Colorado is a state of the Western United States encompassing most of the southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. It is the 8th most extensive and 21st most populous U. S. state. The estimated population of Colorado is 5,770,545 as of 2019, an increase of 14.7% since the 2010 United States Census. The state was named for the Colorado River, which early Spanish explorers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains; the Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28, 1861, on August 1, 1876, U. S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed Proclamation 230 admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it became a state one century after the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas to the east, Oklahoma to the southeast, New Mexico to the south, Utah to the west, touches Arizona to the southwest at the Four Corners.

Colorado is noted for its vivid landscape of mountains, high plains, canyons, plateaus and desert lands. Colorado is one of the Mountain States. Denver is most populous city of Colorado. Residents of the state are known as Coloradans, although the antiquated term "Coloradoan" is used. Colorado is notable for its diverse geography, which includes alpine mountains, high plains, deserts with huge sand dunes, deep canyons. In 1861, the United States Congress defined the boundaries of the new Territory of Colorado by lines of latitude and longitude, stretching from 37°N to 41°N latitude, from 102°02'48"W to 109°02'48"W longitude. After 159 years of government surveys, the borders of Colorado are now defined by 697 boundary markers and 697 straight boundary lines. Colorado and Utah are the only states that have their borders defined by straight boundary lines with no natural features; the southwest corner of Colorado is the Four Corners Monument at 36°59'56"N, 109°2'43"W. This border delineating Colorado, New Mexico and Utah is the only place in the United States where four states meet.

The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains of North America. Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County and into Cheyenne County, Kansas, is the lowest point in Colorado at 3,317 feet elevation; this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than half of Colorado is flat and rolling land. East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from 3,350 to 7,500 feet; the Colorado plains are prairies but include deciduous forests and canyons. Precipitation averages 15 to 25 inches annually. Eastern Colorado is presently farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages and towns. Corn, hay and oats are all typical crops.

Most villages and towns in this region boast both a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from subterranean sources. Surface water sources include the South Platte, the Arkansas River, a few other streams. Subterranean water is accessed through artesian wells. Heavy usage of these wells for irrigation purposes caused underground water reserves to decline in the region. Eastern Colorado hosts a considerable amount and range of livestock, such as cattle ranches and hog farms. 70% of Colorado's population resides along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado; the "Front Range" includes Denver, Fort Collins, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and other townships and municipalities in between. On the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction and Montrose.

The Continental Divide of the Americas extends along the crest of the Rocky Mountains. The area of Colorado to the west of the Continental Divide is called the Western Slope of Colorado. West of the Continental Divide, water flows to the southwest via the Colorado River and the Green River into the Gulf of California. Within the interior of the Rocky Mountains are several large parks which are high broad basins. In the north, on the east side of the Continental Divide is the North Park of Colorado; the North Park is drained by the North Platte River, which flows north into Nebraska. Just to the south of North Park, but on the western side of the Continental Divide, is the Middle Park of Colorado, drained by the Colorado River; the South Park of Colorado is the region of the headwaters of the South Platte River. In southmost Colorado is the large San Luis Valley, where the headwaters of the Rio Grande are located; the valley sits between the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and San Juan Mountains, consists of large desert lands that run into the mountains.

The Rio Grande drains due south into New Mexi

Halosaccion glandiforme known as sea sacs or sea grapes, is a species of red algae. It was first described to science by S. G. Gmelin in 1768, in what is arguably the first book to focus on marine biology, Historia Fucorum. Franz Josef Ruprecht is responsible for the current taxonomic description; the type specimen was collected in Russia. The thallus, or body, of this algae is a torpedo-shaped sac; this ellipsoid shape has low drag through the water allowing the algae to inhabit areas with significant wave and current energy. The sac is reddish-purple to yellowish-brown in color, it can be as long as 15 centimetres, but is shorter. The sac can be up to 4 centimetres in diameter; the sac wall is up to 400 micrometres thick. There are 5 to 15 small pores in the thallus that allow sea water out of the sac; these pores are 10 micrometres to 100 micrometres in diameter. When submerged, the elasticity of the sac walls draws water into the thallus through the pores. Rapid photosynthesis produces a small oxygen bubble inside the sac which holds it toward the surface and the energy of the sun.

The sac tapers to a short stipe, or stem, that connects to a small, disc-shaped holdfast which anchors the algae to the bottom. The stipe is weak, but sufficient to anchor the algae given the low drag of the thallus; when the tide goes out, the algae desiccates in the open air. Water from the sac leaks out of the pores, keeping the thallus moist; as the water leaks away, the sac may appear flattened. While a deflated sac will perish in the sun within three hours, sacs that are water-filled when the tide goes out remain moist and cool, surviving until the next tide covers them. Older sea sacs sometimes have their tips abraded away, leaving them without their internal supply of water. Sea sacs are distributed in the north Pacific Ocean; the species is found from the Russian Far East to the Bering and Chukchi Seas, the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska and south along the coast of North America to Point Conception, California. Sea sacs are found in Puget Sound; this is a shallow water species growing in the low to middle intertidal zone.

It grows on rock, showing a marked preference for the rough, exposed points of rock rather than the cracks and valleys in rock. It may grow on algae, including Corallina vancouveriensis and Neorhodomela larix, it will growth in areas that are exposed in semi-protected areas. This algae is an annual, degenerating in the Fall, it has a complex reproductive strategy. The obvious sea sacs that are seen in the intertidal zone are a mix of male gametophytes and asexual tetrasporophytes, they appear to be identical, but close examination reveals the thalli of the tetrasporophytes to be dotted with the red tetraspores. The female gametophyte is unlikely to be noticed outside of a laboratory; the reproductive cycle of sea sacs proceeds are follows: The mature male gamtophyte produces its gametes, spermatia, on the surface of its thallus. These are released into the sea in strands of mucus in Summer; the mature female gametophore has a carpogonium containing its genetic material and two hair-like trichogynes, which capture the sprematia prior to fertilization.

Given the immediate maturity of the female, the over-wintering of the male gametophore, females are fertilized by the previous generation's males. Once fertilized, the zygote develops into a small disc that grows into the asexual tetrasporopyhte at the start of the next Spring; the tetrasporophyte has sporangia, on the surface of its thallus. Each sporangia produces four spores through meiosis; the spores are released in Summer. When these spores germinate, they become two male and two female gametophytes; the males divide each creating a disc from which a new male sea sac will mature at the start of the next Spring. The female gametophytes mature rapidly, within 24 hours of germination. Sea sacs generate all their energy from photosynthesis, they are eaten by limpets and the black turban snail, Tegula funebralis. They are edible by humans, either raw or in soups. Small amphipods may chew their way into a sac and live there, safe from predators

Wichtrach is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Wichtrach was created on 1 January 2004 by uniting the independent municipalities of Niederwichtrach and Oberwichtrach; the parish church of Oberwichtrach was first mentioned in 1180. The two Wichtrach villages were first mentioned in 1180 as Wichtracho. Wichtrach has an area of 11.6 km2. As of 2012, a total of 7.35 km2 or 63.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.59 km2 or 22.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.52 km2 or 13.1% is settled, 0.11 km2 or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land. During the same year and buildings made up 6.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.9% is used for growing crops and 12.1% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

On 1 January 2004 the former municipalities of Niederwichtrach and Oberwichtrach merged into the municipality of Wichtrach. On 31 December 2009 the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland. Wichtrach has a population of 4,293; as of 2010, 5.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 0%. Migration accounted for -0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%. Most of the population speaks German as their first language, French is the second most common and Italian is the third; as of 2008, the population was 49.8 % female. The population was made up of 120 non-Swiss men. There were 99 non-Swiss women; as of 2011, children and teenagers make up 21.4% of the population, while adults make up 63.3% and seniors make up 15.3%. As of 2010, there were 488 households that consist of only one person and 76 households with five or more people.

As of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 0.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2011, was 2.78%. The historical population is given in the following chart: In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party which received 36.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party and the FDP; the Liberals. In the federal election, a total of 1,508 votes were cast, the voter turnout was 48.0%. As of 2011, Wichtrach had an unemployment rate of 1.32%. As of 2008, there were a total of 967 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 120 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 46 businesses involved in this sector. 291 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 41 businesses in this sector. 556 people were employed with 92 businesses in this sector. In 2008 there were a total of 760 full-time equivalent jobs.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 78. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 270 of which 127 or were in manufacturing and 143 were in construction; the number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 412. In the tertiary sector. Of the working population, 27.6% used public transportation to get to work, 50.2% used a private car. In 2000 about 78.2% of the population belonged to a Protestant church, 9.4% were Roman Catholic and 5.6% had no religious affiliation. In Wichtrach about 62.5% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, 18.9% have completed additional higher education. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school; this is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 588 students attending classes in Wichtrach.

There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 78 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland and 9.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 258 students. Of the primary students, 6.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland and 7.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 252 students. There were 3.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland and 4.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. Wichtrach in German and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Niederwichtrach in German and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Oberwichtrach in German, French