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Article: Grasslands
- Article from:
- Plant Sciences
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Grasslands
Ecosystems
in which grasses and grasslike plants such as sedges and rushes dominate the vegetation are termed grasslands. Grasslands occur on every continent except Antarctica. It is estimated that grasslands once covered as much as 25 to 40 percent of Earth's land surface, but much of this has been plowed and converted to crop production, such as corn, wheat, and soybeans. Prior to the European settlement of North America, the largest continuous grasslands in the United States stretched across the Great Plains from the Rocky Mountains and deserts of the southwestern states to the Mississippi River. Other extensive grasslands are (or were) found in Europe, South America, ...
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Article: zoogeomorphology
The Oxford Companion to the Earth;
700+ words
......animal trails produced by trampling are widespread; examples include trails produced by elephants and hippopotamuses in tropical grasslands, bison in the semi-arid grasslands of the Great Plains, mountain goats in the Rocky Mountains, and caribou in the Arctic...
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