%0 Book Section %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %D 1997 %T Avian community responses to fire, grazing and drought in the tallgrass prairie %A Zimmerman, J.L. %E Knopf, F.L. %E Samson, F.B. %K tallgrass prairie %X Vegetation typical of the tallgrass prairie occurs east of the Great Plains in bottomland “openings” and as small “glades” or “balds” within the eastern deciduous forest. West of the Mississippi River, however, coverage by tallgrass prairie expands with the increasingly greater aridity under the deepening rainshadow of the western mountains. Along the Kansas-Missouri border on the western fringe of the deciduous forest, prairie is present across 50–80% of the region (Schroeder 1983). Forested area within this prairie-forest mosaic continues to diminish, decreasing to as little as 7% in the Flint Hills Uplands (Knight et al. 1994). The portion of the Great Plains characterized by the tallgrass prairie community exists in a climate that allows the development of forest as a bordering “gallery” along stream courses. These naturally occurring forest fragments, these island remnants of the continental forest to the east, remain an integral aspect of the tallgrass prairie landscape, contributing a disproportionately greater component, considering the small extent of their coverage, to the regional avian species richness (Faanes 1984, Zimmerman 1993). %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %I Springer Verlag %C New York %P 167 -180 %G eng %M KNZ00617 %R 10.1007/978-1-4757-2703-6_7 %0 Book Section %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %D 1997 %T Comparative ecology of native and introduced ungulates %A D.C. Hartnett %A Steuter, A.A. %A Hickman, K.R. %E Knopf, F.L. %E Samson, F.B. %X The defining period of coevolution among Great Plains plant and ungulate species occurred during the past 12,000 years (Mack and Thompson 1982, Axelrod 1985). In the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, a diverse array of large grazers and browsers were reduced to a much smaller group of ungulate species represented by bison (Bison bison), pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), deer (Odocoileus hemionus and O. virginianus), and elk (Cervus canadensis). These changes occurred in the presence of nomadic humans from the Asian steppe who were immigrating to the Great Plains during the same time. The landscape was characterized by gently rolling interfluvial surfaces covered with perennial herbaceous vegetation. These exposed grasslands were periodically interrupted by more protected wetland, riparian woodland, or scarp woodland habitats. Although wetlands and woodlands occupied less than 7 and less than 3% of the Great Plains, respectively (National Wetlands Inventory, and Nebraska Natural Heritage Program data bases), the heterogeneity that they created at landscape scales played a major role in determining the distribution and abundance of native ungulates. Extreme cold and heat, drought, flood, fire, wind, and countless biotic interactions caused locally short-term fluctuations in ungulate populations and long-term shifts in landscape features. These dynamic temporal changes were overlayed on a multi-scale spatial mosaic. Native ungulates were adapted to this landscape. %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %I Springer-Verlag %C New York %P 72 -101 %G eng %M KNZ00591 %R 10.1007/978-1-4757-2703-6_4 %0 Book Section %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %D 1997 %T Ecology of small mammals in prairie landscapes %A Kaufman, G.A. %A D.W. Kaufman %E Knopf, F.L. %E Samson, F.B. %X When one crosses the prairie landscapes of central North America, one becomes aware of the impacts that humans have had on the region. Recent anthropogenic modifications of the presettlement prairie not only have changed vegetation but also altered distributional ranges, spatial use within ranges, and total numbers of many species of animals. Although human activities often reduce ranges and abundances of animals and these reductions usually are the foci of issues of conservation, human impacts do not always lead to such reductions. Anthropogenic changes can and do lead to increases in numbers, distributional ranges, or both for some species. Some of these increases result from altered landscapes that provide conditions more suitable for some species than the conditions available in native environments. Other increases are due to intentional introductions of both domestic and wild species and to accidental introductions of wild species. %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %I Springer-Verlag %C New York %P 207 -243 %G eng %M KNZ00596 %R 10.1007/978-1-4757-2703-6_9 %0 Book Section %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %D 1997 %T Landscape gradients and habitat structure in native grasslands of the central great plains %A Vinton, M.A. %A Scott. L. Collins %E Knopf, F.L. %E Samson, F.B. %X Habitat variables have a powerful influence on the distribution and abundance of organisms, and many organisms directly affect the physical structure of their local environment. These interactions produce a complex feedback system that drives community dynamics. This scenario is particularly true in grasslands where the effects of “keystone engineers,” such as the North American bison (Bison bison), have a tremendous influence on ecosystem structure and function (Collins and Benning 1996). This interplay between organisms and habitat structure in grasslands occurs within a climatic regime that varies dramatically from one year to the next. In addition, the relative influence of different habitat variables changes at different spatial and temporal scales. %B Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates %I Springer-Verlag %C New York %P 3 -19 %G eng %M KNZ00614 %R 10.1007/978-1-4757-2703-6_1 %0 Book Section %B Prairie Conservation-Preserving North America's Most Endangered Ecosystem %D 1996 %T Prairie ecology-the tallgrass prairie %A Steinauer, E.M. %A Scott. L. Collins %E Knopf, F.L. %E Samson, F.B. %K tallgrass prairie %B Prairie Conservation-Preserving North America's Most Endangered Ecosystem %I Island Press %C Washington, DC %P 39 -52 %G eng %U https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZlHRjU2EDLQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA39&dq=%22Prairie%2Becology-the%2Btallgrass%2Bprairie%22+Steinauer&ots=7TE04D0yxT&sig=B4UaGusICyHJqjiwWNTFkCdrE_0#v=onepage&q=%22Prairie%2Becology-the%2Btallgrass%2Bprairie%22%20Steinauer %M KNZ00569