An associational study of Illinois sand prairie . .l than apparent; it therefore follows thatthe physical conditions, though often in an indirect manner, deter-mine the ecological typ)e of animals, as \iell as plants, in a givenregion. The biotic provinces, or life zones, which are large regionsin which a definite set of physical factors are dominant , have been! determined v;ith fair accuracy for the plants of North America (Tran-: seau, 1905: Pound and Clements, 1398; Engler, 1902). In these no: account has been taken of the animals. Merriam, in his Life and Crop Zones (1898) has confined hi
An associational study of Illinois sand prairie . .l than apparent; it therefore follows thatthe physical conditions, though often in an indirect manner, deter-mine the ecological typ)e of animals, as \iell as plants, in a givenregion. The biotic provinces, or life zones, which are large regionsin which a definite set of physical factors are dominant , have been! determined v;ith fair accuracy for the plants of North America (Tran-: seau, 1905: Pound and Clements, 1398; Engler, 1902). In these no: account has been taken of the animals. Merriam, in his Life and Crop Zones (1898) has confined himself to a single factor - temperature - and his work is one of the latest attempts to map the animal provinces. There are at least three reasons vrhy the provinces should first be determined from the work and view point of botanists, and later fromthat of zoologists: First, plant ecology has reached a much mioreadvanced stage of development than animal ecology; second, the plantassociation has a definite physiognomy, which can at once be recog-. nized, and v/hich givos the characteristic appearance to the re^^^ion,whereas the animal association is not conspicuous, and can be recof-nized only after extended study; third, the power of locomotion andcomplexity of behavior of animals results, in a large number offorms, in peculiarities of geographic distribution which tend to makethe boundaries less definite than that of the plant province andwhich also results, for many species, in local boundary differenceswhich tend to confuse. However, it seems safe to assert that thereis no fundamental difference between plants and animals in theirbroad distribution, and we may consider the provinces not only aslarge areas of certain types of vegetation, but as areas characterizeby typical formations of both plants and animals. General Note on the Prairie ProvinceThe prairie province, in the border of which the present regionis located, occupies a large inland area oast of the Rocky Ivlountai
Size: 1332px × 1875px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidassocia, booksubjecttheses
