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Western Short Grasslands
The Western short grasslands is a temperate grassland ecoregion of the United States. Setting This ecoregion largely corresponds with the geographical region known as the High Plains. It is located in eastern, northern, and central Montana, eastern Wyoming, western Nebraska (the Nebraska Panhandle), eastern Colorado, western Kansas, western Oklahoma (the Oklahoma Panhandle), eastern New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle and parts of west-central Texas and a very small portion of southwestern South Dakota. The Western short grasslands are characterised by a semi-arid climate, with low precipitation, warm temperatures, and a long growing season relative to other Nearctic prairie ecoregions. Flora The two dominant grasses of this ecoregion are blue grama (''Bouteloua gracilis'') and buffalograss (''Bouteloua dactyloides''). Fauna Mammals of this ecoregion include bison (''Bison bison bison''), mule deer (''Odocoileus hemonius'') and coyote (''Canis latrans''). Birds include the Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shortgrass Prairie
The shortgrass prairie is an ecosystem located in the Great Plains of North America. The two most dominant grasses in the shortgrass prairie are blue grama (''Bouteloua gracilis'') and buffalograss (''Bouteloua dactyloides''), the two less dominant grasses in the prairie are greasegrass (''Tridens flavus'') and sideoats grama (''Bouteloua curtipendula''). The prairie was formerly maintained by grazing pressure of American bison, which is the keystone species. Due to its semiarid climate, the shortgrass prairie receives on average less Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation than that of the tall and mixed grass prairies to the east. The prairie includes lands to the west as far as the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains and extends east as far as Nebraska and north into Saskatchewan. The prairie stretches through parts of Alberta, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas, and passes south through the High Plains (United States), high plains of Colorado, Okl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Short Grasslands
The Northern short grasslands includes parts of the Canada, Canadian Provinces of Canada, provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the United States, American Great Plains states of Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. One of 867 terrestrial ecoregions defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) further breaks this ecoregion into the Northwestern Glaciated Plains and Northwestern Great Plains. Climate The Northern short grasslands have a semi-arid climate, with annual average Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation ranging from 270mm to 450mm . Winters here are cold, with a mean winter temperature of , but chinook winds, most common in the western part of the region, closest to the Rocky Mountains, ameliorate the cold temporarily when they pass over. Summers range from warm to hot, with a mean temperature of . Flora Dominant grasses include blue grama, Stipa, needlegrass and Poa annua, spear grass. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plains Bison
The Plains bison (''Bison bison bison'') is one of two subspecies/ecotypes of the American bison, the other being the wood bison (''B. b. athabascae''). A natural population of Plains bison survives in Yellowstone National Park (the Yellowstone Park bison herd consisting of an estimated 4,800 bison) and multiple smaller reintroduced herds of bison in many places in the United States as well as southern portions of the Canadian Prairies. Near-extinction and reintroduction of herds At one time, at least 25 million American bison were spread across the United States and Canada. However, by the late 1880s, the total number of bison in the United States had been reduced to fewer than 600. Most of these were collected onto various private ranches, and the last known free-roaming population of bison consisted of fewer than 30 in the area which later became Yellowstone National Park. Although farmers and ranchers considered bison to be a nuisance, some people were concerned about the dem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bouteloua Dactyloides
''Bouteloua dactyloides'', commonly known as buffalograss or a buffalo grass, is a North American prairie grass native to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is a shortgrass found mainly on the High Plains and is co-dominant with blue grama (''B. gracilis'') over most of the shortgrass prairie. Buffalo grass in North America is not the same species of grass commonly known as "buffalo" in Australia. It should not be confused with '' Stenotaphrum secundatum'' varieties such as 'Sir Walter' or 'Palmetto'. Description Buffalograss is a warm-season perennial shortgrass. It is drought-, heat-, and cold-resistant. Foliage is usually high, though in the southern Great Plains, foliage may reach . Buffalograss is usually dioecious, but sometimes monoecious or with perfect flowers. Flower stalks are tall. The male inflorescence is a panicle; the female inflorescence consists of short spikelets borne in burlike clusters, usually with two to four spikelets per bur. Buffalograss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Grama
''Bouteloua gracilis'', the blue grama, is a long-lived, warm-season ( C4) perennial grass, native to North America. It is most commonly found from Alberta, Canada, east to Manitoba and south across the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and U.S. Midwest states, onto the northern Mexican Plateau in Mexico. Blue grama accounts for most of the net primary productivity in the shortgrass prairie of the central and southern Great Plains. It is a green or greyish, low-growing, drought-tolerant grass with limited maintenance. Description Blue grama has green to greyish leaves less than wide and long. The overall height of the plant is at maturity. The flowering stems ( culms) are long. At the top are one to four, usually two, comb-like spikes, which extend out at a sharp angle from the flowering stem. Each spike has 20 to 90 spikelets. Each spikelet is long, and has one fertile floret and one or two reduced sterile ones. Below the florets are two glumes, one long and the ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and the steppe of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the area referred to as the Geography of North America, Interior Lowlands of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, hillier land to the east. In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and sizable parts of the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and western and southern Minnesota. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semi-arid Climate
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-arid climates, depending on variables such as temperature, and they give rise to different biomes. Defining attributes of semi-arid climates A more precise definition is given by the Köppen climate classification, which treats steppe climates (''BSk'' and ''BSh'') as intermediates between desert climates (BW) and humid climates (A, C, D) in ecological characteristics and agricultural potential. Semi-arid climates tend to support short, thorny or scrubby vegetation and are usually dominated by either grasses or shrubs as it usually can't support forests. To determine if a location has a semi-arid climate, the precipitation threshold must first be determined. The method used to find the precipitation threshold (in millimeters): *multiply by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to the Oklahoma Panhandle. ''The Handbook of Texas'' defines the southern border of Swisher County as the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region. Its land area is , or nearly 10% of the state's total. The Texas Panhandle is slightly larger in size than the US state of West Virginia. An additional is covered by water. Its population as of the 2010 census was 427,927 residents, or 1.7% of the state's total population. As of the 2010 census, the population density for the region was . However, more than 72% of the Panhandle's residents live in the Amarillo Metropolitan Area, which is the largest and fastest-growing urban area in the region. The Panhandle is distinct from North Texas, which is further south and east. West of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oklahoma Panhandle
The Oklahoma Panhandle (formerly called No Man's Land, the Public Land Strip, the Neutral Strip, or Cimarron Territory) is a salient in the extreme northwestern region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, consisting of Cimarron County, Texas County and Beaver County, from west to east. As with other salients in the United States, its name comes from the similarity of its shape to the handle of a pan. The three-county Oklahoma Panhandle region had a population of 28,751 at the 2010 U.S. Census, representing 0.77% of the state's population. This is a decrease in total population of 1.2%, a loss of 361 people, from the 2000 U.S. Census. Geography The Panhandle, long and wide, is bordered by Kansas and Colorado at 37°N on the north, New Mexico at 103°W on the west, Texas at 36.5°N on the south, and the remainder of Oklahoma at 100°W on the east. The largest town in the region is Guymon, which is the county seat of Texas County. Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklaho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nebraska Panhandle
The Nebraska Panhandle is an area in the western part of the state of Nebraska and one of several U.S. state panhandles, or elongated geographical regions that extend from their main political entity. The Nebraska panhandle is two-thirds as broad as the rest of the state. It is approximately east to west and north to south. The Nebraska panhandle roughly encompasses the area in Nebraska between 102° and 104°W longitude and 41° and 43°N latitude. It comprises 11 counties with a combined land area of , or about 18.45 percent of the state's land. Its population as of the 2010 Census was 87,789 inhabitants, or about 4.70 percent of the state's population. Its largest city is Scottsbluff, in the west-central part of the area. Counties Cities and towns Major cities in the Nebraska panhandle include: *Alliance * Chadron * Kimball * Scottsbluff - Gering * Sidney *Bridgeport * Hemingford Population shifts As part of a general trend in migration from rural to metropolita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High Plains (United States)
The High Plains are a subregion of the Great Plains, mainly in the Western United States, but also partly in the Midwest states of Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota, generally encompassing the western part of the Great Plains before the region reaches the Rocky Mountains. The High Plains are located in eastern Montana, southeastern Wyoming, southwestern South Dakota, western Nebraska, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, eastern New Mexico. The southern region of the Western High Plains ecology region contains the geological formation known as Llano Estacado which can be seen from a short distance or on satellite maps. From east to west, the High Plains rise in elevation from around . Name The term "Great Plains", for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian and east of the Rocky Mountains, was not generally used before the early 20th century. Nevin Fenneman's 1916 study, ''Physiographic Subdivision of the United States'', brought the term Great Plains into more w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. In theory, biodiversity or conservation ecoregions are relatively large areas of land or water where the probability of encountering different species and communities at any given point remains relatively constant, within an acceptable range of variation (largely undefined at this point). Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches. Firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible. Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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