 species of plants. The great diversity of plant communities and ecosystems within Grand Canyon NP support a wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate wildlife, including 315 bird, 88 mammal, 50 reptile, 8 amphibian, 21 fish, and thousands of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate species.

Water resources within the Grand Canyon NP include 277 miles (445 km) of the Colorado River, 112 miles (181 km) of perennial streams, numerous lakes, tinajas, and springs and seeps. The air quality at Grand Canyon NP, which affects the quality of the visual scene, is some of the cleanest in the United States and has been designated a Class I area under the Clean Air Act.

Monitored Here

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• Aquatic macroinvertebrates
• Bird communities
• Climate
• Upland ecosystems
• Spring ecosystems
• Water quality

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Species Lists

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

Select a Park:

Grand Canyon National Park

Select a Species Category (optional):

All Amphibians Birds Fish Mammals Reptiles Vascular Plants

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Species attribute definitions

Search results will be displayed here.

Visit NPSpecies for more comprehensive information and advanced search capability. Have a suggestion or comment on this list? Let us know.

Life Zones

Grand Canyon has the largest elevation range of all units in the Southern Colorado Plateau Network, ranging from a low of 1,141 feet (348 m) at the Colorado River to a high of 9,177 feet (2,798 m) on the North Rim. The park includes three of the four North American deserts and spans five life zones: Warm Desert, Semi-Desert Grassland/Shrub Steppe, Pinyon-Juniper Woodland, Ponderosa Pine Forest and Mixed Conifer Forest. Annual precipitation also varies widely with elevation. Phantom Ranch, on the river, receives 9.3 inches (238 mm) while areas along the higher North Rim can receive in excess of 20 inches (>508 mm).

Climate Summary Chart

Charts are an effective way to summarize and graphically represent climate variables. The following chart is based on the diagrams developed for vegetation studies by Walter and Lieth in 1967. Visit our climate page for more information.

Reports & Publications

Inventory Reports

Inventories are point-in-time surveys that help us learn about the resources in our parks. Information obtained through the Southern Colorado Plateau Network’s inventories of park resources helped to establish a base level of data, which has served as a starting point for our natural resource monitoring.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3515 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Monitoring Reports

Our monitoring reports provide the most recent published findings from our field work.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3471 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Protocols

Protocols describe how we monitor. They include a descriptive narrative of what we monitor and why, our field methods, how we analyze and manage our data, and more. All of our protocols are peer reviewed.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 3280 (results presented are a subset). To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

Find additional documents on our Reports & Publications pages.

Links

Park Flora (SEINet)