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Aspen Parkland
Aspen parkland refers to a very large area of ecotone, transitional biome between prairie and boreal forest in two sections, namely the Peace River Country of northwestern Alberta crossing the border into British Columbia, and a much larger area stretching from central Alberta, all across central Saskatchewan to south central Manitoba and continuing into small parts of the US states of Minnesota and North Dakota. Aspen parkland consists of groves of aspen, Populus, poplar and spruce, interspersed with areas of prairie grasslands, also intersected by large stream and river valleys lined with aspen-spruce forests and dense shrubbery. This is the largest boreal-grassland transition zone in the world and is a zone of constant competition and tension as prairie and woodlands struggle to overtake each other within the parkland. This article focuses on this biome in North America. Similar biomes also exist in Russia north of the steppes (forest steppe) and in northern Canada. Definitio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Deer River
The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan / Nelson River, Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay. The river has a total length of and a drainage area of . Its mean discharge is . The river is named for the translation of a native term for the river, ''wâwâskêsiw sîpiy,'' which means "elk river" in the Cree language. "Red deer" was an alternative name for elk, referring to a closely related red deer, Eurasian species. Communities located along the Red Deer River include Sundre, Red Deer, Alberta, Red Deer, Drumheller, and Empress, Alberta, Empress, The city of Brooks, Alberta, Brooks, as well as Dinosaur Provincial Park, are also located in the Red Deer River Basin. A glacial flood about 18,000 years ago eroded out a portion of this basin and apparently all or most of the scenic badlands bearing the dinosaur and other Cretaceous fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Tall Grasslands
The Northern Tallgrass Prairie is one of 844 terrestrial ecoregions defined by One Earth. This ecoregion largely follows the Red River Valley in the Canadian province of Manitoba and the American states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Climate The Northern Tallgrass Prairie has a humid continental climate with moderate precipitation, usually between 450-700mm. Winters here are very cold, with a mean winter temperature of , and summers are warm, with a mean temperature of . The ecoregion's mean annual temperature is . Flora Dominant grasses include big bluestem (''Andropogon gerardi''), switchgrass (''Panicum virgatum'') and Indiangrass ('' Sorghastrum nutans''). In wetter areas, trembling aspen ('' Populus tremuloides'') and bur oak ('' Quercus macrocarpa'') can be found. Fauna Like other North American prairie ecoregions, the Northern tall grasslands once supported large herds of bison (''Bison bison'') and elk (''Cervus canadensis''), which were hunted by the gray wolf (''Can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders of Russia, land borders with fourteen countries. Russia is the List of European countries by population, most populous country in Europe and the List of countries and dependencies by population, ninth-most populous country in the world. It is a Urbanization by sovereign state, highly urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas having more than 1 million inhabitants. Moscow, the List of metropolitan areas in Europe, most populous metropolitan area in Europe, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and Society and culture in Saint Petersburg, cultural centre. Human settlement on the territory of modern Russia dates back to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Piceoideae. Spruces are large trees, from about 20 to 60 m (about 60–200 ft) tall when mature, and have Whorl (botany), whorled branches and cone (geometry), conical form. Spruces can be distinguished from other Genus, genera of the family Pinaceae by their pine needle, needles (leaves), which are four-sided and attached singly to small persistent peg-like structures (pulvini or sterigmata) on the branches, and by their seed cone, cones (without any protruding bracts), which hang downwards after they are pollinated. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pegs. In other similar genera, the branches are fairly smooth. Spruce are used as food pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Populus
''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The western balsam poplar (Populus trichocarpa, ''P. trichocarpa'') was the first tree to have its full DNA code determined by DNA sequencing, in 2006. Description The genus has a large genetic diversity, and can grow from tall, with trunks up to in diameter. The Bark (botany), bark on young trees is smooth and white to greenish or dark gray, and often has conspicuous lenticels; on old trees, it remains smooth in some species, but becomes rough and deeply fissured in others. The shoots are stout, with (unlike in the related willows) the terminal bud present. The leaves are spirally arranged, and vary in shape from triangular to circular or (rarely) lobed, and with a long petiole (botany), petiole; in species in the sections ''Populus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus davidiana'' – Korean aspen (Eastern Asia) * ''Populus grandidentata'' – Bigtooth aspen (eastern North America, south of ''P. tremuloides'') * ''Populus sieboldii'' – Japanese aspen (Japan) * ''Populus tremula'' – Eurasian aspen (northern Europe and Asia) * ''Populus tremuloides'' – Quaking aspen or trembling aspen (northern and western North America) Habitat and longevity file:20130713Zitterpappel.ogv, The trembling of the leaves of the Populus tremula, trembling aspen Aspen trees are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere, extending south at high-altitude areas such as mountains or high plains. They are all medium-sized deciduous trees reaching tall. In North Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peace River Country
The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; ) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, where a certain portion of the region is also referred to as the Peace River Block. Geography The Peace River Country includes the incorporated communities of Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd in British Columbia. Major communities in the Alberta portion of the Peace Country include Grande Prairie, Peace River, High Level and Fairview. It has no fixed boundaries but covers some 260,000 to 390,000 km2 (100,000 to 150,000 square miles). In British Columbia, the area extends from Monkman Provincial Park and Tumbler Ridge in the south, to Hudson's Hope and the Williston Lake in the west, to Fort St. John and Charlie Lake in the north. The term is used also in a broader sense to mean the whole of the Northeastern Interior past the Rockies, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreal Forest
Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by pinophyta, coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North America, it covers most of inland Canada, Alaska, and parts of the northern contiguous United States. In Eurasia, it covers most of Sweden, Finland, much of Russia from Karelia in the west to the Pacific Ocean (including much of Siberia), much of Norway and Estonia, some of the Scottish Highlands, some lowland/coastal areas of Iceland, and areas of northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia, and northern Japan (on the island of Hokkaido). The principal tree species, depending on the length of the growing season and summer temperatures, vary across the world. The taiga of North America is mostly spruce; Scandinavian and Finland, Finnish taiga consists of a mix of Norway spruce, spruce, pines and Betula, birch; Russian taiga has spruces, ... [...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 Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" (a French loan word) tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the lower and mid-latitude of the area referred to as the Interior Plains of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, hillier land to the east. From west to east, generally the drier expanse of shortgrass prairie gives way to mixed grass prairie and ultimately the richer and wetter soils of the tallgrass prairie. In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states, from north to south, of North ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecotone
An ecotone is a transitional area between two plant communities, where these meet and integrate. Examples include areas between grassland and forest, estuaries and lagoon, freshwater and sea water etc. An ecotone may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems). An ecotone may appear on the ground as a gradual blending of the two communities across a broad area, or it may manifest itself as a sharp boundary line. Etymology The word ''ecotone'' was coined (and its etymology given) in 1904 in "The Development and Structure of Vegetation" (Lincoln, Nebraska: Botanical Seminar) by Frederic E. Clements. It is formed as a combination of ''ecology'' plus ''-tone'', from the Greek ''tonos'' or tension – in other words, a place where ecologies are in tension. Features There are several distinguishing features of an ecotone. First, an ecotone can have a sharp vegetation transition, wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warm-summer Humid Continental Climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold (sometimes severely cold in the northern areas) and snowy winters. Precipitation is usually distributed throughout the year, but often these regions do have dry seasons. The definition of this climate in terms of temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below or depending on the isotherm, and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above . In addition, the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid. The cooler ''Dfb'', ''Dwb'', and ''Dsb'' subtypes are also known as hemiboreal climates. Although amount of snowfall is not a factor used in defining the humid continental climate, snow during the winter in this type of climate is almost a guarantee, either intermittent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, And Shrublands
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands are terrestrial biomes defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The predominant vegetation in these biomes consists of grass and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and ranges from Semi-arid climate, semi-arid to semi-humid. The habitat type differs from tropical grasslands in the annual temperature regime and the types of species found here. The habitat type is known as prairie in North America, pampas in South America, veld in Southern Africa and steppe in Asia. Generally speaking, these regions are devoid of trees, except for riparian or gallery forests associated with streams and rivers. Steppes/shortgrass prairies are short grasslands that occur in semi-arid climates. Tallgrass prairies are tall grasslands in higher rainfall areas. Heath (habitat), Heaths and pastures are, respectively, low shrublands and grasslands where forest growth is hindered by human activity but not the climate. Tall grasslands, including the tallgras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
