An alkali sink is a salty basin land form. The term may also refer to a North American desert

vegetation type Vegetation classification is the process of classifying and mapping the vegetation over an area of the earth's surface. Vegetation classification is often performed by state based agencies as part of land use, resource and environmental manageme ...

(

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

) characteristic of that landform.Pam MacKay, Mojave Desert Wildflowers, 2nd Ed., p. 15-16 Rainwater drains to the basin and collects in areas where it cannot penetrate the soil due to a layer of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

caliche Caliche () is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt. It occurs worldwide, in aridisol and mollisol soil orders—generally in arid or semiarid regions ...

, producing a pond or lake. When the water evaporates, it leaves behind increasing amounts of salts in the soil. Plants that tolerate the extreme salt concentrations are known as

halophyte A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. Th ...

s. It is generally below the saltbrush scrub vegetation type, which is typified by less salt tolerant species than alkali sink types.

References

{{reflist Fluvial landforms Salt flats Salt flats of the United States Deserts and xeric shrublands Deserts and xeric shrublands in the United States . . Plant communities of California