Presents the approach used by the researchers to study and understand riparian areas in the Great Basin region of Nevada. It summarizes the current state of knowledge about those areas and provides insights into the use of the information generated by the project for the restoration and management of riparian ecosystems. Because semi-arid ecosystems like the Great Basin are highly sensitive to climate change, the study considered how key processes are affected by past and present climate. It also examined the processes over a continuum of temporal and spatial scales.