Wildflowers and Friends
by Sylvia Thornton
Title
Wildflowers and Friends
Artist
Sylvia Thornton
Medium
Photograph - Photograph Digital
Description
This is a photo of the beautiful wildflowers in a pasture near Arnold, NE.
From Wikipedia:
Dunes in the Sandhills may exceed 330 ft (100 m) in height. The average elevation of the region gradually increases from about 1,800 ft (550 m) in the east to about 3,600 ft (1,100 m) in the west.
The Sandhills sit atop the massive Ogallala Aquifer; thus both temporary and permanent shallow lakes are common in low-lying valleys between the grass-stabilized dunes prevalent in the Sandhills. The eastern and central sections of the region are drained by tributaries of the Loup River and the Niobrara River, while the western section is largely composed of small interior drainage basins.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) designated the Sandhills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains. According to their assessment, as much as 85% of the ecoregion is intact natural habitat, the highest level in the Great Plains. This is chiefly due to the lack of crop production: most of the Sandhills land has never been plowed.
As the largest and most intricate wetland ecosystem in the United States, the Sandhills contain a large array of plant and animal life.[2] Minimal crop production has led to limited land fragmentation; the resulting extensive and continuous habitat for plant and animal species has largely preserved the biodiversity of the area.
The Sandhills are home to 314 vertebrate species including mule deer, white-tail deer, coyotes, red fox, meadowlarks, wild turkeys, badgers, skunks, native bat species and many fish species.
The Sandhills' thousands of ponds and lakes replenish the Ogallala Aquifer, which feeds creeks and rivers such as the Niobrara and Loup rivers. These bodies of water are homes for many species of fish. The lakes are mainly sandy-bottomed and provide water for the region's cattle, as well as a habitat for aquatic species. However, some lakes in the area are alkaline and support several species of phyllopod shrimp.
Uploaded
August 18th, 2013
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