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1.
Forest vegetation in the southeastern United States extends westward beyond the Ozark and Ouachita plateaus in Arkansas and Missouri into the Central Plains. Along this transect, luxuriant forests give way to mixed forests and grasslands that include smaller trees and progressively fewer tree species and eventually to grassland‐dominated landscapes in central Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. This transition is directly related to decreasing precipitation with distance to the west of the Mississippi River valley. Many species, however, have abrupt western range boundaries related to physiography and hydrogeomorphic processes. The western range limits for many trees correspond to Coastal Plain boundaries that at a regional scale impose sharper range boundaries than would be expected on the basis of decreasing precipitation. Also, riparian habitats within stream valleys extending westward from the Coastal Plain provide suitable habitats for trees in the dry regions of the Great Plains. The presence of riparian trees in this region is determined largely by the presence or absence of groundwater conditions necessary for survival. For floodplain trees, then, it is primarily habitat—not climate—that determines the location of range boundaries. 相似文献
2.
The Great Plains of the United States is a grassland region managed primarily for homogeneity associated with production agriculture. The resulting decline of obligate fauna makes enhancing biodiversity an increasingly important ecological goal. A survey was administered to land managers and the general population in ranching regions of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. This research explores the preferred characteristics of privately owned grasslands among ranchers and the general population for vegetation structure and biodiversity. Results indicate a knowledge gap between biodiversity and the vegetation heterogeneity required to support it. Preference for grassland structure is seen as a sociocultural driver of decisions on management practices that constrain adoption of heterogeneity management. Conserving biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem services provided by heterogeneous grasslands can be accomplished by demonstrating that conservation advantages of heterogeneity and production agriculture are compatible. 相似文献
3.
Weekly snow cover areas, derived from the NOAA/NESS Northern Hemisphere Digitized Snow and Ice Cover Data Base, were correlated with weekly temperature anomalies across the United States and with weekly 700-mb geopotential heights over the North American sector. The correlations were computed for snow cover across the entire North American continent as well as the western and eastern United States for the winters 1966–67 through 1979–80. Extensive snow cover is associated with negative temperature anomalies across most of the continental United States. The strongest relationship occurs along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains from the Canadian border to the central Great Plains and reflects the southward movement of cold arctic air masses toward the Gulf of Mexico. An anomalous trough over the western part of North America is responsible for extensive snow cover in the winter. The surface storm track is displaced southward during winters with heavy snow cover, with cyclones occurring more frequently in the southern Plains and southeastern United States. Moist Gulf of Mexico air advected northward by the southerly flow aloft is an important prerequisite condition for the occurrence of extensive snow cover in the eastern United States during the first half of winter. 相似文献
4.
长江黄河源区生态环境范围的探讨 总被引：28，自引：0，他引：28
在江河源区地理学与水文学界定的基础上,在明确界定源区范围四大原则与依据的前提下,文章综合分析了长江黄河源区的地貌特征、气候条件、植被分布以及水文水系特征,并在此基础上综合确定了长江黄河源区生态环境研究的范围。以达日水文站为界,以上区域为黄河流域生态环境研究的源区范围,流域控制面积约4.49×104 km2, 源区为高原湖泊沼泽地貌,地形平缓, 高寒半干旱气候, 受水热条件控制植被主要为草原化草甸;长江流域生态环境研究的源区以聂恰曲汇口为界,流域控制面积约12.24×104 km2。长江源区为高平原丘陵地貌,地形变化和缓,气候为高寒干旱半干旱气候,因范围广阔,分布高寒草原和高寒草甸植被。 相似文献
5.
Nonemployment income from investments, pensions, welfare benefits, and so forth provides one third of total personal income in the United States. Spatial concentrations of this income occur in places such as Florida, Michigan, Arkansas and the Great Plains. These concentrations result largely from the presence of older persons who are the principal recipients of nonemployment income. In turn, spatial concentrations of older persons result from “aging in place,” which typifies the Great Plains, or from amenity-bound immigration by older persons, which characterizes Florida. 相似文献
6.
In the present study, spatio-temporal urban sprawl and land consumption patterns were analysed in seven capital cities located in the Himalayan region during 1972, 1991 and 2015 using multi-temporal satellite images. The study exhibits that capital Himalayan cities experienced rapid growth (830.92%) with high population increase (333.45%) during the observation period (1972–2015). The significant urban growth was observed in the cities of western and middle Himalayan region viz., Srinagar (9.36 km2–142.19 km2), Kathmandu (11.38 km2–92.58 km2) and Dehradun (4.1 km2–50.09 km2) in the higher altitudes due to remarkable increase in the population (0.5–1 million persons) during 1972–2015. On the contrary, Itanagar (7.19 km2), Gangtok (7.09 km2), Shimla (3.04 km2) and Thimphu (2.93 km2) observed less urban growth with moderate to low population growth (i.e., 0.05 to 0.15 million persons). The Shannon entropy based study exhibits that the cities viz., Kathmandu, Gangtok and Itanagar observed comparatively more dispersed urban growth during later period (1991–2015) as compared to the previous period (1972–1991) whereas, the remaining cities observed comparatively less dispersed urban growth during later period. The temporal land consumption pattern exhibits low density urban growth in Srinagar, Dehradun and Kathmandu, as observed with decrease in population density and increasing land consumption during 1972–2015 as compared to other cities, wherein urban densification was evident with increase in population density and decrease in land consumption. The cities in central and western Himalayan region observed high urban growth as compared to cities in eastern Himalayan region. The result shows that the capital cities contributes insignificant proportion (0.5%; 314 km2) of urban area in Himalayan region and accommodating large (ca. 4 million) population during 2015. The study indicates unplanned and haphazard growth in all capital Himalayan cities, leading towards urban densification as well as dispersion in the periphery with varied pattern and intensity. The specific trends and patterns of urban and population growth are governed by geographical as well as socio-economic-political factors at local to regional scale. The high population pressure induced higher risk to the urban residents as well as constrained urban growth over higher vulnerable zones. The study necessitates implementation of suitable urban planning methods considering socio-economic and physico-cultural characteristics of the region. 相似文献
7.
干旱半干旱地区草原灌丛荒漠化及其生物地球化学循环 总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0
干旱和半干旱地区草地生态系统木本植物入侵及其导致的草原灌丛化已经成为全球范 围普遍发生的现象, 是草地沙化和荒漠化的一个重要标志。干旱生态系统中, 此种类型的植被变 化将对区域和全球生物地球化学循环产生显著影响。过度放牧、区域气候干旱化和自然火过程是 导致灌丛入侵和发展的主要控制因子。草原灌丛化过程中, 草地生态系统分布较为均匀的土壤养 分及相关元素在水平和垂直方向发生分异, 关键生命元素C、N、P 、S 生物地球化学循环的变化 将对全球气候变化产生显著作用。全球气候变化与草原灌丛荒漠化之间存在潜在的反馈机制, 人 类扰动的影响将使这种反馈作用变得更加迅速和灵敏。 相似文献
8.
Livestock-carrying capacity and overgrazing status of alpine grassland in the Three-RiverHeadwaters region,China简 总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3
The Three-River Headwaters region in China is an ecological barrier providing en- vironmental protection and regional sustainable development for the mid-stream and down- stream areas, which also plays an important role in animal husbandry in China. This study estimated the grassland yield in the Three-River Headwaters region based on MODIS NPP data, and calculated the proper livestock-carrying capacity of the grassland. We analyzed the overgrazing number and its spatial distribution characteristics through data comparison be- tween actual and proper livestock-carrying capacity. The results showed the following： （1） total grassland yield （hay） in the Three-River Headwaters region was 10.96 million tons in 2010 with an average grassland yield of 465.70 kg/hm2 （the spatial distribution presents a decreasing trend from the east and southeast to the west and northwest in turn）; （2） the proper livestock-carrying capacity in the Three-River Headwaters region is 12.19 million sheep units （hereafter described as ＂SU＂）, and the average stocking capacity is 51.27 SU [the proper carrying capacity is above 100 SU/km2 in the eastern counties, 60 SU/km2 in the cen- tral counties （except Madoi County）, and 30 SU/km2 in the western counties]; and （3） total overgrazing number was 6.52 million SU in the Three-River Headwaters region in 2010, with an average overgrazing ratio of 67.88% and an average overgrazing number of 27.43 SU/km2 A higher overgrazing ratio occurred in Tongde, Xinghai, Yushu, Henan and Z~kog. There was no overgrazing in Zhiduo, Tanggula Township and Darlag, Qumerleb and Madoi. The re- mainder of the counties had varying degrees of overgrazing. 相似文献
9.
Bankfull channel width is a fundamental measure of stream size and a key parameter of interest for many applications in hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, and stream ecology. We developed downstream hydraulic geometry relationships for bankfull channel width w as a function of drainage area A, w = α Aβ, (DHGwA) for nine aggregate ecoregions comprising the conterminous United States using 1588 sites from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Wadeable Streams Assessment (WSA), including 1152 sites from a randomized probability survey sample. Sampled stream reaches ranged from 1 to 75 m in bankfull width and 1 to 10,000 km2 in drainage area. The DHGwA exponent β, which expresses the rate at which bankfull stream width scales with drainage area, fell into three distinct clusters ranging from 0.22 to 0.38. Width increases more rapidly with basin area in the humid Eastern Highlands (encompassing the Northern and Southern Appalachians and the Ozark Mountains) and the Upper Midwest (Great Lakes region) than for the West (both mountainous and xeric areas), the southeastern Coastal Plain, and the Northern Plains (the Dakotas and Montana). Stream width increases least rapidly with basin area in the Temperate Plains (cornbelt) and Southern Plains (Great Prairies) in the heartland. The coefficient of determination (r2) was least in the noncoastal plains (0.36–0.41) and greatest in the Appalachians and Upper Midwest (0.68–0.77). DHGwA equations differed between streams with dominantly fine bed material (silt/sand) and those with dominantly coarse bed material (gravel/cobble/boulder) in six of the nine analysis regions. Where DHGwA equations varied by sediment size, fine-bedded streams were consistently narrower than coarse-bedded streams. Within the Western Mountains ecoregion, where there were sufficient sites to develop DHGwA relationships at a finer spatial scale, α and β ranged from 1.23 to 3.79 and 0.23 to 0.40, respectively, with r2 > 0.50 for 10 of 13 subregions (range: 0.36 to 0.92). Enhanced DHG equations incorporating additional data for three landscape variables that can be derived from GIS—mean annual precipitation, elevation, and mean reach slope—significantly improved equation fit and predictive value in several regions, most notably the Western Mountains and the Temperate Plains. Channel width was also related to human disturbance. We examined the influence of human disturbance on channel width using several indices of local and basinwide disturbance. Contrary to our expectations, the data suggest that the dominant response of channel width to human disturbance in the United States is a reduction in bankfull width in streams with greater disturbance, particularly in the Western Mountains (where population density, road density, agricultural land use, and local riparian disturbance were all negatively related to channel width) and in the Appalachians and New England (where urban and agricultural land cover and riparian disturbance were all negatively associated with channel width). 相似文献
10.
Avery L. C. Shinneman Danuta M. Bennett Sherilyn C. Fritz Jens Schmieder Daniel R. Engstrom Aris Efting John Holz 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2010,44(2):443-464
The Nebraska Sand Hills are a distinctive eco-region in the semi-arid Great Plains of the western United States. The water
table underlying the Sand Hills is part of the High Plains/Ogallala aquifer, an important water resource for the central Great
Plains. Lake levels are affected directly by fluctuations in the water table, which is recharged primarily by local precipitation
and responds quickly to climatically induced changes in regional water balance. Instrumental records are available for only
50–100 years, and paleolimnological data provide important insights into the extremes and variability in moisture balance
over longer time scales. A set of 69 lakes from across Nebraska was used to establish a statistical relationship between diatom
community composition and water depth. This relationship was then used to develop a diatom-based inference model for water
depth using weighted averaging regression and calibration techniques. Development of the inference model was complicated by
strong intra-seasonal variability in water depth and the linkages between depth and other limnologic characteristics, including
alkalinity, water clarity and nutrient concentrations. Analysis of historical diatom communities from eight lakes allowed
for the reconstruction of lake-level fluctuations over the past several thousand years. Comparisons of the more recent portion
of these reconstructions with the instrumental Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) showed that sediment records may not faithfully
reflect short-term fluctuations in water level, except where sedimentation rates are very high. However, large and persistent
changes in moisture availability were discernible even in longer, low-resolution records. Thus, diatoms are a useful addition
to the tools available for understanding past drought in the central Great Plains, especially when trajectories of change
are constrained by data from multiple sites or other proxies. 相似文献
11.
基于GIS 的中国人居环境指数模型的建立与应用 总被引：39，自引：5，他引：34
以1km×1km 栅格为基本单元, 选取地形、气候、水文、植被等自然因子, 构建了基 于人居环境指数的中国人居环境自然适宜性评价模型, 运用GIS 技术, 定量评价了中国不同 地区的人居环境自然适宜性, 揭示了中国人居环境的自然格局与地域特征。研究表明： 中国 人居环境指数整体呈现由东南沿海向西北内陆递减的趋势; 人居环境指数与人口密度显著相 关, 二者的对数曲线拟合度R2 值高达0.87, 人居环境指数可以综合反映区域人居环境的自然 适宜程度。中国人居环境自然适宜性评价结果显示, 中国人居环境适宜地区430.47×104 km2 , 接近国土面积的45%, 相应人口占全国的96.56%, 其中3/4 以上的人口集聚在约占1/4 人居 环境高度适宜和比较适宜地区; 中国人居环境临界适宜地区225.11×104 km2 , 占国土面积的 23.45%, 相应人口4112 万, 占全国的3.24%, 人口密度每平方公里18 人, 是中国人居环境 适宜与否的过渡地区; 中国人居环境不适宜地区304.42×104 km2, 人口249 万, 不到全国的 0.2%, 人口密度每平方公里不足1 人, 大片地区沦为“无人区”。 相似文献
12.
《The Professional geographer》2013,65(3):293-299
The diurnal course of large hail varies over the United States. The time of maximum of large hail changes from near 1500 hours on the east coast to between 1800 and 1900 hours on the Great Plains. The north-to-south differences are smaller except near the Gulf Coast, where secondary maxima occur. In some areas the time of maximum of large hail differs from the maxima times of tornadoes, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. 相似文献
13.
The least annual precipitation in the western interior of North America occurs in the northern Great Plains, including an area that encompasses parts of south-eastern Alberta, south-western Saskatchewan and eastern Montana. During 1999–2001, most climate stations in this region had record low precipitation. This paper examines this three-year drought in the context of historical climate records from Medicine Hat, Alberta and Havre, Montana and summer (June–July) and annual (August–July) precipitation reconstructed from standardized tree-ring widths (residual chronologies) from Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine) sampled in the Cypress Hills of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the Bears Paw Mountains of north-central Montana. Drought is operationally defined as precipitation in the lower 10th and 20th percentiles. Plots of reconstructed precipitation and cumulative departure from median values indicate a shift in climate variability prior to the twentieth century, when EuroCanadians settled in this region. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are characterized by sustained periods of progressively wetter and drier conditions, including prolonged drought. Various archival sources document the significant impacts of these prolonged droughts. While drought was frequent in the twentieth century, it tended to be of short duration and the impacts also were ameliorated by intervening periods of relatively high precipitation. Increasing aridity in response to global warming could expose a larger area of the northern Great Plains to the impacts of drought. 相似文献
14.
美国荒野风景河流体系是全球最早建立的河流保护地类型。经过50年发展,其完善的体系呈现出一定空间分布特征。将线状国家荒野风景河流（NWSR）抽象为点状单元,对208个NWSR单元进行空间计算,并与自然生态和社会经济等因素进行叠加分析。结果表明,美国已有40个州分布NWSR,其中以俄勒冈等3个州的数量分布最多,且集中分布于特定的区域：西部的太平洋海岸、落基山脉和山间高地3个自然地理区;极地、温湿润、干旱3个Ⅰ级生态区;太平洋西北部、加利福尼亚、阿拉斯加及五大湖4个流域。NWSR线密度与州域的人口密度、经济水平相关性不强,但与大坝建设密切相关。荒野思想影响了法案制定,法案指导了遴选标准,遴选标准又进一步影响了NWSR的空间分布。研究对中国的借鉴意义在于：应当明确保护地指导思想、关注价值突出区域、确定合适遴选标准、重视保护地系统规划等。 相似文献
15.
16.
Fawn M. Last William M. Last Mostafa Fayek Norman M. Halden 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2013,50(4):505-517
Micron-scale pseudomorphs of calcite after ikaite were discovered in microbialites from Manito Lake, a large hypersaline lake in the Great Plains of western Canada. Although environmental conditions in the lakes of this region (seasonally cold temperatures, high salinities and elevated productivity) suggest that ikaite should be common, this is the first documentation of lacustrine ikaite in Canada and the Great Plains region of North America. The calcite pseudomorphs form a porous dendritic fabric, comprise the interiors of massive shoreline microbialite mounds and pinnacles, and are encased in centimeter-scale, laminated dolomite-aragonite rinds. Because of the limited thermodynamic stability of ikaite at or near freezing temperatures, the psuedomorphs of this mineral provide evidence of an extended cold episode during the first millennium AD. The Manito deposits also show high δ13C values, indicating elevated productivity and δ18O signatures are consistent with precipitation in a cold, somewhat fresher lake than present. 相似文献
17.
Adam W. Burnett 《自然地理学》2013,34(1):80-98
Regional-scale middle- and upper-tropospheric troughing over the southwestern United States represents a departure from the modal circulation pattern for western North America. Once developed, southwestern troughs often are associated with positive vorticity advection aloft, surface cyclone formation, and moisture advection over areas of the western Great Plains and Intermountain West. These trough systems may play an important role in the precipitation climatology of the western and central United States. However, very little work has focused on the temporal climatology, developmental characteristics, or climatic impacts of southwestern troughs. This study provides a detailed climatology of southwestern troughing that focuses on: (1) the temporal frequency of these events; (2) the teleconnective circulation changes that are associated with their development; and (3) the importance of these systems in the precipitation climatology of the western and central United States. The temporal climatology of southwestern troughs reveals that most of these systems occur during spring and autumn, with somewhat fewer events in winter and very few events in summer. An examination of 500-mb geopotential height and 24-hr height change composites during trough development shows that much of the wave-train activity that accompanies trough onset is limited to the North Pacific and North American regions. These changes are characterized by the amplification and eastward movement of a ridge/trough couplet over the eastern Pacific, which is preceded by synoptic-scale transient wave activity over the western and central Pacific. While southwestern troughs occur less than 30% of the time, southwestern trough-derived precipitation comprises over 60% of the monthly totals for some sites. 相似文献
18.
ABSTRACTIn the mid-latitudes, snow plays a critical role in regional hydroclimate, with snow ablation variability in ephemeral regions representing an area of essential research. Due to a lack of historical snow-water-equivalent data in the eastern United States, recent research has substituted daily snow depth changes for ablation. These studies, however, do not explicitly examine if such a substitution yields a snowmelt hydrological signal, an important component of water resource management. As such, this study evaluates if ablation events, as defined as a daily snow depth decrease, subsequently result in increased river discharge within two similarly sized watersheds in the eastern United States: the Wabash and Susquehanna River basins. For both basins, >75% of snow ablation events resulted in a positive river discharge response (increase in discharge) at a 3-day lag. Furthermore, results show a significant and positive relationship between ablation event frequency and seasonal discharge response, such that an increase (decrease) in seasonal snow ablation event frequency yields an increase (decrease) in associated seasonal river discharge at a 3-day lag. These relationships indicate that inter-diurnal decreases in snow depth do carry hydrological implications, adding confidence that such a definition of ablation is appropriate for climatological applications. 相似文献
19.
江河源区生态环境范围的探讨 总被引：8，自引：0，他引：8
丁永建 杨建平 刘时银 CHEN Rensheng WANG Genxu SHEN Yongping WANG Jian XIE Changwei ZHANG Shiqing 《地理学报(英文版)》2003,13(2):172-180
The Tibetan Plateau, as the origin of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, is the region of climate variation and is very sensitive to climate change in China (Feng etal., 1998). The runoff in the upper reaches of the Yellow River has been decreasing at a rate of 9.8 m3/s per decade due to rapid climate warming in the Tibetan Plateau since the mid- and late 1980s (Zhang etal., 2000). Eco-environmental change is also extremely substantial in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. T… 相似文献
20.
Kent M. McGregor 《自然地理学》2013,34(3):288-301
The Palmer Index was used to compare the droughts of the 1930s and the 1950s in the central United States. A series of maps was produced to compare the droughts in terms of location, severity, and duration. The results indicated the 1930s drought lasted longer and consisted of three distinct waves. The 1950s drought, although shorter in overall duration, was actually more intense over a larger area for a longer period. There were changes in the size and configuration of the drought-affected area, but both droughts were especially persistent in a core region on the High Plains. A simple index of overall drought impact was developed based on the drought-affected area and the Palmer value from each climatic division. The probability of drought occurrence was calculated for each of the 76 climatic divisions in the study area. [Key words: drought, Palmer Index, Great Plains.] 相似文献