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The core climate of the Canadian prairie region is defined as a semi-arid climate and is often based upon the Köppen climate classification system. [10]This type of classification encompasses five main climate types, with several categoric subtypes based on the precipitation pattern of the region. [11]
Tallgrass prairies receive over 30 inches of rainfall per year, whereas shortgrass prairies are much more arid, receiving only 12 inches or so, and mixed-grass prairies receive intermediate rainfall. [13] [14] Wet, mesic, and dry prairie ecosystems can also form more locally due to soil and terrain characteristics. Wet prairies may form in low ...
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.
Short-grass prairies are found in the high plains of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. 70% of the original short-grass prairie remains today, making it one of the least fragmented prairie ecosystems. [6]
The Northern Plains' climate is semi-arid and is prone to drought, annually receiving between 16 and 32 inches (410 and 810 mm) of precipitation, and average annual snowfall ranging between 15 and 30 inches (380 and 760 mm), with the greatest snowfall amounts occurring in the Texas panhandle and areas near the border with New Mexico.
Arthur Rothstein's Farmer and Sons Walking in the Face of a Dust Storm, a Resettlement Administration photograph taken in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, in April 1936. The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s.
The mixed-grass prairie is richer in botanical diversity than either the tall- or shortgrass prairie. The mixed-grass prairie occurs in the central plains portion of the Great Plains, varying in width from central Texas in the United States up into southeastern Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan in the northern mixed grasslands of Canada. [1]
This was the worst drought for at least a hundred years in parts of the Canadian Prairies. Well below normal precipitation was reported in areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan for more than four consecutive years extending from autumn 1999 to spring 2004.