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Riparian zones are important landscape features with elongate shapes and high edge-to-area ratios. They are open ecosystems with large energy, nutrient, and biotic interchange with adjacent aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In the arid and semiarid West, riparian zones typically occur as islands of mesophytic and hydrophytic vegetation that support diverse fauna and flora that are often quite different from those in the adjacent terrestrial and aquatic systems. Riparian zones are arguably the ultimate expression of the ecotonal concept.

A comparison of three high elevation sagebrush areas illustrates a few of the differences that occur in vegetation structure and bird communities at the riparian-upland interface. Vegetation and bird community measures in the riparian zone varied from 200 to 1,098 percent of the values present in adjacent upland areas.