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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Review Of The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives To Nonnative Flowers And Plants, An Illustrated Guide. By Charlotte Adelman And Bernard L. Schwartz., Stephen L. Young Oct 2012

Review Of The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives To Nonnative Flowers And Plants, An Illustrated Guide. By Charlotte Adelman And Bernard L. Schwartz., Stephen L. Young

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Native plants are important for maintaining biodiversity and supporting birds, mammals, and insects in a particular region. The interaction of plants with other organisms is what makes up food webs, and a shift in one will result in change in the other, change that is often detrimental to both. Invasive plant species, which include many nonnative types, can alter ecosystems with lasting effects on hydrology, nutrient cycling, and habitat. Similar to other regions, the Central Plains is increasingly threatened by the establishment of invasive plant species. The reintroduction of native plant species not only in large natural areas, but also …


Monitoring Standing Herbage Of The Sands And Choppy Sands Ecological Vegetation Types In The Nebraska Sandhills, Daniel W. Uresk Oct 2012

Monitoring Standing Herbage Of The Sands And Choppy Sands Ecological Vegetation Types In The Nebraska Sandhills, Daniel W. Uresk

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

A modified Robel pole with white and gray alternating bands (2.54 cm) was used to measure vegetation on sands and choppy sands ecological types in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Objectives were to determine the relationship between visual obstruction readings (VOR) and clipped standing herbage, develop guidelines for monitoring standing herbage, and provide sample size estimates. Visual obstruction measurements of standing herbage were linear, and regression coefficients were significant (P< 0.001) for 125 transects (R2 = 0.60, SE = 496 kg/ha). Clipped standing herbage ranged from 293 to 4389 kg/ha with a mean of 1,559 kg/ha. A minimum of four transects (20 stations/transect with four …


Initial Changes In Species Cover Following Savanna Restoration Treatments In Western Iowa, David A. Mckenzie, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland Oct 2012

Initial Changes In Species Cover Following Savanna Restoration Treatments In Western Iowa, David A. Mckenzie, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Study areas in the Iowa Loess Hills were used to evaluate short-term responses of understory species to three treatment methods designed to facilitate restoration of Quercus macrocarpa savanna. Treatments included burning alone, burning with thinning, and burning with clear-cutting. Plant abundance and diversity were compared before treatment and one year after treatment. Ninety-nine plant species were identified during the study, of which 40 were new following treatment, although most of these were forest associates. Increases in diversity of understory species were observed after treatment, particularly in plots with combined burning and thinning. The forb group was most consistent in response …


Adaptation Of Annual Forage Legumes In The Southern Great Plains, John A. Guretzky, Twain J. Butler, Jim P. Muir Apr 2012

Adaptation Of Annual Forage Legumes In The Southern Great Plains, John A. Guretzky, Twain J. Butler, Jim P. Muir

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Our objective was to evaluate adaptation and compatibility of cool-season annual legumes overseeded into perennial grasses in the southern Great Plains. Freeze damage, vigor, and standing crop of 14 annual legume species were evaluated during spring at three locations in Oklahoma and Texas from 2006 to 2008. Across locations and years, standing crop of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) and Austrian winter pea (Pisum sativum L. ssp. arvense (L.) Poir.] averaged 3,513 and 3,210 kg dry matter (DM) ha-1, respectively. Standing crop of crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum L.) and arrowleaf clover (T. vesiculosum Savi) averaged …


Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, 1819-1820: America's First Biodiversity Ineventory, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe Jan 2008

Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, 1819-1820: America's First Biodiversity Ineventory, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

It is our thesis that members of the Stephen Long Expedition of 1819-20 completed the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States at their winter quarters, Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, in the modern state of Nebraska. This accomplishment has been overlooked both by biologists and historians, but it should rank among the most significant accomplishments of the expedition. The results of this inventory allow us to evaluate the environmental, faunal, and floral changes along the Missouri River in the intervening nearly 190 years. The historical records form a visual image of a dynamic riverine system in which a highly …


Review Of A Classification Of North American Biotic Communities By David E. Brown, Frank Reichenbacher, Susan E. Franson, Robert B. Kaul Oct 1999

Review Of A Classification Of North American Biotic Communities By David E. Brown, Frank Reichenbacher, Susan E. Franson, Robert B. Kaul

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This is the latest of many efforts over the past century to classify North America's natural, undisturbed biological communities as they existed in pre-agrarian times and in many places continue to exist today. Its authors' stated objective is to integrate existing works into a hierarchical synthesis that can lead to a standardized system for researchers, land managers, conservation groups, and government agencies. To that end, the authors have modified and expanded David Brown's earlier classification for the Southwest to cover the continent, defined here as the area from the Panama Canal to the Arctic, including Greenland and some of the …


Review Of Retracing Major Stephen H. Long's Expedition: The Itinerary And Botany By George J. Goodman And Cheryl A. Lawson, Robert B. Kaul May 1997

Review Of Retracing Major Stephen H. Long's Expedition: The Itinerary And Botany By George J. Goodman And Cheryl A. Lawson, Robert B. Kaul

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Earlier expeditions made incidental collections of plants and animals in Louisiana Territory, but the Long Expedition of 1820 was the first deliberately staffed with scientists assigned to that task. Authorized by President Monroe and Secretary of War Calhoun, the Expedition was directed to document plant and animal life and geology in the intimidating country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains and to find the source of the Platte and Red Rivers in the mountains. All this was to be done quickly and, in fact, took only 100 days, June 6-September 13, 1820. Starting near present-day Omaha, the Expedition …


Review Of Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope By William A. Weber., Robert B. Kaul Feb 1991

Review Of Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope By William A. Weber., Robert B. Kaul

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

All 2260 plant species of eastern-slope Colorado--from the continental divide east to the Nebraska and Kansas borders--can be identified using this book. That figure includes not only the native species but also the numerous introduced ones that survive without cultivation and often provide severe competition for the native flora. Much of Colorado's native plains flora was eliminated in the past century by plowing and by grazing livestock. It is largely replaced by a few durable native and many aggressive exotic species that thrive under those conditions, but remnants of the original flora exist on escarpments and in a few level …