The aquifer is composed of deposits from the ancestral Rio Grande and the size of its annual recharge follows fluctuations in weather and climate phenomena.

West of the river the Llano de Albuquerque contains only isolated mountains and volcanoes, sloping gradually up to the Rio Puerco.

[10] Modern communities in the hydrological basin[a] include, from north to south, Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Algodones, Bernalillo, Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, Isleta, Los Lunas, Belen and Bernardo.

[4] These sediments, assigned to the Santa Fe Group, accumulated in the basin between the middle Miocene and early Pliocene, from fifteen to one million years ago.

When this happened, the Albuquerque basin reversed its half-graben tilt from west to east, and now slopes down to the base of the newly formed Sandia Mountains.

Vegetation includes desert scrub and grassland in the lower levels, riparian woodland (bosque) along the Rio Grande, and woods on the mountain slopes.

[17] The Rio Grande, which flows from southwestern Colorado for 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) before entering the Gulf of Mexico, was classified in 1993 as one of North America's most endangered or imperiled rivers.

[19] The Spanish arrived in Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the 16th-17th centuries, and steadily expanded their presence, Albuquerque was founded as a trading and military outpost in 1706.

Within the stretch between these dams, the river passes three mainstream structures that divert water into 1,280 kilometres (800 mi) of levees, canals and drains in the section between Algodones and the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

[19] Over-exploitation caused a steady decline in irrigation due to "droughts, sedimentation, aggradation of the main channel, salinization, seepage and waterlogging".

[6] The MSGCD still maintains a large network of canals and irrigation systems that stretches from 30 miles (48 km) north of Albuquerque through the city down to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

With growing urbanization, the role of the MRGCD has gradually shifted from supporting agriculture to preserving the riverside ecology and helping to recharge the Albuquerque aquifer.

[26] Flora or vegetation surrounding the built portions of the city are typical of their desert southwestern and interior west setting, within the varied elevations and terrain.

Sandy soils include scrub and mesa vegetation such as sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia), fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens).

Arroyos contain desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) while breaks and the prominent volcanic escarpment include threeleaf sumac with less frequent stands of oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata), mariola (Parthenium incanum), and beebrush or oreganillo (Aloysia wrightii).

Isolated littleleaf sumac (Rhus microphylla) occurs on the hillsides above Taylor Ranch and at the Petroglyph National Monument Visitor's Center.

Isolated stands of creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) were reported by long-time residents on gravelly, desert pavement soils existing above arroyos and warm breaks, prior to urbanization in the Northeast Quadrant of Albuquerque.

[citation needed] Today only remnants of creosote bush scrub remain in similar soils in foothill areas of Kirtland Air Force Base according to "Biologic Surveys for the Sandia National Laboratories Coyote Canyon Test Complex – Kirtland Air Force Base Albuquerque, New Mexico (Marron and Associates, Inc., May 1994)",[28] then southward along sections of the western Manzano Foothills in Valencia County.

[29] Soaptree (Yucca elata) and broom dalea (Psorothamnus scoparius) are currently found or were once existing on sand hills and breaks on both sides of the Rio Grande Valley, roughly below the present-day locations of the Petroglyph Escarpment west of Coors Road and along Interstate 25 south of Sunport Boulevard.

wislizeni) and coyote willow (Salix exigua) is theorized to have been more savannah-like prior to replanting in the 1930s and upstream dams stifling the river's annual flood.

Discontinuous, small stands of , Arizona walnut (Juglans major), and velvet ash (Fraxinus velutina) occasionally occur.

The forest now has a large proportion of non-native species including Siberian elm, Russian olive, saltcedar, mulberries, Ailanthus, and ravenna grass.

At the east end of the city, the Sandia foothills receive about 50 percent more precipitation than most of the city, and with granitic, coarse soils, rock outcrops, and boulders dominant, they have a greater and different diversity of flora in the form of savanna and chaparral, dominated by lower and middle zones of New Mexico Mountains vegetation, with a slight orientation at lower elevations.

Dominant plants include shrub or piñon pine, desert live oak (Quercus turbinella), gray oak (Quercus grisea), hairy mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus breviflorus), oneseed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), piñon (Pinus edulis), threeleaf sumac (Rhus trilobata), Engelmann prickly pear (Opuntia engelmannii), juniper prickly pear (Opuntia hystricina var.

Other birds include the common raven, American crow, great-tailed grackle, Gambel's and scaled quail, several species of hummingbirds, house finch, pigeon, mourning dove, white wing and European collared doves (both recent appearances), curve-billed thrasher, pinyon jay, and Cooper's, Swainson's, and red-tail hawks.

Larger arthropods include the plains cicada, vinegaroon, desert centipede, white-lined sphynx (hummingbird moth), two-tailed swallowtail, fig beetle, New Mexico mantis, and harvester ant.

In the 1960s the City of Albuquerque began to extract large quantities of potable groundwater from wells drilled in the southeast and northeast heights.

The lower Santa Fe group was created by dune fields and small streams draining into playa lakes and mud flats.

Although a small part of the total, most of the potable water in the region comes from these later deposits, which lie within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of the eastern boundary of the basin.

"[32] In 2007-2008 the Houston-based Tecton Energy had obtained the mineral rights to about 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) owned by SunCal, and had been exploring for natural gas on the Southwest Mesa.