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2015 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

1. Great Plains

Social-Ecological Setting (Climate-Environment-Society) Natural Resources and Wildlife Aspects

Author : Dennis S. Ojima

Published in: Great Plains Regional Technical Input Report

Publisher: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics

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Abstract

The Great Plains lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, rising gradually from about 98 ft (30 m) above sea level to over 5,000 ft (1,524 m) at the foot of the mountains. Before their widespread conversion to intensive agriculture, the Great Plains were noted for their extensive grasslands, from tall-grass prairie in the east to short-grass prairie in the western High Plains. The generally low relief of the plains is broken in several places, notably by the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which form the Interior Highlands, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains (see Havstad et al. 2009).

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Title: Great Plains
Author: Dennis S. Ojima
Publisher: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics
Book: Great Plains Regional Technical Input Report
Print ISBN: 978-1-59726-429-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-61091-510-6

Copyright Year: 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-510-6_1