Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Ideal grazing intensities and fire frequencies vary across their range depending on climate, but areas with moderate grazing by cattle or bison, prescribed burning every 2–3 years, and removal of woody plants tend to support the highest densities of grasshopper sparrows in the Southern great plains.
Flowering big bluestem, a characteristic tallgrass prairie plant. The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America.Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroachment of trees, recycling soil nutrients, and facilitating seed dispersal and germination.
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 plants provide habitat and food for insects (including Lepidoptera), birds, small animals and larger herbivores, and support beneficial soil mycorrhiza. The leaves supply material, such as for basket weaving , for indigenous peoples and contemporary artists .
Before the 19th century, bison were a keystone species for the native shortgrass prairie habitat as their grazing pressure altered the food web and landscapes in ways that improve biodiversity. [4] The expanses of grass sustained migrations of an estimated 30 to 60 million American bison which could be found across much of North America. [5]
Ephedra nevadensis, commonly known as Nevada ephedra, gray ephedra, Mormon tea and Nevada jointfir, [1] [4] is a species of gymnosperm native to dry areas of western North America. Its range extends west to California and Oregon , east to Texas , and south to Baja California , including areas of the Great Basin , Colorado Plateau and desert ...
The American wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily. While on the water, wigeons often gather with feeding coots and divers and are known to grab pieces of vegetation brought to the surface by diving ...
Bouteloua gracilis, the blue grama, is a long-lived, warm-season perennial grass, native to North America. [2] [4] [5]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.