Presettlement Vegetation Patterns along Navigation Pool 17 of the UpperMississippi River

摘要

The Upper Mississippi River flows south through an eastern extension of the greatplains known as the prairie peninsula. For decades, ecologists have characterized the uplands of the prairie peninsula as a landscape once dominated by grasslands, savannas, and open woodlands with forests restricted mainly to the large river valleys. The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program's (LTRMP) recent findings. from several Navigation Pools including Pool 17, challenge the long held perception that forests were the dominant community type along the Mississippi River valley before European-American settlement.