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Suisun Shrew
''Sorex ornatus sinuosus'', the Suisun shrew or Suisun ornate shrew, is a subspecies of the ornate shrew that occurs in the tidal marshes of the northern shores of San Pablo and Suisun bays (northern arms of the San Francisco Bay, as far east as Grizzly Island and as far west as the mouth of Sonoma Creek in the vicinity of Tubbs Island). Brown and Rudd redefined the western boundary of the range from a prior designation of the Petaluma River. The Suisun shrew has been designated as a Species of Concern by the U.S. government and a Mammalian Species of Special Concern by the state of California. Morphology ''Sorex ornatus sinuosus'' is a smallish rare subspecies of soricine shrew that is distinguished from other nearby and sympatric shrew taxa by having a darker pelage; its occurrence is strictly limited to tidal marshes near San Pablo and Suisun bays, which makes identification and differentiation straightforward. The body mass ranges from 4.5 to 6.8 grams, with a total len ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Grinnell
Joseph Grinnell (February 27, 1877 – May 29, 1939) was an American field biologist and zoologist. He made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as the Grinnell System. He served as the first director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley from the museum's inception in 1908 until his death. He edited '' The Condor'', a publication of the Cooper Ornithological Club, from 1906 to 1939, and authored many articles for scientific journals and ornithological magazines. He wrote several books, among them ''The Distribution of the Birds of California'' and ''Animal Life in the Yosemite''. He also developed and popularized the concept of the niche. Early years Joseph Grinnell was born February 27, 1877, the first of three children by his father Fordyce Grinnell MD and mother Sarah Elizabeth Pratt. Grinnell's father worked as the physician for the K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Cordgrass
''Sporobolus foliosus'' is a species of grass known by the common name California cordgrass. It was reclassified from ''Spartina foliosa'' after a taxonomic revision in 2014. It is native to the salt marshes and mudflats of coastal California and Baja California, especially San Francisco Bay. It is a perennial grass growing from short rhizomes. It produces single stems or clumps of thick, fleshy stems that grow up to 1.5 meters tall. They are green or purple-tinged. The long, narrow leaves are flat or rolled inward. The inflorescence is a narrow, dense, spike-like stick of branches appressed together, the unit reaching up to 25 centimeters long. The lower spikelets are sometimes enclosed in the basal sheaths of upper leaves. This native plant is seriously threatened by the invasion of its North American Atlantic coast relative smooth cordgrass (''Sporobolus alterniflorus''), which is not native to the Pacific coast. ''S. alterniflorus'' was introduced to San Francisco Bay in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Napa Sonoma Marsh
The Napa Sonoma Marsh is a wetland at the northern edge of San Pablo Bay, which is a northern arm of the San Francisco Bay in California, United States. This marsh has an area of 48,000 acres (194 km2), of which 13,000 acres (53 km2) are abandoned salt evaporation ponds. The United States Government has designated 13,000 acres (53 km2) in the Napa Sonoma Marsh as the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The marsh is fed by Sonoma Creek (which drains the Sonoma Valley), Tolay Creek (originating in the Tolay Lake basin), and the Napa River (which drains the Napa Valley). Although the marsh extends north as far as State Route 12, as a practical matter, most of the marsh is only accessible by boat. The marsh is a productive estuarine ecosystem providing habitat for a wide diversity of flora and fauna, including numerous rare and endangered species such as the California clapper rail and California freshwater shrimp. Because of its rich avafaunal content, the Napa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or Body of water, water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or seawater, saltwater. The main w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mean High-tide
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the ''arithmetic mean'', also known as "arithmetic average", is a measure of central tendency of a finite set of numbers: specifically, the sum of the values divided by the number of values. The arithmetic mean of a set of numbers ''x''1, ''x''2, ..., x''n'' is typically denoted using an overhead bar, \bar. If the data set were based on a series of observations obtained by sampling from a statistical population, the arithmetic mean is the ''sample mean'' (\bar) to distinguish it from the mean, or expected value, of the underlying distribution, the ''population mean'' (denoted \mu or \mu_x).Underhill, L.G.; Bradfield d. (1998) ''Introstat'', Juta and Company Ltd.p. 181/ref> Outside probability and statistics, a wide range of other notions of mean are o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Detritus
In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts communities of microorganisms that colonize and decompose (i.e. remineralize) it. In terrestrial ecosystems it is present as leaf litter and other organic matter that is intermixed with soil, which is denominated " soil organic matter". The detritus of aquatic ecosystems is organic material that is suspended in the water and accumulates in depositions on the floor of the body of water; when this floor is a seabed, such a deposition is denominated "marine snow". Theory The corpses of dead plants or animals, material derived from animal tissues (e.g. molted skin), and fecal matter gradually lose their form due to physical processes and the action of decomposers, including grazers, bacteria, and fungi. Decomposition, the process by which or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Driftwood
__NOTOC__ Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river by the action of winds, tides or waves. In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides shelter and food for birds, fish and other aquatic species as it floats in the ocean. Gribbles, shipworms and bacteria decompose the wood and gradually turn it into nutrients that are reintroduced to the food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one o .... Sometimes, the partially decomposed wood washes ashore, where it also shelters birds, plants, and other species. Driftwood can become the foundation for sand dunes. Most driftwood is the remains of trees, in whole or part, that have been washed into the ocean, due to flooding, high winds, or ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth Cordgrass
''Sporobolus alterniflorus'', or synonymously known as ''Spartina alterniflora'', the smooth cordgrass, saltmarsh cordgrass, or salt-water cordgrass, is a perennial deciduous grass which is found in intertidal wetlands, especially estuarine salt marshes. It has been reclassified as ''Sporobolus alterniflorus'' after a taxonomic revision in 2014, but it is still common to see ''Spartina alterniflora'' and in 2019 an interdisciplinary team of experts coauthored a report published in the journal ''Ecology'' supporting ''Spartina'' as a genus. It grows tall and has smooth, hollow stems that bear leaves up to long and wide at their base, which are sharply tapered and bend down at their tips. Like its relative saltmeadow cordgrass ''S. patens'', it produces flowers and seeds on only one side of the stalk. The flowers are a yellowish-green, turning brown by the winter. It has rhizoidal roots, which, when broken off, can result in vegetative asexual growth. The roots are an important f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate subphylum Vertebrata. Familiar examples of invertebrates include arthropods, mollusks, annelids, echinoderms and cnidarians. The majority of animal species are invertebrates; one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxa have a greater number and variety of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Invertebrates vary widely in size, from 50 μm (0.002 in) rotifers to the 9–10 m (30–33 ft) colossal squid. Some so-called invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata, are more closely related to vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the invertebrates paraphyletic, so the term has little meaning in taxonomy. Etymology The word "invertebrate" comes from the Latin word ''vertebra'', whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typha Latifolia
''Typha latifolia'' (broadleaf cattail, bulrush, common bulrush, common cattail, cat-o'-nine-tails, great reedmace, cooper's reed, cumbungi) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus '' Typha''. It is found as a native plant species in North and South America, Eurasia, and Africa. Description ''Typha latifolia'' grows 1.5 to 3 metres (5 to 10 feet) high and it has leaves broad. It will generally grow from 0.75 to 1'' ''m (2 to 3'' ''ft) of water depth. Distribution and habitat It is found as a native plant species in North and South America, Eurasia, and Africa."Typha latifolia (aquatic plant)" Global Invasive Species Database. Retrieved 2011-02-21. In Canada, broadleaf cattail occurs in all provinces and also in the |
Scirpus Californicus
''Schoeneoplectus californicus'' is a species of sedge known by the common names California bulrush, southern bulrush and giant bulrush. It is also sometimes called "tule", but the closely related ''Schoenoplectus acutus'' is the species most often referred to by that name. Description ''Schoenoplectus californicus'' is a rhizomed water plant found in marshy areas. It is native to the southern and western United States as well as Mexico, Central America, South America, Easter Island, and the Falkland Islands. It is naturalized on some Pacific islands including New Zealand, Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It has tall, thin, dark green stems which are usually triangular in cross-section and woolly, bristly tan or brown flowers in panicle inflorescences. Uses A notable subspecies is the totora, ''Schoenoplectus californicus'' subsp. ''tatora''. This is famous for making up the floating islands on which the Uros people of Lake Titicaca dwell, as well as occurring on isolated Easter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grindelia Cuneifolia
''Grindelia'' (gumweed) is a genus of plants native to the Americas belonging to the family Asteraceae. The genus was named for Latvian botanist David Hieronymus Grindel, 1776–1836. They are herbaceous plants or subshrubs with annual, biennial, or perennial life cycles. The flowerheads are composed of numerous yellow disc florets (usually between 100–200) and from zero to sixty or more yellow or orange ray florets. ''Grindelia squarrosa'', a plant with bright yellow flowers indigenous to much of the United States, is commonly called curlycup gumweed. ''Grindelia robusta'', found in the western states, is a coastal scrub bush that is reputed to have several medicinal uses. Hairy gumweed, '' Grindelia cuneifolia'', occurs in brackish coastal marshes of western North America, such as in some portions of the San Francisco Bay perimeter. The genus is native to South America, Mexico, and western North America, though some species have been introduced and naturalized in eastern North ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
