| Central and Southern mixed grasslands | |
|---|---|
| Ecology | |
| Biome | Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands |
| Bird species | 228[1] |
| Mammal species | 88[1] |
| Geography | |
| Country | United States |
| States | Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas |
| Conservation | |
| Habitat loss | 50.68%[1] |
| Protected | 0.48%[1] |
The Central and Southern mixed grasslands are a prairie ecoregion of the central United States, part of the North American Great Plains.
Contents |
This is a large grassland area with very few trees running north-south from central Nebraska through central Kansas and western Oklahoma to north-central Texas, covering 282,000 km2. This is a transition zone between the Central tall grasslands and Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregions to the east and the Western short grasslands to the west, while to the north lie the Northern mixed grasslands which have a cooler temperature and a much shorter growing season. [2]
These grasslands contain a rich mixture of prairie grasses of medium height and thus distinct from tallgrass and shortgrass prairies on either side of this ecoregion. There are wildflowers among the grasses but very few trees and shrubs. The grasslands are heavily grazed and frequently disturbed by drought and fire.
This prairie is used as grazing land for cattle but is also home to wild American bison. The grasslands are home to a number of prairie birds while the wetlands of the region are important stopovers for birds migrating between North America and Mexico with the Cheyenne Bottoms near Great Bend, Kansas and Platte River in Nebraska particularly important for migrating sandhill cranes and other waders. The region is home to a large number of reptiles.
Most of the grasslands have been converted for agriculture with only about 5% of natural habitat remaining. Indeed this area was so heavily overcultivated that it was damaged during the 1930s Dust Bowl period in which the topsoil was blown away in dust storms. The grasslands have since recovered but are cropland and managed grazing ranges rather than unspoilt pasture. The small remaining blocks of intact habitat include: in Oklahoma the Wichita Mountains and the Great Salt Plains Lake; in Nebraska the Platte River State Park near Louisville, Nebraska and the Rainwater Basins to the south; in Kansas the Cheyenne Bottoms, the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, near the town of Stafford, the Red Hills and Smoky Hills areas. These consist of patches of intact grassland on the rangeland and most is unprotected, although the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, which is a refuge for bison and Black-capped Vireo, and the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge are fairly large protected areas.