Prairie Pothole Region
The Prairie Pothole Region is a large area in the north of the Great Plains that is characterized by thousands of wetlands. These are the so-called potholes , the formation of which goes back to the most recent glaciation phase, which ended around 10,000 years ago. The ice sheet formed the terrain through the uneven deposition of boulder clay in ground moraines and thus formed a chain of dead ponds .
More than half of these dead ponds have been drained and converted into agricultural land. In some regions the loss of dead ice is even more than 90 percent. The remaining dead ponds are of great importance for duck birds and other animal species whose way of life is tied to water. For more than 50 percent of North American migratory bird species with a water-based way of life, these dead pits play a decisive role.
Private and state conservation initiatives have taken on the protection of the lakes. The initiative Ducks unlimited , founded by hunters, looks after over 50,000 km², some of which were purchased. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is funding the purchase of waterfowl production areas in the United States from the Duck Stamp program . Duck stamps are fee stamps and must be purchased for hunting waterfowl. The proceeds were used to purchase over 36,000 small and very small protected areas.
A characteristic species of this region is the prairie gull , whose main distribution area largely coincides with the Prairie Pothole region. The region presumably holds over 60% of the populations of this species, possibly over 50% of the North American populations of the grebe , the North American bittern , the Carolina moorhen , the American coot and the black tern , over 30% of the California gull and the rhinoceros pelican . Other species of water birds include mallard , North American wigeon , teal , pintail, and gadfly .
Individual evidence
- ^ Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region. US Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, accessed January 16, 2009 .
- ↑ a b The Prairie Pothole Region. (No longer available online.) In: Mountain Prairie. National Biological Information Infrastructure, formerly in the original ; accessed on January 16, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Wetlands. In: Basin Fact Sheets. Minnesota River Basin Data Center, accessed January 16, 2009 .
- ↑ Ducks unlimited: About Ducks Unlimited ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 25, 2010)
- ↑ US Fish and Wildlife Service: Waterfowl Production Areas (accessed August 25, 2010)
- ↑ US Fish and Wildlife Service: Welcome to the National Wildlife Refuge System (accessed August 25, 2010)
- ↑ Conservation Planning for Waterbirds at the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture (PPJV) , accessed February 12, 2012
literature
- Ned H. Euliss Jr., David M. Mushet, Dale A. Wrubleski: Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region. Invertebrate Species Composition, Ecology, and Management. In: DP Batzer, RB Rader, SA Wissinger (Ed.): Invertebrates in Freshwater Wetlands of North America. Ecology and Management. Wiley, New York 1999, ISBN 0-471-29258-3 , pp. 471-514.
Web links
- Prairie Potholes. In: Mountain-Prairie Region. South Dakota. US Fish and Wildlife Service, accessed January 16, 2009 .
- Prairie Potholes. In: Wetlands. US Environmental Protection Agency, accessed January 16, 2009 .
- Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region. US Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, accessed January 16, 2009 .
Coordinates: 49 ° 27 ′ 13.8 " N , 103 ° 25 ′ 31.1" W.