Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Historic Distribution And Ecology Of Tall-Grass Prairie In Western Canada, Darcy C. Henderson, Nicola Koper

The Prairie Naturalist

Rapid settlement and agricultural development of western Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s nearly eliminated the tall-grass prairie, and pre-empted a detailed description by ecologists. A combination of literature review and historical ecological analysis of soils, climate, and composition data are applied to estimate the historic distribution, and area occupied by tall-grass prairie in southern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada. The resulting area estimate of 20,830 km² is more than three times any previously reported value. Some confusion of terms from the first half of the 1900s, and the impact of invasive species on vegetation patterns observed …