1.
Conservation status
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The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Various systems of conservation status exist and are in use at international, multi-country, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Also included are species that have gone extinct since 500 AD, when discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term threatened is a grouping of three categories, critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category, Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora aims to ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals. Many countries require CITES permits when importing plants and animals listed on CITES, in the European Union, the Birds and Habitats Directives are the legal instruments that evaluate the conservation status within the EU of species and habitats. NatureServe conservation status focuses on Latin America, United States, Canada, and it has been developed by scientists from NatureServe, The Nature Conservancy, and the network of natural heritage programs and data centers. It is increasingly integrated with the IUCN Red List system and its categories for species include, presumed extinct, possibly extinct, critically imperiled, imperiled, vulnerable, apparently secure, and secure. The system also allows ambiguous or uncertain ranks including inexact numeric ranks, NatureServe adds a qualifier for captive or cultivated only, which has a similar meaning to the IUCN Red List extinct in the wild status. The Red Data Book of the Russian Federation is used within the Russian Federation, in Australia, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 describes lists of threatened species, ecological communities and threatening processes. The categories resemble those of the 1994 IUCN Red List Categories & Criteria, prior to the EPBC Act, a simpler classification system was used by the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992. Some state and territory governments also have their own systems for conservation status, in Belgium, the Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest publishes an online set of more than 150 nature indicators in Dutch. In Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is a group of experts that assesses and designates which wild species are in danger of disappearing from Canada. Under the Species at Risk Act, it is up to the federal government, in China, the State, provinces and some counties have determined their key protected wildlife species. There is the China red data book, in Finland, a large number of species are protected under the Nature Conservation Act, and through the EU Habitats Directive and EU Birds Directive. In Germany, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation publishes red lists of endangered species, india has the Wild Life Protection Act,1972, Amended 2003 and the Biological Diversity Act,2002. In Japan, the Ministry of Environment publishes a Threatened Wildlife of Japan Red Data Book, in the Netherlands, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality publishes a list of threatened species, and conservation is enforced by the Nature Conservation Act 1998. Species are also protected through the Wild Birds and Habitats Directives, in New Zealand, the Department of Conservation publishes the New Zealand Threat Classification System lists
2.
Least Concern
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A least concern species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as evaluated but not qualified for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, near threatened, species cannot be assigned the Least Concern category unless they have had their population status evaluated. That is, adequate information is needed to make a direct, or indirect, since 2001 the category has had the abbreviation LC, following the IUCN2001 Categories & Criteria. However, around 20% of least concern taxa in the IUCN database use the code LR/lc, prior to 2001 least concern was a subcategory of the Lower Risk category and assigned the code LR/lc or. While least concern is not considered a red listed category by the IUCN, the number of animal species listed in this category totals 14033. There are also 101 animal subspecies listed and 1500 plant taxa, there are also two animal subpopulations listed, the Australasian and Southern African subpopulations of spiny dogfish. No fungi or protista have the classification, though only four species in those kingdoms have been evaluated by the IUCN, humans qualify for this category, and in 2008 were formally assessed as such by the IUCN
3.
IUCN Red List
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The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the worlds most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the main authority on the conservation status of species. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, the IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world, the aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction. Major species assessors include BirdLife International, the Institute of Zoology, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, collectively, assessments by these organizations and groups account for nearly half the species on the Red List. The IUCN aims to have the category of every species re-evaluated every five years if possible, the 1964 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants used the older pre-criteria Red List assessment system. Plants listed may not, therefore, appear in the current Red List, IUCN advise that is best to check both the online Red List and the 1997 plants Red List publication. The 2006 Red List, released on 4 May 2006 evaluated 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160 subspecies, varieties, aquatic stocks, on 12 September 2007, the World Conservation Union released the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Russ Mittermeier, chief of Swiss-based IUCNs Primate Specialist Group, stated that 16,306 species are endangered with extinction,188 more than in 2006, the Red List includes the Sumatran orangutan in the Critically Endangered category and the Bornean orangutan in the Endangered category. The study shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction, and 836 are listed as Data Deficient. The Red List of 2012 was released 19 July 2012 at Rio+20 Earth Summit, nearly 2,000 species were added, the IUCN assessed a total of 63,837 species which revealed 19,817 are threatened with extinction. With 3,947 described as endangered and 5,766 as endangered. At threat are 41% of amphibian species, 33% of reef-building corals, 30% of conifers, 25% of mammals, the IUCN Red List has listed 132 species of plants and animals from India as Critically Endangered. Extinct – No known individuals remaining, extinct in the wild – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range. Critically endangered – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, Endangered – High risk of extinction in the wild. Vulnerable – High risk of endangerment in the wild, near threatened – Likely to become endangered in the near future. Does not qualify for a more at-risk category, widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category. Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction, Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria
4.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
5.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
6.
Pinophyta
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The Pinophyta, also known as Coniferophyta or Coniferae, or commonly as conifers, are a division of vascular land plants containing a single class, Pinopsida. They are gymnosperms, cone-bearing seed plants, all extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs, examples include cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families,68 genera, although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink. Conifers are of economic value for softwood lumber and paper production. The earliest conifers in the record date to the late Carboniferous period, possibly arising from Cordaites. Pinophytes, Cycadophytes, and Ginkgophytes all developed at this time, an important adaptation of these gymnosperms was allowing plants to live without being so dependent on water. Other adaptations are pollen and the seed, which allows the embryo to be transported and developed elsewhere, Conifers appear to be one of the taxa that benefited from the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and were the dominant land plants of the Mesozoic. They were overtaken by the plants, which first appeared in the Cretaceous. They were the food of herbivorous dinosaurs, and their resins and poisons would have given protection against herbivores. Reproductive features of modern conifers had evolved by the end of the Mesozoic era, Conifer is a Latin word, a compound of conus and ferre, meaning the one that bears cone. A descriptive name in use for the conifers is Coniferae. Alternatively, descriptive botanical names may also be used at any rank above family and this means that if conifers are considered a division, they may be called Pinophyta or Coniferae. As a class they may be called Pinopsida or Coniferae, as an order they may be called Pinales or Coniferae or Coniferales. Conifers are the largest and economically most important component group of the gymnosperms, the division Pinophyta consists of just one class, Pinopsida, which includes both living and fossil taxa
7.
Pinales
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The order Pinales in the division Pinophyta, class Pinopsida, comprises all the extant conifers. This order used to be known as the Coniferales, the distinguishing characteristic is the reproductive structure known as a cone produced by all Pinales. All of the extant conifers, such as cedar, celery-pine, cypress, fir, juniper, larch, pine, redwood, spruce, some fossil conifers, however, belong to other distinct orders within the division Pinophyta. The yews had been separated into an order of their own. The families included are the Araucariaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, Cupressaceae, Pinaceae, Podocarpaceae, Sciadopityaceae, and Taxaceae
8.
Pinaceae
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The Pinaceae are trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly known as Coniferales, Pinaceae are supported as monophyletic by their protein-type sieve cell plastids, pattern of proembryogeny, and lack of bioflavonoids. The family often forms the dominant component of boreal, coastal, one species, Pinus merkusii, grows just south of the equator in Southeast Asia. Major centres of diversity are found in the mountains of southwest China, Mexico, central Japan, and California. Members of the family Pinaceae are trees growing from 2 to 100 m tall, mostly evergreen, resinous, monoecious, with subopposite or whorled branches, the embryos of Pinaceae have three to 24 cotyledons. The female cones are large and usually woody, 2–60 cm long, with spirally arranged scales. The male cones are small,0. 5–6.0 cm long, seed dispersal is mostly by wind, but some species have large seeds with reduced wings, and are dispersed by birds. Analysis of Pinaceae cones reveals how selective pressure has shaped the evolution of variable cone size, variation in cone size in the family has likely resulted from the variation of seed dispersal mechanisms available in their environments over time. All Pinaceae with seeds weighing less than 90 mg are seemingly adapted for wind dispersal, pines having seeds larger than 100 mg are more likely to have benefited from adaptations that promote animal dispersal, particularly by birds. Pinaceae that persist in areas where tree squirrels are abundant do not seem to have evolved adaptations for bird dispersal, boreal conifers have many adaptions for winter. Classification of the subfamilies and genera of Pinaceae has been subject to debate in the past, Pinaceae ecology, morphology, and history have all been used as the basis for methods of analyses of the family. An 1891 publication divided the family into two subfamiles, using the number and position of resin canals in the primary region of the young taproot as the primary consideration. In a 1910 publication, the family was divided into two based on the occurrence and type of long–short shoot dimorphism. A more recent classification divided the subfamilies and genera based on the consideration of features of ovulate cone anatomy among extant, below is an example of how the morphology has been used to classify Pinaceae. Sieve element plastids of Gymnospermae, their ultrastructure and relation to systematics, D. F. Greene & E. A. Johnson. The dispersal of winged fruits and seeds differing in autorotative behavior, a. Liston, D. S. Gernandt, T. F. Vining, C. S. Campbell & D. Piñero. Molecular phylogeny of Pinaceae and Pinus, proceedings of the Fourth International Conifer Conference. Brugge, International Society for Horticultural Science, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Zsolt Debreczy, Istvan Racz
9.
Pine
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A pine is any conifer in the genus Pinus, /ˈpiːnuːs/, of the family Pinaceae. Pinus is the genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The Plant List compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 126 species names of pines as current, together with 35 unresolved species, the modern English name pine derives from Latin pinus, which some have traced to the Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’. Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs, the genus is divided into three subgenera, which can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters, Pinus subg. Pinus, the yellow, or hard pine group, generally harder wood. Ducampopinus, the foxtail or pinyon group Pinus subg, strobus, the white, or soft pine group, generally with softer wood and five needles per fascicle Most regions of the Northern Hemisphere host some native species of pines. One species crosses the equator in Sumatra to 2°S, in North America, various species occur in regions at latitudes from as far north as 66°N to as far south as 12°N. Various species have been introduced to temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks, a number of such introduced species have become invasive and threaten native ecosystems. Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous trees growing 3–80 m tall. The smallest are Siberian dwarf pine and Potosi pinyon, and the tallest is a 81.79 m tall ponderosa pine located in southern Oregons Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in regular pseudo whorls, actually a very tight spiral, the spiral growth of branches, needles, and cone scales are arranged in Fibonacci number ratios. The new spring shoots are sometimes called candles, they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then turn green. These candles offer foresters a means to evaluate fertility of the soil, pines are long-lived, and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, one individual of this species, dubbed Methuselah, is one of the worlds oldest living organisms at around 4,600 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California, an older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak and it is now known as Prometheus after the Greek immortal, pines have four types of leaf, Seed leaves on seedlings, born in a whorl of 4–24. Juvenile leaves, which follow immediately on seedlings and young plants, 2–6 cm long, single, green or often blue-green and these are produced for six months to five years, rarely longer. Scale leaves, similar to bud scales, small, brown and non-photosynthetic, needles, the adult leaves, are green and bundled in clusters called fascicles
10.
Pinus classification
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Pinus, the Pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is split into two subgenera, subgenus Pinus, and subgenus Strobus. Each of the subgenera have several sections based on chloroplast DNA sequencing. Older classifications split the genus into three subgenera – subgenus Pinus, subgenus Strobus, and subgenus Ducampopinus – based on cone, seed, DNA phylogeny has shown that species formerly in subgenus Ducampopinus are members of subgenus Strobus, so Ducampopinus is no longer used. The species of subgenus Ducampopinus were regarded as intermediate between the two subgenera. In the modern classification, they are placed into subgenus Strobus, in 1888 the Californian botanist John Gill Lemmon placed them in subgenus Pinus. In general, this classification emphasized cone, cone scale, seed, and leaf fascicle and sheath morphology, Pines with one fibrovascular bundle per leaf, were known as haploxylon pines, while pines with two fibrovascular bundles per leaf, were called diploxylon pines. Diploxylon pines tend to have harder timber and an amount of resin than the haploxylon pines. Subgenus Pinus includes the yellow and hard pines, section Pinus is mostly in Europe, Asia, except for P. resinosa in northeast North America and P. tropicalis in Cuba. Subsection Pinus P. densata - Sikang pine P. densiflora - Japanese red pine P. fragilissima P. henryi, P. hwangshanensis - Huangshan pine P. kesiya - Khasi pine P. latteri. †P. peregrinus - Pinus peregrinus - Middle Eocene, Golden Valley Formation, North Dakota, NCBI Taxonomy server files Ducampopinus species above as Strobus
11.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
12.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
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Southeastern United States
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The Southeastern United States is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, and the southern portion of the Eastern United States. It comprises 15 states in the southern United States, there is no official Census Bureau definition of the southeastern United States. The OSBO uses the same states, but includes Arkansas and Louisiana, the most populous state in the region is Florida, followed by Georgia, and North Carolina. With tropical air masses influencing the region precipitation is high throughout the year, the tropical air masses do however cause significant hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina wreaking havoc and causing significant damage to coastal areas. The winters highly vary depending on latitude and elevation, the Southeast has changed dramatically in the last two generations. Since 1980, there has been a boom in its economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries. Fortune 500 companies having headquarters in the region included 20 in Virginia,16 in Florida,15 in North Carolina and this economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to have of some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States. In Alabama, there is a manufacturing project owned by the German steel megacorporation Thyssen-Krupp. The Cummings Research Park in the Huntsville, Alabama area is the second largest research complex in the nation, located in Huntsville is the Redstone Arsenal, United States Army Missile Command, the U. S. Space and Rocket Center, NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center and many key government, military. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida is the largest laboratory in the devoted to the study of magnetism. There are a number of universities, with several large research universities which exert influence beyond the region. These include the oldest public universities in the country, the University of Alabama, the region is home to the most historically black colleges and universities in the nation. The three largest in the region are North Carolina A&T University, Florida A&M University, and Jackson State University, on this list New Orleans Refers to the Orleans Parish Population. Therefore the population given is for the entire city excluding other incorporated places lying within the county limits, five Major League Baseball teams play in the Southeast, Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins play in the NL East,4 Major League Lacrosse teams play in the southeast, Chesapeake Bayhawks, Florida Launch, Charlotte Hounds, and the Atlanta Blaze. Seven National Basketball Association teams play in the Southeast, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and New Orleans Pelicans. The Wizards, Heat, Hornets, Magic and Hawks are in the Eastern Conference, the Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Citrus Bowl are notable college football bowls held in Southeastern cities
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Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
15.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
16.
Delaware
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Delaware is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic and/or Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, to the northeast by New Jersey, the state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginias first colonial governor. Delaware occupies the portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest, the sixth least populous. Delaware is divided into three counties, the lowest number of counties of any state, from north to south, the three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized. Before its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Delaware was inhabited by groups of Native Americans, including the Lenape in the north. It was initially colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near the present town of Lewes, Delaware was one of the 13 colonies participating in the American Revolution. On December 7,1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, the Delaware Indians, a name used by Europeans for Lenape people indigenous to the Delaware Valley, also derive their name from the same source. The surname de La Warr comes from Sussex and is of Anglo-Norman origin and it came probably from a Norman lieu-dit La Guerre. This toponymic could derive from the Latin word ager, from the Breton gwern or from the Late Latin varectum, the toponyms Gara, Gare, Gaire also appear in old texts cited by Lucien Musset, where the word gara means gore. It could also be linked with a patronymic from the Old Norse verr, Delaware is 96 miles long and ranges from 9 miles to 35 miles across, totaling 1,954 square miles, making it the second-smallest state in the United States after Rhode Island. Delaware is bounded to the north by Pennsylvania, to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean, small portions of Delaware are also situated on the eastern side of the Delaware River sharing land boundaries with New Jersey. The state of Delaware, together with the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland, the definition of the northern boundary of the state is unusual. Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania was originally defined by an arc extending 12 miles from the cupola of the courthouse in the city of New Castle and this boundary is often referred to as the Twelve-Mile Circle. This is the only nominally circular state boundary in the United States, to the west, a portion of the arc extends past the easternmost edge of Maryland. The remaining western border runs slightly east of due south from its intersection with the arc, the Wedge of land between the northwest part of the arc and the Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania until 1921, when Delawares claim was confirmed. Delaware is on a plain, with the lowest mean elevation of any state in the nation. Its highest elevation, located at Ebright Azimuth, near Concord High School, the northernmost part of the state is part of the Piedmont Plateau with hills and rolling surfaces
17.
New Jersey
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New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants
18.
U.S. Forest Service
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The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nations 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the major national land agency that is outside the U. S. Department of the Interior. The concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group, Boone and Crockett Club, in 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Hough was appointed the head of the office, in 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the domain as forest reserves. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry, gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As of 2009, the Forest Service has a budget authority of $5.5 billion. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters,737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is To sustain the health, diversity and its motto is Caring for the land and serving people. As the lead agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nations forest, rangeland. The agencys ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current, the everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007, the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions, the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, there are five deputy chiefs for the following areas, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five stations, the Forest Products Laboratory. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief, Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States, there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908, many sites are more than 50 years old
19.
Acer rubrum
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Acer rubrum is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U. S. Forest service recognizes it as the most abundant native tree in eastern North America. The red maple ranges from southeastern Manitoba around the Lake of the Woods on the border with Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to Florida, many of its features, especially its leaves, are quite variable in form. At maturity it often attains a height of around 15 m and its flowers, petioles, twigs and seeds are all red to varying degrees. Among these features, however, it is best known for its brilliant deep scarlet foliage in autumn, over most of its range, red maple is adaptable to a very wide range of site conditions, perhaps more so than any other tree in eastern North America. It can be found growing in swamps, on dry soils. It grows well from sea level to about 900 m, due to its attractive fall foliage and pleasing form, it is often used as a shade tree for landscapes. It is used commercially on a scale for maple syrup production as well as for its medium to high quality lumber. It is also the State Tree of Rhode Island, the red maple can be considered weedy or invasive. It is taking over forests in the eastern US, replacing traditional mainstays like oaks, though A. rubrum is usually easy to identify, it is highly changeable in morphological characteristics. It is a medium to large sized tree, reaching heights of 18 to 27 metres, the leaves are usually 9 to 11 centimetres long on a full grown tree. The trunk diameter can range from 46 to 76 cm, depending on the growing conditions and its spread is about 12 m. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 6 m tall, in forests, the bark will remain free of branches until some distance up the tree. Individuals grown in the open are shorter and thicker with a rounded crown. Generally speaking, however, the crown is irregularly ovoid with ascending whip-like curved shoots, the bark is a pale grey and smooth when the individual is young. As the tree grows the bark becomes darker and cracks into slightly raised long plates, the largest known living red maple is located near Armada, Michigan, at a height of 38.1 m and a bole circumference, at breast height, of 4.95 m. The leaves of the red maple offer the easiest way to distinguish it from its relatives, as with nearly all North American maple trees, they are deciduous and arranged oppositely on the twig. They are typically 5–10 cm long and wide with 3-5 palmate lobes with a serrated margin, the sinuses are typically narrow, but the leaves can exhibit considerable variation
20.
Lumber
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Lumber, or timber is wood that has been processed into beams and planks, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber may also refer to currently un-needed furniture, as in Lumber room, or an awkward gait, ultimately derived from the look of unfashionable, Lumber may be supplied either rough-sawn, or surfaced on one or more of its faces. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and it is available in many species, usually hardwoods, but it is also readily available in softwoods, such as white pine and red pine, because of their low cost. Lumber is mainly used for structural purposes but has other uses as well. It is classified more commonly as a softwood than as a hardwood, in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Britain, the term timber describes sawn wood products, such as floor boards. In the United States and Canada, generally timber describes standing or felled trees, before they are milled into boards, Timber there also describes sawn lumber not less than 5 inches in its smallest dimension. The latter includes the often partly finished lumber used in timber-frame construction, remanufactured lumber is the result of secondary or tertiary processing/cutting of previously milled lumber. Specifically, it is cut for industrial or wood-packaging use. Lumber is cut by ripsaw or resaw to create dimensions that are not usually processed by a primary sawmill, resawing is the splitting of 1-inch through 12-inch hardwood or softwood lumber into two or more thinner pieces of full-length boards. For example, splitting a ten-foot 2×4 into two ten-foot 1×4s is considered resawing, structural lumber may also be produced from recycled plastic and new plastic stock. Its introduction has been opposed by the forestry industry. Blending fiberglass in plastic lumber enhances its strength, durability, logs are converted into timber by being sawn, hewn, or split. Sawing with a rip saw is the most common method, because sawing allows logs of lower quality, with grain and large knots. There are various types of sawing, Plain sawn —A log sawn through without adjusting the position of the log, quarter sawn and rift sawn—These terms have been confused in history but generally mean lumber sawn so the annual rings are reasonably perpendicular to the sides of the lumber. Boxed heart—The pith remains within the piece with some allowance for exposure, heart center—the center core of a log. Free of heart center —A side-cut timber without any pith, free of knots —No knots are present. Dimensional lumber is lumber that is cut to standardized width and depth, carpenters extensively use dimensional lumber in framing wooden buildings. Common sizes include 2×4, 2×6, and 4×4, the length of a board is usually specified separately from the width and depth
21.
Base pair
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A base pair is a unit consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the blocks of the DNA double helix. Dictated by specific hydrogen bonding patterns, Watson-Crick base pairs allow the DNA helix to maintain a regular helical structure that is dependent on its nucleotide sequence. The complementary nature of this structure provides a backup copy of all genetic information encoded within double-stranded DNA. Many DNA-binding proteins can recognize specific base pairing patterns that identify particular regulatory regions of genes, intramolecular base pairs can occur within single-stranded nucleic acids. The size of a gene or an organisms entire genome is often measured in base pairs because DNA is usually double-stranded. Hence, the number of base pairs is equal to the number of nucleotides in one of the strands. The haploid human genome is estimated to be about 3.2 billion bases long and to contain 20, a kilobase is a unit of measurement in molecular biology equal to 1000 base pairs of DNA or RNA. The total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037, in comparison, the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. Hydrogen bonding is the interaction that underlies the base-pairing rules described above. Appropriate geometrical correspondence of hydrogen donors and acceptors allows only the right pairs to form stably. Purine-pyrimidine base pairing of AT or GC or UA results in proper duplex structure, the only other purine-pyrimidine pairings would be AC and GT and UG, these pairings are mismatches because the patterns of hydrogen donors and acceptors do not correspond. The GU pairing, with two bonds, does occur fairly often in RNA. Higher GC content results in higher melting temperatures, it is, therefore, on the converse, regions of a genome that need to separate frequently — for example, the promoter regions for often-transcribed genes — are comparatively GC-poor. GC content and melting temperature must also be taken into account when designing primers for PCR reactions, the following DNA sequences illustrate pair double-stranded patterns. By convention, the top strand is written from the 5 end to the 3 end, thus and this is due to their isosteric chemistry. One common mutagenic base analog is 5-bromouracil, which resembles thymine, most intercalators are large polyaromatic compounds and are known or suspected carcinogens. Examples include ethidium bromide and acridine, an unnatural base pair is a designed subunit of DNA which is created in a laboratory and does not occur in nature
22.
Human genome
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The human genome is the complete set of nucleic acid sequence for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. Human genomes include both protein-coding DNA genes and noncoding DNA, haploid human genomes, which are contained in germ cells consist of three billion DNA base pairs, while diploid genomes have twice the DNA content. The Human Genome Project produced the first complete sequences of human genomes, with the first draft sequence. The human genome was the first of all vertebrates to be completely sequenced, as of 2012, thousands of human genomes have been completely sequenced, and many more have been mapped at lower levels of resolution. The resulting data are used worldwide in biomedical science, anthropology, forensics, there is a widely held expectation that genomic studies will lead to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and to new insights in many fields of biology, including human evolution. Although the sequence of the genome has been completely determined by DNA sequencing. There are an estimated 19, 000-20,000 human protein-coding genes, in June 2016, scientists formally announced HGP-Write, a plan to synthesize the human genome. The total length of the genome is over 3 billion base pairs. The genome is organized into 22 paired chromosomes, plus the X chromosome and, in males only and these are all large linear DNA molecules contained within the cell nucleus. The genome also includes the mitochondrial DNA, a small circular molecule present in each mitochondrion. Basic information about these molecules and their content, based on a reference genome that does not represent the sequence of any specific individual, are provided in the following table. Chromosome lengths were estimated by multiplying the number of base pairs by 0.34 nanometers, variations are unique DNA sequence differences that have been identified in the individual human genome sequences analyzed by Ensembl as of December,2016. The number of identified variations is expected to increase as further personal genomes are sequenced and analyzed, in addition to the gene content shown in this table, a large number of non-expressed functional sequences have been identified throughout the human genome. Links open windows to the reference chromosome sequences in the EBI genome browser, small non-coding RNAs are RNAs of as many as 200 bases that do not have protein-coding potential. These include, microRNAs, or miRNAs, small nuclear RNAs, or snRNAs, long non-coding RNAs are RNA molecules longer than 200 bases that do not have protein-coding potential. Although the human genome has been sequenced for all practical purposes. A recent study noted more than 160 euchromatic gaps of which 50 gaps were closed, however, there are still numerous gaps in the heterochromatic parts of the genome which is much harder to sequence due to numerous repeats and other intractable sequence features. The content of the genome is commonly divided into coding and noncoding DNA sequences
23.
Axolotl
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The axolotl also known as a Mexican salamander or a Mexican walking fish, is a neotenic salamander, closely related to the tiger salamander. Although the axolotl is colloquially known as a fish, it is not a fish. The species originates from numerous lakes, such as Lake Xochimilco underlying Mexico City, axolotls are unusual among amphibians in that they reach adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of developing lungs and taking to land, the adults remain aquatic, axolotls should not be confused with waterdogs, the larval stage of the closely related tiger salamanders, which are widespread in much of North America and occasionally become neotenic. Neither should they be confused with mudpuppies, fully aquatic salamanders which are not closely related to the axolotl, as of 2010, wild axolotls were near extinction due to urbanization in Mexico City and consequent water pollution. They are currently listed by CITES as a species and by IUCN as critically endangered in the wild. Axolotls are used extensively in research due to their ability to regenerate limbs. Axolotls were also sold as food in Mexican markets and were a staple in the Aztec diet, a four-month-long search in 2013 turned up no surviving individuals in the wild. Previous surveys in 1998,2003 and 2008 had found 6,000,1,000 and 100 axolotls per square kilometer in its Lake Xochimilco habitat, respectively. A sexually mature adult axolotl, at age 18–24 months, ranges in length from 15–45 cm, although a close to 23 cm is most common. Axolotls possess features typical of larvae, including external gills. Their heads are wide, and their eyes are lidless and their limbs are underdeveloped and possess long, thin digits. Males are identified by their swollen cloacae lined with papillae, while females are noticeable for their bodies full of eggs. Three pairs of external gill stalks originate behind their heads and are used to move oxygenated water, the external gill rami are lined with filaments to increase surface area for gas exchange. Four gill slits lined with gill rakers are hidden underneath the external gills, axolotls have barely visible vestigial teeth, which would have developed during metamorphosis. The primary method of feeding is by suction, during which their rakers interlock to close the gill slits, external gills are used for respiration, although buccal pumping may also be used to provide oxygen to their lungs. Axolotls have four pigmentation genes which when mutated create different color variants, the normal wild type animal is brown/tan with gold speckles and an olive undertone. The four mutant colors are leucistic, albino, axanthic and melanoid, axolotls also have some limited ability to alter their color to provide better camouflage by changing the relative size and thickness of their melanophores
24.
Pinus palustris
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It reaches a height of 30–35 m and a diameter of 0.7 m. In the past, they grew to 47 m with a diameter of 1.2 m. The bark is thick, reddish-brown, and scaly, the leaves are dark green and needle-like, and occur in bundles of three. They often are twisted and 20–45 cm in length and it is one of the two southeastern U. S. pines with long needles, the other being slash pine. The cones, both female seed cones and male cones, are initiated during the growing season before buds emerge. Pollen cones begin forming in their buds in July, while seed conelets are formed during a short period of time in August. Pollination occurs early the spring, with the male cones 3–8 cm long. The seeds are 7–9 mm long, with a 25–40 mm wing, Longleaf pine takes 100 to 150 years to become full size and may live to be 500 years old. When young, they grow a long taproot, which usually is 2–3 m long and it grows on well-drained, usually sandy soil, often in pure stands. In northern Alabama, it occurs on clay soil. The scientific name meaning, of marshes, is a misunderstanding on the part of Philip Miller who described the species, Longleaf pine also is known as being one of several species grouped as a southern yellow pine or longleaf yellow pine, and in the past as pitch pine. Periodic natural wildfire selects for this species by killing other trees, new seedlings do not appear at all tree-like and resemble a dark green fountain of needles. This form is called the grass stage, during this stage, which lasts for 5–12 years, vertical growth is very slow, and the tree may take a number of years simply to grow ankle-high. After that it makes a growth spurt, especially if there is no tree canopy above it. In the grass stage, it is resistant to grass fires, which burn off the ends of the needles. Longleaf pine forests are rich in biodiversity and they are well-documented for their high levels of plant diversity, in groups including sedges, grasses, carnivorous plants and orchids. These forests also provide habitat for gopher tortoises, which, as keystone species, the red-cockaded woodpecker is dependent on mature pine forests and is now endangered as a result of this decline. Longleaf pine seeds are large and nutritious, forming a significant food source for birds, there are 9 salamander species and 26 frog species that are characteristic of pine savannas, along with 56 species of reptiles,13 of which could be considered specialists on this habitat
25.
Pinus elliottii
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Pinus elliottii, commonly known as the slash pine, is a pine tree native to the southeastern United States. Slash pine is named after the slashes – swampy ground overgrown with trees and bushes – that constitute its habitat and it is found from southern South Carolina west to southeastern Louisiana, and south to the Florida Keys. It natural habitat is sandy maritime forests and wet flatwoods and this tree is fast-growing, but not very long-lived by pine standards. It reaches heights of 18–30 m with a diameter of 0. 6–0.8 m. The leaves are needle-like, very slender, in clusters of two or three, and are 18–24 cm long, the cones are glossy red-brown, 5–15 cm in length with a short, thick prickle on each scale. It is known for its conical shape, there are two described varieties of Pinus elliotii. However, recent genetic studies have indicated that the varieties may not be closely related to each other than they are to other pines in the Southeast. If this is the case, then status as separate species would be warranted and this treatment has not been widely adopted. The two commonly accepted varieties are the following, P. elliottii var. elliottii ranges from South Carolina to Louisiana, leaves nearly all in bundles of two. Unlike the typical variety of pine, seedlings of P. elliottii var. densa pass through a grass stage. This tree is grown in tree plantations. It is also used in horticulture, southern yellow pine Media related to Pinus elliottii at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Pinus elliottii at Wikispecies
26.
Pinus echinata
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The tree is variable in form, sometimes straight, sometimes crooked, with an irregular crown. This tree reaches heights of 20–30 metres with a diameter of 0. 5–0.9 metres. The leaves are needle-like, in fascicles of two and three mixed together, and from 7–11 cm long, the cones are 4–7 cm long, with thin scales with a transverse keel and a short prickle. They open at maturity but are persistent, shortleaf pine seedlings develop a persistent J-shaped crook near the ground surface. Axillary and other buds form near the crook and initiate growth if the stem is killed by fire or is severed. This pine is a source of pulp, plywood veneer. The shortleaf pine is one of the southern US southern yellow pines, shortleaf pine has the largest range of the southern US yellow pines. This pine occupies a variety of habitats from rocky uplands to wet flood plains and it frequently hybridizes naturally with loblolly pine and pitch pine where their ranges intersect. Media related to Pinus echinata at Wikimedia Commons Gymnosperm Database, Pinus echinata NCRS, USDA Plants Profile, Pinus echinata
27.
Pinus glabra
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Pinus glabra, the spruce pine, is a tree found on the coastal plains of the southern United States, from southern South Carolina south to northern Florida and west to southern Louisiana. This pine is a straight-growing, medium-sized species, attaining heights of 20–35 m, the leaves are needle-like, in bundles of two, 5–8 cm long, slender, and glossy dark green. The small, slender cones are 4–6 cm long, with prickles on the scales that are soon shed. To be able to compete successfully in such habitats, it has adapted greater shade tolerance than most other pines, missouri Botanical Garden – via eFloras. org. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, international Union for Conservation of Nature. Kossuth, Susan V. Michael, J. L. Pinus glabra, in Burns, Russell M. Honkala, Barbara H. Conifers. United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture,1 – via Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry. What Is A Cedar Pine, Tips On Planting Cedar Pine Hedges
28.
Conifer cone
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A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous, the name cone derives from the fact that the shape in some species resembles a geometric cone. The individual plates of a cone are known as scales, the male cone is structurally similar across all conifers, differing only in small ways from species to species. Extending out from an axis are microsporophylls. Under each microsporophyll is one or several microsporangia, the female cone contains ovules which, when fertilized by pollen, become seeds. The female cone structure varies more markedly between the different conifer families, and is crucial for the identification of many species of conifers. The members of the family have cones that are imbricate. The scales are arranged in fibonacci number ratios. The female cone has two types of scale, the scales, derived from a modified leaf, and the seed scales, one subtended by each bract scale. On the upper-side base of each seed scale are two ovules that develop into seeds after fertilization by pollen grains. The bract scales develop first, and are conspicuous at the time of pollination, the scales open temporarily to receive gametophytes, then close during fertilization and maturation, and then re-open again at maturity to allow the seed to escape. Maturation takes 6–8 months from pollination in most Pinaceae genera, but 12 months in cedars, the cones open either by the seed scales flexing back when they dry out, or by the cones disintegrating with the seed scales falling off. The cones are conic, cylindrical or ovoid, and small to large, from 2–60 cm long. After ripening, the opening of non-serotinous pine cones is associated with their moisture content—cones are open when dry and this assures that the small, wind disseminated seeds will be dispersed during relatively dry weather, and thus, the distance traveled from the parent tree will be enhanced. A pine cone will go through cycles of opening and closing during its life span. This process occurs with older cones while attached to branches and even after the cones have fallen to the forest floor. The condition of fallen pine cones is an indication of the forest floors moisture content. Closed cones indicate damp conditions while open cones indicate the forest floor is dry, members of the Araucariaceae have the bract and seed scales fully fused, and have only one ovule on each scale
29.
Congaree National Park
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Congaree National Park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States. Located in South Carolina, the 26, 276-acre national park received designation in 2003 as the culmination of a grassroots campaign that started in 1969. The lush trees growing in this floodplain forest are some of the tallest in the Eastern U. S. forming one of the highest temperate deciduous forest canopies remaining in the world, the Congaree River flows through the park. About 57 percent of the park is designated wilderness area, resource extraction on the Congaree River centered on cypress logging from 1898, when the Santee River Cypress Logging Company began to operate in the area of what is now the park. Owned by the Beidler family of Chicago, the company operated until 1914, in the 1950s Harry R. E. Hampton was a member of the Cedar Creek Hunt Club and co-editor of the The State. Hampton joined with Peter Manigault at the Charleston The Post and Courier to advocate preservation of the Congaree floodplain, Hampton formed the Beidler Forest Preservation Association in 1961. As a result of this advocacy a 1963 study by the National Park Service reported favorably on the establishment of a national monument, no progress was made in the 1960s. Renewed logging by the Beidlers in 1969 prompted the 1972 formation of the Congaree Swamp National Preserve Association, the CSNPA joined forces with the Sierra Club and other conservation organizations to promote federal legislation to preserve the tract. South Carolina Senators Strom Thurmond and Ernest F. Hollings introduced legislation in 1975 for the establishment of a national preserve, on October 18,1976 legislation was passed to create Congaree Swamp National Monument. An expansion plan was introduced by Hollings and Thurmond in 1988, over two-thirds of the national monument was designated a wilderness area on October 24,1988, and it became an Important Bird Area on July 26,2001. As of December 31,2011, approximately 26,021 acres of the park are in Federal ownership, the park preserves a significant part of the Middle Atlantic coastal forests ecoregion. Although it is referred to as a swamp, it is largely bottomland subject to periodic inundation by floodwaters. It has been designated an old growth forest, the park also has one of the largest concentrations of champion trees in the world, with the tallest known examples of 15 species. Large animals possibly seen in the park include bobcats, deer, feral pigs, feral dogs, coyotes, armadillos, turkeys, and otters. Its waters contain interesting creatures like amphibians, turtles, snakes, alligators, and many types of fish, including bowfin, alligator gar, primitive and backcountry camping are available. Some of the trails include the Bluff Trail, Weston Lake Loop Trail, Oakridge Trail, and King Snake Trail where hikers may spot deer, raccoon, opossum. The National Park Service rangers have current trail conditions which can be found in the Harry Hampton Visitor Center, along with hiking trails, the park also has a 20-mile marked canoe trail on Cedar Creek. Most visitors to the walk along the Boardwalk Loop, an elevated 2. 4-mile walkway through the swampy environment that protects delicate fungi
30.
Porridge
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Porridge is a dish made by boiling ground, crushed, or chopped starchy plants – typically grain – in water or milk. It is often cooked or served with such as sugar, honey, etc. to make a sweet dish, or mixed with spices, vegetables. It is usually served hot in a bowl, the term is often used specifically for oat porridge, which is eaten for breakfast with salt, sugar, milk, cream, or butter, and sometimes other flavorings. Oat porridge is also sold in ready-made or partly cooked form as an instant breakfast, other grains used for porridge include semolina, rice, wheat, barley, corn, triticale, and buckwheat. Many types of porridge have their own names, such as polenta, grits, porridge is a staple food in much of Africa, and historically was also a staple in much of Northern Europe and Russia. Porridge is easy to digest, so it is used traditionally in many cultures as a food for the sick, oat porridge, traditional and common in the English-speaking world, Germany and the Nordic countries. Oat porridge has been found in the stomachs of 5, 000-year-old Neolithic bog bodies in Central Europe, varieties of oat porridge include, Groats, a porridge made from unprocessed oats or wheat. Gruel, very thin porridge, often rather than eaten. Yod Kerch, an oat porridge from the north-west of France, primarily Brittany, made with oats, water or milk. Owsianka, an east European traditional breakfast made with hot milk, oats, porridge made from rolled oats or ground oatmeal is common in Scotland, England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Finland and Scandinavia. It is known as simply porridge or, more commonly in the United States and Canada, rolled oats are commonly used in England, oatmeal in Scotland, and steel-cut oats in Ireland. Porridge – Anglophone Caribbean Also known as Pap, the most common type is corn meal, and they are always made with milk. Varieties include oatmeal, grated green plantain, barley, cream of wheat, oatmeal porridge is often flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and/or almond essence. Stirabout – Irish porridge, traditionally made by stirring oats into boiling water Terci de ovăz, in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, cooks made burgoo for the men for breakfast, from coarse oatmeal and water. Maize porridge, Atole, a Mexican dish of corn flour in water or milk, champurrado, a Mexican blend of sugar, milk, chocolate and corn dough or corn flour. The Philippine dish tsampurado is similar, with instead of maize. Cir, Păsat, or Mămăligă are all Romanian maize porridges, cornmeal mush, a traditional dish in southern and mid-Atlantic US states. Gachas, a Spanish porridge of maize or grass peas, often garnished with roasted almonds and croutons of bread fried in olive oil
31.
Ruderal species
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A ruderal species is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands. The disturbance may be natural – for example, wildfires or avalanches – or a consequence of human activity, the word ruderal comes from the Latin rudus rubble. Ruderal species typically dominate the area for a few years. Features contributing to a success as ruderal are, Massive seed production. Seedlings whose nutritional requirements are modest, edge effect Hemeroby Restoration ecology Pioneer species Supertramp Examples of ruderal species, Conyza bonariensis Dittrichia viscosa Nicotiana glauca St. John TV. SOIL DISTURBANCE AND THE MINERAL NUTRITION OF NATIVE PLANTS in Proceedings of the 2nd Native Plant Revegetation Symposium Chapin, the mineral nutrition of wild plants. Ruderal in the 1911 Britannica Media related to Ruderal communities at Wikimedia Commons
32.
Wildfire suppression
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Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, Wildfire suppression also addresses the issues of the wildland-urban interface, where populated areas border with wild land areas. Wildland fire, known in Australia as bush fire, has played a role in Australia due to arid conditions. Canada contains approximately 4,020,000 square miles of forest land, seventy-five percent of this is boreal forest, made up primarily of coniferous trees. More than 90 percent of Canadian forest land is owned. The Federal Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center provides operational fire-control services, during a typical year there are over 9,000 forest fires in Canada, burning an average of 2.5 million hectares or 9,700 square miles. The number of fires and area burned can vary dramatically from year to year, average suppression costs are $500 million to $1 billion annually. In Canada, two-thirds of all forest fires are caused by people, while lightning causes the remaining third, despite this, lightning fires account for over 85 percent of the area burned in Canada, largely because many of the lightning-caused fires occur in remote, inaccessible areas. Currently about ninety percent of forest fires are fought, generally fires near communities, industrial infrastructure, and forests with high commercial and recreation value are given high priority for suppression efforts. In remote areas and wilderness parks, fires may be left to burn as part of the ecological cycle. Wildfire suppression in the United States has had a long and varied history, in the 1960s, policies governing wildfire suppression changed due to ecological studies that recognized fire as a natural process necessary for new growth. Today, policies advocating complete fire suppression have been exchanged for those who encourage wildland fire use, or the allowing of fire to act as a tool, average suppression costs are $4 billion to $4.5 billion annually. Protection of human life is first priority for firefighters, since 1995, when arriving on a scene, a fire crew will establish safety zones and escape routes, verify communication is in place, and designate lookouts. This allows the firefighters to engage a fire with options for a retreat should their current situation become unsafe, briefings may be done to inform new fire resources of hazards and other pertinent information. A great emphasis is placed on safety and preventing entrapment, a situation where escape from the fire is impossible, as a last resort, many wildland firefighters carry a fire shelter. In this inescapable situation, the shelter will provide limited protection from radiant and convective heat, entrapment within a fire shelter is called a burnover. In Australia, firefighters rarely carry fireshelters, rather training is given to locate natural shelters or the use of handtools to create protection, or in the instance of burnover in a Tanker or other fire appliance, fire over-run training is used. Hazards beyond the fire are posed as well, a very small sample of these include, unstable hazard trees, animals, electrical cables, unexploded ordnance, hazardous materials, rolling and falling debris, and lightning
33.
Resin
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In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. They are often mixtures of compounds, principally terpenes. Many plants, particularly woody plants, produce resin in response to injury, the resin acts as a bandage protecting the plant from invading insects and pathogens. Plants secrete resins and rosins for their protective benefits, the resin produced by most plants is composed mainly of terpenes and derivatives. Some resins also contain a proportion of resin acids. The individual components of resin can be separated by fractional distillation, rosins on the other hand are less volatile and consist, inter alia, of diterpenes. Amber is fossil resin from coniferous and other tree species, copal, kauri gum, dammar and other resins may also be found as subfossil deposits. Subfossil copal can be distinguished from genuine fossil amber because it becomes tacky when a drop of a solvent such as acetone or chloroform is placed on it, african copal and the kauri gum of New Zealand are also procured in a semi-fossil condition. Solidified resin from which the volatile terpene components have been removed by distillation is known as rosin, typical rosin is a transparent or translucent mass, with a vitreous fracture and a faintly yellow or brown colour, non-odorous or having only a slight turpentine odor and taste. Rosin is insoluble in water, mostly soluble in alcohol, essential oils, ether and hot fatty oils, and softens and melts under the influence of heat, rosin consists of a complex mixture of different substances including organic acids named the resin acids. These are closely related to the terpenes, and derive from them through partial oxidation, Resin acids can be dissolved in alkalis to form resin soaps, from which the purified resin acids are regenerated by treatment with acids. Examples of resin acids are abietic acid, C20H30O2, plicatic acid contained in cedar, and pimaric acid, C20H30O2, a constituent of galipot resin. Abietic acid can also be extracted from rosin by means of hot alcohol, it crystallizes in leaflets, pimaric acid closely resembles abietic acid into which it passes when distilled in a vacuum, it has been supposed to consist of three isomers. Rosin is obtained from pines and some plants, mostly conifers. Propolis, consisting largely of resins collected from such as poplars and conifers, is used by honey bees to seal gaps in their hives. Shellac and lacquer are examples of insect-derived resins, asphaltite and Utah resin are petroleum bitumens, not a product secreted by plants, although it was ultimately derived from plants. These were highly prized substances, and required as incense in religious rites. The word resin has been applied in the world to nearly any component of a liquid that will set into a hard lacquer or enamel-like finish
34.
Pulp (paper)
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Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibres from wood, fiber crops or waste paper. The wood fiber sources required for pulping are 45% sawmill residue, 21% logs and chips, many kinds of paper are made from wood with nothing else mixed into them. This includes newspaper, magazines and even toilet paper, Pulp is one of the most abundant raw materials worldwide. Using wood to make paper is a recent innovation. The ancient Egyptians were the first to make paper from reeds, papermaking using cotton and linen fibers spread to Europe in the 13th century, and the increasing use of fabric brought more rag paper, which was a factor in the development of printing. By the 1800s, fibre crops such as flax, which provided linen fibres, were still the material source. Chemical processes quickly followed, first with J. Roths use of acid to treat wood, then by Benjamin Tilghmans U. S. patent on the use of calcium bisulfite, Ca2. Almost a decade later, the first commercial sulfite pulp mill was built and it used magnesium as the counter ion and was based on work by Carl Daniel Ekman. By 1900, sulfite pulping had become the dominant means of producing wood pulp, the competing chemical pulping process, the sulfate, or kraft, process, was developed by Carl F. Dahl in 1879, the first kraft mill started, in Sweden, in 1890. The invention of the boiler, by G. H. Tomlinson in the early 1930s, allowed kraft mills to recycle almost all of their pulping chemicals, global production of wood pulp in 2006 was 175 million tons. In the previous year,63 million tons of market pulp was sold, with Canada being the largest source at 21 percent of the total, chemical pulp made up 93 percent of market pulp. The timber resources used to make wood pulp are referred to as pulpwood, wood pulp comes from softwood trees such as spruce, pine, fir, larch and hemlock, and hardwoods such as eucalyptus, aspen and birch. A pulp mill is a facility that converts wood chips or other plant fibre source into a thick fiberboard which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical or fully chemical methods, the finished product may be either bleached or non-bleached, depending on the customer requirements. Wood and other plant materials used to make pulp contain three components, cellulose fibers, lignin and hemicelluloses. The aim of pulping is to break down the structure of the fibre source, be it chips, stems or other plant parts. The various mechanical pulping methods, such as groundwood and refiner mechanical pulping, much of the lignin remains adhering to the fibres
35.
Plantation
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A plantation is an area of land or water where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale. The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time, Industrial plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. Plantations are grown by state forestry authorities and/or the paper and wood industries, christmas trees are often grown on plantations as well. In southern and southeastern Asia, teak plantations have replaced the natural forest. Industrial plantations are managed for the commercial production of forest products. Individual blocks are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species and these species can be exotic or indigenous. Forest genetic resources are the basis for genetic alteration, selected individuals grown in seed orchards are a good source for seeds to develop adequate planting material. Wood production on a plantation is generally higher than that of natural forests. In 2000, while plantations accounted for 5% of global forest, in the first year, the ground is prepared usually by the combination of burning, herbicide spraying, and/or cultivation and then saplings are planted by human crew or by machine. The saplings are usually obtained in bulk from industrial nurseries, which may specialize in breeding in order to produce fast growing disease-. In the first few years until the canopy closes, the saplings are looked after, after the canopy closes, with the tree crowns touching each other, the plantation is becoming dense and crowded, and tree growth is slowing due to competition. This stage is termed pole stage, when competition becomes too intense, it is time to thin out the section. There are several methods for thinning, but where topography permits, the most popular is row-thinning, many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again. The removed trees are delimbed, forwarded to the forest road, loaded onto trucks, a typical pole stage plantation tree is 7–30 cm in diameter at breast height. Such trees are not suitable for timber, but are used as pulp for paper and particleboard. As the trees grow and become dense and crowded again, the process is repeated
36.
Lost Pines Forest
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The Lost Pines Forest is a 13-mile belt of loblolly pines in the U. S. state of Texas, near the town of Bastrop. The forest is thought to have originated as part of a much larger pine forest that shrank in size during the last glacial period of the Pleistocene era, the Bastrop Steam Mill Company began lumbering in the Lost Pines in 1838, followed by Higgins Mill in 1840. By 1870 the population for Bastrop County reached 11,000 people, extensive logging of the Lost Pines occurred around 1880, but the forested land area remained largely intact. The Lost Pines Forest occupied 36,400 hectares in 1880, a portion of the Lost Pines is located inside the boundaries of Bastrop State Park and Buescher State Park, which ensure the trees are protected from development and logging. Thus the original Lost Pines population is not genetically depauperate despite its geographic separation from the larger, Pinus taeda can live as long as 300 to 400 years. The retreating edge hypothesis for species responding to climate change predicts severe bottlenecks, the disjunct Lost Pines population at the westernmost edge of the widespread Pinus taeda range is well suited for testing this prediction. The Lost Pines population has undergone drastic contractions in effective population size between 3000 and 30000 years bp and these results were supported by, detection of transient heterozygosity excess, a mode-shift indicator of allele frequencies, and a ratio of allele number to allele size range. No bottleneck was detected for the east Texas control using any of the three methods, the distribution of allele frequencies was skewed for the Lost Pines population compared to the control, indicating a loss of rare alleles. However, allelic diversity was similar between the Lost Pines population and its east Texas control, the mean allele number per locus was 5.29 and 5.38, respectively. A large portion of the forest was burned in the Bastrop County Complex fire that occurred in September and October 2011, the fire scorched 34,068 acres, severely impacting the Lost Pines Forest. Since the fire, efforts have been undertaken by groups to reforest the affected portion of the unique Lost Pines eco-region
37.
Bastrop, Texas
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Bastrop is a city and the county seat of Bastrop County, Texas, United States. Located about 30 miles southeast of Austin, it is part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area, the population was 7,218 according to the 2010 census. Bastrop is located near the center of Bastrop County along the Colorado River, the downtown business district of the city is located on a bluff on the east bank of the river, but the city extends to the west side of the river as well. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 9.1 square miles, of which 9.0 square miles is land and 0.12 square miles. Three miles northeast of the town, Lake Bastrop is a 906-acre reservoir on Spicer Creek operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority since its impounding in 1964. Although primarily used as a pond for the Sim Gideon Power Plant, the lake is also used for recreation. The Bastrop Independent School District serves Bastrop, some residents are zoned to Mina Elementary School, while others are zoned to Emile Elementary School. All residents are zoned to Bastrop Intermediate School, Bastrop Middle School, Austin Community College conducts night and continuing education classes at the Bastrop High School. From 1893 until 1969 Emile High School served as the black high school. The Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa, opened on June 2,2006, with 491 rooms and gave a boost to employment, when the property changed ownership in 2011, officials stated it employed 600 individuals plus 175 additional seasonal employees. The first edition of The Bastrop Advertiser and County News was published on March 1,1853, the wider Bastrop County is also covered by papers such as the Elgin Courier. Several movies were at least partially filmed in Bastrop, including Lovin Molly, the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Home Fries, Courage Under Fire, other projects include All The Boys Love Mandy Lane and Fireflies in the Garden, starring Willem Dafoe and Julia Roberts. Recently, the remake of Friday the 13th was also filmed in Bastrop. True Women 1998 with Angelina Jolie, Dana Delany, and Michael York, The Tree of Life 2010 with Brad Pitt, bernie 2010 with Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey. Also partially filmed near Bastrop on the Buck Steiner Ranch was A Perfect World with Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, in late 2012 and early 2013, the film Joe Ransom starring Nicolas Cage was partially filmed in Bastrop at the Lost Pines Boy Scout Park. Prince Avalanche starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch was shot in Bastrop, Texas, boyhood starring Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke was shot in the Lost Pines of Bastrop. Bastrop tends to be cooler than other central Texas cities, extreme temperatures range from -1 °F to 111 °F. As of the census of 2000, there are 5340 people in Bastrop, the population density is 734.8 people per square mile
38.
Colorado River (Texas)
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The Colorado River is an 862-mile long river in the U. S. state of Texas. It is the 18th longest river in the United States and the longest river with both its source and its mouth within Texas and its drainage basin and some of its usually dry tributaries extend into New Mexico. The Colorado River originates south of Lubbock, on the Llano Estacado, near Lamesa. It flows generally southeast, out of the Llano Estacado and through the Texas Hill Country, through several reservoirs including Lake J. B. Thomas, E. V. Spence Reservoir, and Lake O. H. The river flows through several reservoirs before reaching Austin, including Lake Buchanan. Johnson, commonly referred to as Lake LBJ and Lake Travis, the Llano River joins the Colorado at Lake LBJ near Kingsland. The Pedernales River joins the Colorado at Lake Travis near Briarcliff, after passing through Austin, the Colorado River continues flowing southeast until emptying into Matagorda Bay on the Gulf of Mexico, near Matagorda. The Colorado River, which red or reddish river in Spanish, was frequently confused by Spanish explorers with the Brazos River to the north. The European discoverer of two neighboring rivers called the present Colorado River the Brazos de Dios, and called the present Brazos the Colorado River. The upper Colorado River was controlled by Comanches from the early 18th century to the late 19th century, in 1757, Spanish Texas attempted to establish an outlying Catholic mission on the San Saba River, near its confluence with the Colorado River. Nearly defenseless and viewed by the Comanche tribe as a territorial invasion, the Comanche were not effectively challenged on the upper Colorado River for nearly a century. The river is an important source of water for farming, cities, major man-made reservoirs on the river include Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Travis, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake in Austin. Collectively, these lakes are known as the Highland Lakes, in addition to power plants operating on each of the major lakes, waters of the Colorado are used for cooling the South Texas Nuclear Project, near Bay City. The Colorado River Municipal Water District owns and operates three reservoirs upstream of the Highland Lakes, Lake J. B, Thomas near Snyder, E. V. Spence Reservoir near Robert Lee, and O. H. Ivie Reservoir near Ballinger. Flood control and use of the Colorado River is managed by two agencies established by the Texas Legislature, the Upper Colorado River Authority, and the Lower Colorado River Authority, there are 11 major reservoirs along the Colorado River. The Colorado River is joined by five significant tributaries, Concho River, Pecan Bayou, Llano River, San Saba River, beals Creek is also a tributary fed by arroyos such as Sulphur Springs Draw, McKenzie, Seminole, Monument, Mustang, Midland, and Johnson Draws
39.
Disjunct distribution
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In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but widely separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a species range, there are many patterns of disjunct distributions at many scales, Irano-Turanian disjunction, Europe - East Asia, Europe-South Africa, Mediterranean-Hoggart disjunction, etc. This kind of distribution of a species, such that it occurs in Iberia and in Ireland. Examples of animal species with a Lusitanian distribution are, the Kerry slug Geomalacus maculosus, plant species with this kind of distribution include several heather species and the strawberry tree. The theory behind the name Lusitanian is now discredited, it posited that there was a land mass that served as a refugium off of the south-west of Ireland during the Quaternary glaciation. In this refugium, relic fauna and flora from a previous ice-free period survived until the present warmer interstadial period, although the theory is no longer accepted, the term Lusitanian is still used as a descriptive term for faunal elements such as the Kerry slug. Recently a better explanation of the occurrence of the Kerry slug, mascheretti et al. examined the genotypes of Eurasian pygmy shrew, a small mammal, across its range in Europe. The Irish population showed close affinity to a population from Andorra. The genetic structure of the population showed that the entire Irish population of the Eurasian pygmy shrew had originated from a single founder event. The authors concluded that it had introduced in the early or middle Stone Age, by boat. This coincides with work on human populations, which found a genetic similarity in make-up between populations in western Ireland and in northern Spain. This would be explained by a migration from Spain to Ireland in the late Paleolithic or early Mesolithic. It seems increasingly likely that much of Ireland’s Lusitanian fauna is in reality an artefact of this era of expansion in the early part of the Postglacial era. In other words, it likely that these species were introduced accidentally with trade items or goods brought by boat from Iberia
40.
Acid
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An acid is a molecule or ion capable of donating a hydron, or, alternatively, capable of forming a covalent bond with an electron pair. The first category of acids is the donors or Brønsted acids. In the special case of solutions, proton donors form the hydronium ion H3O+ and are known as Arrhenius acids. Brønsted and Lowry generalized the Arrhenius theory to include non-aqueous solvents, acids form aqueous solutions with a sour taste, can turn blue litmus red, and react with bases and certain metals to form salts. The word acid is derived from the Latin acidus/acēre meaning sour, an aqueous solution of an acid has a pH less than 7 and is colloquially also referred to as acid, while the strict definition refers only to the solute. A lower pH means a higher acidity, and thus a higher concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution. Chemicals or substances having the property of an acid are said to be acidic, common aqueous acids include hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, sulfuric acid, and citric acid. As these examples show, acids can be solutions or pure substances, strong acids and some concentrated weak acids are corrosive, but there are exceptions such as carboranes and boric acid. The second category of acids are Lewis acids, which form a covalent bond with an electron pair, however, hydrogen chloride, acetic acid, and most other Brønsted-Lowry acids cannot form a covalent bond with an electron pair and are therefore not Lewis acids. Conversely, many Lewis acids are not Arrhenius or Brønsted-Lowry acids, in modern terminology, an acid is implicitly a Brønsted acid and not a Lewis acid, since chemists almost always refer to a Lewis acid explicitly as a Lewis acid. Modern definitions are concerned with the chemical reactions common to all acids. Most acids encountered in life are aqueous solutions, or can be dissolved in water, so the Arrhenius. The Brønsted-Lowry definition is the most widely used definition, unless otherwise specified, hydronium ions are acids according to all three definitions. Interestingly, although alcohols and amines can be Brønsted-Lowry acids, they can function as Lewis bases due to the lone pairs of electrons on their oxygen and nitrogen atoms. The Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius attributed the properties of acidity to hydrogen ions or protons in 1884, an Arrhenius acid is a substance that, when added to water, increases the concentration of H+ ions in the water. Thus, an Arrhenius acid can also be described as a substance that increases the concentration of ions when added to water. Examples include molecular substances such as HCl and acetic acid, an Arrhenius base, on the other hand, is a substance which increases the concentration of hydroxide ions when dissolved in water. Thus, an Arrhenius acid could also be said to be one that decreases hydroxide concentration, in an acidic solution, the concentration of hydronium ions is greater than 10−7 moles per liter
41.
Sand
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Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt, Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type, i. e. a soil containing more than 85% sand-sized particles by mass. The second most common type of sand is calcium carbonate, for example aragonite, for example, it is the primary form of sand apparent in areas where reefs have dominated the ecosystem for millions of years like the Caribbean. Sand is a non renewable resource over human timescales, and sand suitable for making concrete is in high demand, in terms of particle size as used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. An individual particle in this size is termed a sand grain. Sand grains are between gravel and silt, a 1953 engineering standard published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials set the minimum sand size at 0.074 mm. A1938 specification of the United States Department of Agriculture was 0.05 mm. Sand feels gritty when rubbed between the fingers. ISO14688 grades sands as fine, medium and coarse with ranges 0.063 mm to 0.2 mm to 0.63 mm to 2.0 mm. In the United States, sand is commonly divided into five sub-categories based on size, very fine sand, fine sand, medium sand, coarse sand, and very coarse sand. These sizes are based on the Krumbein phi scale, where size in Φ = -log2D, on this scale, for sand the value of Φ varies from −1 to +4, with the divisions between sub-categories at whole numbers. The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources. The gypsum sand dunes of the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico are famous for their bright, arkose is a sand or sandstone with considerable feldspar content, derived from weathering and erosion of a granitic rock outcrop. Some sands contain magnetite, chlorite, glauconite or gypsum, Sands rich in magnetite are dark to black in color, as are sands derived from volcanic basalts and obsidian. Chlorite-glauconite bearing sands are typically green in color, as are sands derived from basaltic with a high olivine content, many sands, especially those found extensively in Southern Europe, have iron impurities within the quartz crystals of the sand, giving a deep yellow color. Sand deposits in some areas contain garnets and other resistant minerals, the study of individual grains can reveal much historical information as to the origin and kind of transport of the grain. Quartz sand that is weathered from granite or gneiss quartz crystals will be angular. It is called grus in geology or sharp sand in the trade where it is preferred for concrete. Sand that is transported long distances by water or wind will be rounded, people who collect sand as a hobby are known as arenophiles
42.
Clay
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Clay is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material that combines one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure. Clays are plastic due to water content and become hard, brittle. Depending on the content in which it is found, clay can appear in various colours from white to dull grey or brown to deep orange-red. Although many naturally occurring deposits include both silts and clay, clays are distinguished from other fine-grained soils by differences in size, silts, which are fine-grained soils that do not include clay minerals, tend to have larger particle sizes than clays. There is, however, some overlap in size and other physical properties. The distinction between silt and clay varies by discipline, geologists and soil scientists usually consider the separation to occur at a particle size of 2 µm, sedimentologists often use 4–5 μm, and colloid chemists use 1 μm. Geotechnical engineers distinguish between silts and clays based on the plasticity properties of the soil, as measured by the soils Atterberg limits, ISO14688 grades clay particles as being smaller than 2 μm and silt particles as being larger. These solvents, usually acidic, migrate through the rock after leaching through upper weathered layers. In addition to the process, some clay minerals are formed through hydrothermal activity. There are two types of deposits, primary and secondary. Primary clays form as residual deposits in soil and remain at the site of formation, secondary clays are clays that have been transported from their original location by water erosion and deposited in a new sedimentary deposit. Clay deposits are associated with very low energy depositional environments such as large lakes. Depending on the source, there are three or four main groups of clays, kaolinite, montmorillonite-smectite, illite, and chlorite. Chlorites are not always considered to be a clay, sometimes being classified as a group within the phyllosilicates. There are approximately 30 different types of clays in these categories. Varve is clay with visible annual layers, which are formed by deposition of those layers and are marked by differences in erosion. This type of deposit is common in glacial lakes
43.
Eisenhower Tree
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The Eisenhower Tree was a loblolly pine located on the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. In the 1950s it was named after then-U. S, President Dwight D. Eisenhower who unsuccessfully lobbied to have it taken down after it interfered with his golf game. Due to its size, history, and location on a prominent golf course and it was called among the most famous landmarks in golf by Cindy Boren in the Washington Post and arguably the most famous tree in golf by Martin Dempster of The Scotsman. In February 2014, the tree was removed after suffering damage from a major ice storm. The tree species was a loblolly pine. It stood about 65 feet tall and was wider than is typical and it was located on the 17th hole at the Augusta National Golf Club, approximately 210 yards from the Masters tee on the left side of the fairway. It was estimated to be 100 to 125 years old at the time it died. The tree was named after President Eisenhower, an Augusta National member, hit the tree while playing golf so many times that, at a 1956 club meeting, he proposed that it be cut down. Not wanting to offend the president, the chairman, Clifford Roberts. Bumper stickers made during Eisenhowers second presidential campaign reading Ben Hogan For President, if Were Going To Have A Golfer--Lets Have A Good One. Were a reference to the incident, the Eisenhower Tree has played a prominent role in the annual Masters Tournament. One year, the Tree came into play as Tommy Aaron hit a shot off the 17th tee which became known as the Lost Ball Incident, the ball could not be located and a drop was given. The next day according to Aaron, while playing on the 17th again, jack Nicklaus stated Im not sure I believe it. When the course was redesigned in 1999 to be challenging, there were concerns about the tree blocking players. In 2011, Tiger Woods was playing a shot from underneath the Eisenhower and damaged his left knee, the injuries sidelined him until August 2011 and his world ranking dropped to 58th. In February 2014, the Eisenhower Tree was removed after suffering damage during a major ice storm. The loss of the Eisenhower Tree is difficult news to accept and we obtained opinions from the best arborists available and … were advised that no recovery was possible. The storm occurred two months before the Masters Tournament, the loss of the tree brought tributes
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Augusta National Golf Club
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Augusta National Golf Club, located in Augusta, Georgia, is one of the most famous golf clubs in the world. Founded by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts on the site of the former Fruitland Nursery, since 1934, it has played host to the annual Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in professional golf, and the only major played each year at the same course. The club began granting membership to women in August 2012, in August 2012, it admitted its first two female members, Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore. The golf club has defended the policies, stressing that it is a private organization. The course was formerly a plant nursery and each hole on the course is named after the tree or shrub with which it has become associated, several of the holes on the first nine have been renamed, as well as hole #11. Lengths of the course for the Masters at the start of decade, Unlike most other private or public golf courses in the United States. During the 1990 Masters Tournament, a team of USGA raters, organized by Golf Digest, evaluated the course and it was re-evaluated in 2009 and given an unofficial rating of 78.1. The golf course architecture website GolfClubAtlas. com has said, Augusta National has gone through more changes since its inception than any of the twenty or so greatest courses. To call it a MacKenzie course is false advertising as his features are long gone. The authors of the site also add that MacKenzie and Jones were heavily influenced by the Old Course at St Andrews, and intended that the ground game be central to the course. The authors add, With the ground game gone, the course was especially vulnerable to changes in technology, Golf Course Histories has an aerial comparison of the architectural changes for Augusta National Golf Club for the year 1938 versus 2013. Among the slew of changes to the course were made by architect Perry Maxwell in 1937. When Augusta National originally opened for play in January 1933, the hole was a relatively benign par 4 that played just in excess of 400 yards. From an elevated tee, the hole required little more than an iron or wedge for the approach. He moved the green in 1937 to its present location – on top of the hill, about 50 yards back from the old site –, Ben Crenshaw referred to Maxwells work on the 10th hole as one of the great strokes in golf architecture. For the 1999 tournament, a short rough was instated around the fairways, referred to as the second cut, it is substantially shorter than the comparable primary rough at other courses, with an average length of 1.625 inches. It is meant to reduce a players ability to control the ball coming out of this lie, the second shot at the 11th, all of the 12th, and the first two shots at the 13th hole at Augusta are nicknamed Amen Corner. This term was first used in print by author Herbert Warren Wind in his April 21,1958, in a Golf Digest article in April 1984,26 years later, Wind told about its origin
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President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Dwight David Ike Eisenhower was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a general in the United States Army during World War II. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43, in 1951, he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO. Eisenhower was of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and was raised in a family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background. He graduated from West Point in 1915 and later married Mamie Doud, after World War II, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and then accepted the post of President at Columbia University. Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, campaigning against communism, Korea and he won in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and temporarily upending the New Deal Coalition. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be constitutionally term-limited under the 22nd Amendment, Eisenhowers main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. He ordered coups in Iran and Guatemala, Eisenhower gave major aid to help the French in the First Indochina War, and after the French were defeated he gave strong financial support to the new state of South Vietnam. Congress agreed to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment of NASA, which led to the space race. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower condemned the Israeli, British and French invasion of Egypt and he also condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. Eisenhower sent 15,000 U. S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution during the 1958 Lebanon crisis. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident. On the domestic front, he covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking executive privilege and he otherwise left most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower was a conservative who continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. Eisenhowers two terms saw considerable economic prosperity except for a decline in 1958. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. The Eisenhauer family migrated from Karlsbrunn in the Saarland, to North America, first settling in York, Pennsylvania, in 1741, accounts vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was anglicized to Eisenhower. Eisenhowers Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, who were farmers, included Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn
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Mid-February 2014 North American winter storm
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Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people were left in the dark for days, possibly even up to 2 weeks without power. On that day 70 percent of flights were cancelled at airports in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C. as of February 14,22 people had died from the storm. Approximately 1.2 million homes and businesses lost power as the storm moved from the South through the Northeast, by the evening of Thursday, February 13, about 550,000 customers remained in the dark, mostly in South Carolina and Georgia. On February 11, an area of low pressure moved across the Southeast, bringing rain and snow to areas like Atlanta. It then quickly moved offshore by roughly 3 p. m and this part of the storm was only the beginning of a crippling 2-day streak of winter nightmares across the South. Accumulations from this half of the storm ranged anywhere from 1–3 inches of snow. Later on February 11, another area of low pressure formed on the southern edge of the Gulf Coast. Drawing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, it was able to fire up an area of showers. As it tracked eastward, it began to interact with the air above it, producing an area of ice. On February 12, the swath of ice exploded in size as the conditions for freezing rain began to come together, areas from eastern Alabama, including Atlanta in Georgia to the Southeast coast and South Carolina were included in this swath of icy precipitation. Meanwhile to the south, near the Gulf Coast, heavy showers, early on February 13, more snow began to develop on the northern side of the storm as the precipitation shield approached the Tri-State Area in colder air. Heavy bands of snow set up as the system began its transition into a noreaster, by 10 a. m, most of the precipitation had moved north of New York City, and began to reach into areas like Boston. Most of the totals in this areas ranged anywhere from 6–24 inches. The system then continued to depart from the East Coast, before dissipating on February 24 near Europe. Four people died in accidents in Texas due to ice, and in Round Rock on February 11. Mississippi had two deaths attributed to the weather, several tractor-trailers jackknifed on Interstate 65 in northeast Alabama. Most businesses and all schools were closed, and few people were on the roads, Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency, which he did not do two weeks earlier. Precipitation started as light rain late on the 10th, with significant snow by the morning while still above freezing, turning back to light rain before ending by mid-day
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