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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.
Once one of the largest ecosystems in North America, from Virginia south to Florida and west to Texas, it now occupies less than a quarter of the original range. Degradation of the ecosystem is partially due to excessive timber harvesting, urbanization, and fire exclusion. Although the ecosystem is heavily fragmented at present, it still ...
The Trees of North America. For the purposes of this category, "North America" is defined in accordance with the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD), which calls it Northern America, namely as one of the nine "botanical continents". It includes the following regions:
Due to the highly variable climatic regimes across the Great Plains, many aspects of climate change are not expected to affect all areas of the eco-region equally. In regards to precipitation, this means an exacerbation of extremes where dry areas in the south are expected to get drier and wetter areas in the north to get wetter.
Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the ponderosa pine, [3] bull pine, blackjack pine, [4] western yellow-pine, [5] or filipinus pine, [6] is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America. [7]: 4
The protected grasslands of North America consist of prairies, with a dominant vegetation type of herbaceous plants like grasses, sedges, and other prairie plants, rather than woody vegetation like trees. Grasslands were generally dominant within the Interior Plains of central North America but was also present elsewhere.
"Obligate seeders" are plants with large, fire-activated seed banks that germinate, grow, and mature rapidly following a fire, in order to reproduce and renew the seed bank before the next fire. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] Seeds may contain the receptor protein KAI2, that is activated by the growth hormones karrikin released by the fire.
Hypothesized fire regimes of natural communities in the United States. Grassy woodlands have regimes of a few years: blue, pink, and light green areas. Pre-Columbian woodlands of North America , consisting of a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem, were maintained by both natural lightning fires and by Native Americans before the significant ...