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Osage Plains
The Osage Plains are a physiographic section of the larger Central Lowland province, which in turn is part of the larger Interior Plains physiographic division. The area is sometimes called the Lower Plains, North Central Plains,or Rolling Plains. The Osage Plains, covering west-central Missouri, the southeastern third of Kansas, most of central Oklahoma, and extending into north-central Texas, is the southernmost of three tallgrass prairie physiographic areas. It grades into savanna and woodland to the east and south, and into shorter, mixed-grass prairie to the west. The Osage Plains consist of three subregions. The Osage Plains proper occupy the northeast segment. Although sharply demarcated from the Ozark uplift, the plains are nonetheless a transitional area across which the boundary between prairie and woodland has shifted over time. In the central portion of the physiographic area lies the second subregion, the Flint Hills, commonly called " the Osage" in Oklahoma. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osage Plains-33
The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhegihan language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage script, used for writing this language * Osage (Unicode block), containing characters from the Osage script * Osage-orange, ''Maclura pomifera'', a tree of the mulberry family * Osage Indian murders (1921–1925), a group of murders that took place on the Osage Indian Reservation as whites tried to get control of headrights to oil royalties * Osage River, a tributary of the Missouri River, entirely contained in Missouri, United States * Hughes TH-55 Osage U.S. Army helicopter * USS ''Osage'' (1863) * USS ''Osage'' (LSV-3) * Osage Gallery, an art gallery in Hong Kong Osage is a part of many placenames, including: ;Canada * Osage, Saskatchewan ;United States * Osage, Arkansas *Osage, Iowa * Osage, Minnesota *Osage, New Jersey * Osage, Ohio * Os ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henslow's Sparrow
__NOTOC__ Henslow's sparrow (''Centronyx henslowii'') is a passerine bird in the family Passerellidae. It was named by John James Audubon in honor of John Stevens Henslow. It was originally classified in the genus ''Emberiza'' and called ''Henslow's bunting''. Description Adults have streaked brown upperparts with a light brown breast with streaks, a white belly and a white throat. They have a pale stripe on the crown with a dark stripe on each side, an olive face and neck, rust-coloured wings and a short dark forked tail. Measurements: * Length: * Weight: * Wingspan: Distribution and habitat The range and numbers of this bird are decreasing, probably due to habitat loss of the grasslands that it depends on. However, it has heavily benefited from the Conservation Reserve Program formed by the United States Department of Agriculture, which has helped to stabilize its population. Following this, it was downlisted to Least Concern from Near Threatened in 2018. The Texas popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marsh
In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in general, the word can be used for any low-lying and seasonally waterlogged terrain. In Europe and in agricultural literature low-lying meadows that require draining and embanked polderlands are also referred to as marshes or marshland. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, and the marsh is sometimes called a carr. This form of vegetation is what differentiates marshes from other types of wetland such as swamps, which are dominated by trees, and mires, which are wetlands that have accumulated deposits of acidic peat. Marshes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially in the soils. Wetlands form a transitional zone between waterbodies and dry lands, and are different from other terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems due to their vegetation's roots having adapted to oxygen-poor waterlogged soils. They are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as habitats to a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and animals, with often improved water quality due to plant removal of excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphorus. Wetlands exist on every continent, except Antarctica. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main types of wetland are defined based on the dominant plants and the source of the water. For example, ''marshes'' ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quercus Marilandica
''Quercus marilandica'', the blackjack oak, is a small oak, one of the red oak group ''Quercus'' sect. ''Lobatae''. It is native to the eastern and central United States. Description ''Quercus marilandica'' is a small deciduous tree growing to tall, with bark cracked into rectangular black plates with narrow orange fissures. The leaves are long and broad, and typically flare from a tapered base to a broad three-lobed bell shape with only shallow indentations. They are dark green and glossy above, pubescent underneath, and often remain attached to the twigs through the winter after turning colors from red to brown in the fall. The acorn is small, long and broad; like those of other red oaks, it takes 18 months to mature. Blackjack oaks in the Cross Timbers can grow from high but seldom reach more than , with a trunk diameter of . The leaves are from in length and about the same width. Distribution and habitat The blackjack oak can be found from Long Island in New York ... [...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). Multiple smaller reintroduced herds of bison in many ranges within the midwestern and western United States (including Alaska, but not Hawaii) as well as southern portions of the Canadian Prairies. Near extinction and reintroduction At least 25 million American bison were once spread across the United States and Canada, but by the late 1880s, the Bison hunting#19th-century bison hunts and near-extinction, total number of bison in the United States had been reduced to fewer than 600, most of which lived on private ranches. The last known free-roaming population of bison consisted of fewer than 30 in the area that later became Yellowstone National Park. Although farmers and ranchers c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overgrazing
Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature reserves. It can also be caused by immobile, travel restricted populations of native or non-native wild animals. Overgrazing reduces the usefulness, productivity and biodiversity of the land and is one cause of desertification and erosion. Overgrazing is also seen as a cause of the spread of invasive species of non-native plants and of weeds. Degrading land, emissions from animal agriculture and reducing the biomass in a ecosystem contribute directly to climate change between grazing events. Successful planned grazing strategies have been in support of the American bison of the Great Plains, or migratory wildebeest of the African savannas, or by holistic planned grazing. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildfire Suppression
Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the available fuel, the local atmospheric conditions, the features of the terrain, and the size of the wildfire. Because of this wildfire suppression in wild land areas usually requires different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated areas. Working in conjunction with specially designed aerial firefighting aircraft, fire engines, tools, firefighting foams, fire retardants, and using various firefighting techniques, wildfire-trained crews work to suppress flames, construct fire lines, and extinguish flames and areas of heat in order to protect resources and natural wilderness. Wildfire suppression also addresses the issues of the wildland–urban interface, where populated areas border with wild land areas. In the United States and other countries, aggressive wildfire suppression a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harris's Sparrow
Harris's sparrow (''Zonotrichia querula'') is a large American sparrow, sparrow. Their breeding habitat is the north part of central Canada (primarily the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, ranging slightly into northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan), making it Canada's only endemic breeding bird. In the winter they bird migration, migrate to the Great Plains states of the United States, from southern South Dakota to central Texas. The common name of this species commemorates the American amateur ornithologist Edward Harris (ornithologist), Edward Harris (1799–1863). Description This species is the largest of the sparrows in the family Passerellidae, though other superficially dissimilar species in the family may slightly exceed them in size. They range in total length from , with a wingspan and weigh from . Among standard measurements, the Wing chord (biology), wing chord is , the tail is , the Beak, bill is and the Tarsus (skeleton), tarsus is . This is a very distinctive lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Painted Bunting
The painted bunting (''Passerina ciris'') is a species of bird in the cardinal family, Cardinalidae. It is native to North America. The bright plumage of the male comes only in the second year of life; in the first year, they can be distinguished from the female only by close inspection. Taxonomy The painted bunting was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Emberiza ciris''. Linnaeus based his account mainly on the "Painted Finch" that had been described and illustrated in 1730 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book ''The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands''. Linnaeus specified the type locality as America but this was restricted to the state of South Carolina by the American Ornithologists' Union in 1931. The specific epithet ''ciris'' is the Latin name for a mythical bird, from Ancient Greek κειρις/''keiris'' for an unidentified b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
The scissor-tailed flycatcher (''Tyrannus forficatus''), known as swallow-tailed flycatcher or scissorstail, is a long-tailed insectivorous bird of the genus ''Tyrannus'', whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. Its scientific name used to be Muscivora forficata until it was changed to Tyrannus forficatus. It is found in North and Central America, and is Oklahoma's State Bird. Taxonomy The scissor-tailed flycatcher was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus ''Muscicapa'' and coined the binomial name ''Muscicapa forficata''. The specific epithet is from Latin ''forfex'', ''forficis'' meaning "a pair of scissors". Gmelin based his description on "Le moucherolle à queue fourchue du Mexique" ( French: "the Mexican swallow-tailed flycatcher") that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
