Ecoregions of the Southern High Plains

Ecoregions

According to the WWF, an ecoregion is a relatively large unit of land or ocean that contains geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land use change. Ecoregions (i) share a large majority of their species and ecological dynamics,(ii)share similar environmental conditions, and (iii)interact ecologically in ways that are critical for their long-term persistence.

Different groups have attempted to identify and classify ecoregions. At a global scale, WWF has divided the world into 867 distinct terrestrial ecoregions. The US EPA has classifed 106 ecoregions in the United States.

According to the WWF, most of the Llano Estacado falls within the Western Short Grasslands ecoregion. At a finer scale, some of the EPA ecoregions in the area include Rolling Sand Plains, Canadiian/Cimmaron High Plains, Llano Estacado, Shinnery Sands, and Arid Llano Estacado ecoregions.


Readings

Ecoregions http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ecoregion

Western Short Grasslands http://www.eoearth.org/article/Western_short_grasslands

Ecoregions of Texas (EPA) http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ecoregions_of_Texas_(EPA)

FYI

Here is a link to a Powerpoint Presentation that compares the WWF ecoregions of Texas to the ecoregions of Malaysia.

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/wwf-ecoregions-of-texas-and-malaysia