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Christmas Bay (Texas)
Christmas Bay is a small bay located on the Texas Gulf Coast in Brazoria County, Texas, immediately southwest of West Bay, near the Galveston Bay system's southwest corner. It is a minor estuary, one of a series of estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas, and receives the discharge from Bastrop Bayou, along with the adjacent coastal watershed. The bay is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Follet's Island and connects with it through San Luis Pass and Cold Pass. Its minor extensions are Bastrop Bay to the north and Drum Bay to the southwest. The nearest city is Freeport, about to the southwest at the mouth of the Brazos River. The bay has a surface area of and features high water quality, vast oyster reefs, and surrounding salt marsh habitat. The area has not been significantly impacted by human activities. Much of its shoreline is protected within the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. History Approximately 18 thousand years ago, the coast of the Gulf of Mexico took ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both List of U.S. states and territories by area, area (after Alaska) and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Houston is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas and the List of United States cities by population, fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most pop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazos River
The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Roosevelt County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage basin. Being one of Texas' largest rivers,"Brazos River." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11 Aug. 2018. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Brazos-River/16291. Accessed 27 Nov. 2018. it is sometimes used to mark the boundary between East Texas and West Texas. The river is closely associated with Texas history, particularly the Austin settlement and Texas Revolution eras. Today major Texas institutions such as Texas Tech University, Baylor University, and Texas A&M University are located close to the river's basin, as are parts of metropolitan Houston. Geography The Brazos proper begins at the confluence of the Salt Fork and Double ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordgrass
''Spartina'' is a taxon of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Its species are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Europe, north-western and southern Africa, the Americas and the islands of the southern Atlantic Ocean; one or two species also occur on the western coast of North America and in freshwater habitats inland in the Americas. The highest species diversity is on the east coasts of North and South America, particularly Florida. They form large, often dense colonies, particularly on coastal salt marshes, and grow quickly. The species vary in size from 0.3–2 m tall. Many of the species will produce hybrids if they come into contact. Taxonomy In 2014, the taxon ''Spartina'' was subsumed into the genus ''Sporobolus'' and reassigned to the taxonomic status of section,Peterson, PM, et al (2014) A molecular phylogeny and new subgeneric classification of ''Sporo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterbird
A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabirds that inhabit marine environments. Some water birds (e.g. wading birds) are more terrestrial while others (e.g. waterfowls) are more aquatic, and their adaptations will vary depending on their environment. These adaptations include webbed feet, beaks, and legs adapted to feed in the water, and the ability to dive from the surface or the air to catch prey in water. The term ''aquatic bird'' is sometimes also used in this context. A related term that has a narrower meaning is waterfowl. Some piscivorous birds of prey, such as ospreys and sea eagles, hunt aquatic prey but do not stay in water for long and lives predominantly over dry land, and are not considered water birds. The term waterbird is also used in the context of conservation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quahog
The hard clam (''Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves that in the United States are frequently referred to simply as clams, as in the expression "clam digging". Older literature sources may use the systematic name ''Venus mercenaria''; this species is in the family Veneridae, the venus clams. Confusingly, the "ocean quahog" is a different species, ''Arctica islandica'', which, although superficially similar in shape, is in a different family of bivalves: it is rounder than the hard clam, usually has black periostracum, and there is no pallial sinus in the interior of the shell. Alternative names The hard clam has many alternative common names. It is also known as the Northern quahog, round clam, or chowder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nursery Habitat
In marine environments, a nursery habitat is a subset of all habitats where juveniles of a species occur, having a greater level of productivity per unit area than other juvenile habitats (Beck et al. 2001). Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass are typical nursery habitats for a range of marine species. Some species will use nonvegetated sites, such as the yellow-eyed mullet, blue sprat and flounder. Overview The nursery habitat hypothesis states that the contribution per unit area of a nursery habitat is greater than for other habitats used by juveniles for the species. Productivity may be measured by density, survival, growth and movement to adult habitat (Beck et al. 2001). There are two general models for the location of juvenile habitats within the total range for a species which reflect life history strategies of the species. These are the Classic Concept: Juveniles and Adults in separate habitats. Juveniles migrate to adult habitat. General Concept: overlap of juvenil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Gulf Coastal Grasslands
The Western Gulf coastal grasslands ( es, Pastizales costeros del Golfo Occidental) are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is known in Louisiana as the "Cajun Prairie", Texas as "Coastal Prairie," and as the Tamaulipan pastizal ( es, Pastizal Tamaulipeco) in Mexico. Setting The ecoregion covers an area of , extending along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico from southeastern Louisiana (west of the Mississippi Delta) through Texas and into the Mexican state of Tamaulipas as far as the Laguna Madre. Specific areas include a number of barrier islands, and the '' resacas'' or natural levees of the Laguna Madre. The coast is vulnerable to tropical storms that can seriously damage habitats. This ecosystem is edaphic in origin; the soils in this region are of a heavy clay that contributed to difficulty for woody species to establish, allowing grasses and herbaceous species to be more competitive. The grassy areas are broken up by m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galveston
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston, or Galvez' town, was named after 18th-century Spanish military and political leader Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez (1746–1786), who was born in Macharaviaya, Málaga, in the Kingdom of Spain. Galveston's first European settlements on the Galveston Island were built around 1816 by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury to help the fledgling empire of Mexico fight for independence from Spain, along with other colonies in the Western Hemisphere of the Americas in Central and South America in the 1810s and 1820s. The Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity Bay (Texas)
Trinity Bay is the northeast portion of Galveston Bay, bordered by Chambers and Harris counties in Texas, United States. The bay, approximately long, heads at the mouth of the Trinity River. Trinity Bay is separated from the main part of Galveston Bay by the San Jacinto River, part of the Houston Ship Channel. Trinity Bay fronts on the vast network of Chambers County marshes and prairie land. The Trinity Basin contributes 54% of the total bay system inflow for the Galveston Bay complex. Near the head of the bay sits the town of Anahuac. Closer to the San Jacinto river lies the community of Beach City. The city of Baytown also lies near the bay although it does not actually reach its shores. Some smaller communities hug the shores of the bay as well. Much of the area near the shore is semi-rural or undeveloped, particularly the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge The Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is a wildlife conservation area along the coast of Texas (USA), west o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Houston Ship Channel
The Houston Ship Channel, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the world. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an increasing volume of inland barge traffic. Overview The channel is a widened and deepened natural watercourse created by dredging Buffalo Bayou and Galveston Bay. The channel's upstream terminus lies about four miles east of downtown Houston, at the Turning Basin, with its downstream terminus at a gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. Major products, such as petrochemicals and Midwestern grain, are transported in bulk together with general cargo. The original watercourse for the channel, Buffalo Bayou, has its headwaters to the west of the city of Houston. The navigational head of the channel, the most upstream point to which general cargo ships can travel, is at Turning Basin in east Houston. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity River (Texas)
The Trinity River is a river, the longest with a watershed entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. It rises in extreme northern Texas, a few miles south of the Red River. The headwaters are separated by the high bluffs on the southern side of the Red River. Indigenous peoples call the northern sections ''Arkikosa'' and the parts closer to the coast ''Daycoa''. French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, in 1687, named it ''Riviere des canoës'' ("River of Canoes"). In 1690 Spanish explorer Alonso de León named the river ''"La Santísima Trinidad"'' ("the Most Holy Trinity"), in the Spanish Catholic practice of memorializing places by religious references. Course The Trinity River has four branches: the West Fork, the Clear Fork, the Elm Fork, and the East Fork. The West Fork Trinity River has its headwaters in Archer County. From there it flows southeast, through the man-made reservoirs Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain Lake, and eastward through Lake Worth and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
