Shortgrass prairie

Shortgrass prairie of the Llano Estacado

Shortgrass prairie in relation to the Great Plains of the United States

  Shortgrass prairie

  Mixed grass prairie

  Tallgrass prairie

The shortgrass prairie ecosystem of the North American Great Plains is a prairie that includes lands from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains east to Nebraska and north into Saskatchewan, including rangelands in Alberta, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas, and extending to the south through the high plains of Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.

These rangelands were formerly maintained by grazing pressure of American bison, the keystone species; the dominant grasses are blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides). Less dominant grasses in the area are greasegrass (Tridens flavus) and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula). The semiarid climate receives on average less precipitation than that which supports the tallgrass prairie formerly to the east.

See also

Big Basin Prairie Preserve Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge Buffalo commons Canadian Prairies Cimarron National Grassland Colorado Eastern Plains Comanche National Grassland Eastern New Mexico Eurasian Steppe

Grassland Great Plains High Plains Kazakh Steppe Llano Estacado Oklahoma Panhandle Pawnee National Grassland Pontic Steppe

Range condition scoring Semi-arid climate Tallgrass prairie Steppe Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands West Texas

External links

• (University of Idaho) "What is range?"