1.
Quercus robur
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Quercus robur, commonly known as pedunculate oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family Fagaceae. It is native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus, the tree is widely cultivated in temperate regions and has escaped into the wild in scattered parts of China and North America. Quercus robur is the species of the genus, and a member of the white oak section Quercus section Quercus. The populations in Italy, southeast Europe, and Asia Minor, a close relative is the sessile oak, which shares much of its range. Q. robur is distinguished from this species by its leaves having only a short stalk 3–8 mm long. The two often hybridise in the wild, the hybrid being known as Quercus × rosacea, Q. robur should not be confused with Q. rubra, the red oak, which is a native of North America and only distantly related. Quercus robur is a deciduous tree, with circumference of grand oaks from 4 m to exceptional 12 m. The Majesty Oak with a circumference of 12.2 m is the thickest tree in Great Britain, Quercus robur has lobed and nearly sessile leaves 7–14 cm long. Flowering takes place in mid spring, and their fruit, called acorns, the acorns are 2–2.5 cm long, pedunculate with one to four acorns on each peduncle. Q. robur is very tolerant to soil conditions and the climate but it prefers fertile. It is a tree, with a large wide spreading crown of rugged branches. While it may live to an age of a few centuries, many of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced. Yet another can be found in Kvilleken, Sweden, that is over 1,000 years old and 14 metres around, of maiden specimens, one of the oldest is the great oak of Ivenack, Germany. Tree-ring research of this tree and other oaks nearby gives an age of 700 to 800 years. Also the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire, England is estimated to be 1,000 years old, making it the oldest in the UK, highest density of the grand oak trees Q. robur with a circumference 4 metres and more is in Latvia. Within its native range Q. robur is valued for its importance to insects, numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the acorns. Q. robur supports the highest biodiversity of insect herbivores of any British plant, the acorns form a valuable food resource for several small mammals and some birds, notably Eurasian jays Garrulus glandarius. Mammals, notably squirrels who tend to hoard acorns and other nuts most often leave them too abused to grow in the action of moving or storing them
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
6.
Eudicots
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The eudicots, Eudicotidae or eudicotyledons are a monophyletic clade of flowering plants that had been called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots by previous authors. The close relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains was initially seen in studies of shared derived characters. These plants have a trait in their pollen grains of exhibiting three colpi or grooves paralleling the polar axis. Later molecular evidence confirmed the basis for the evolutionary relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains. The term means true dicotyledons, as it contains the majority of plants that have been considered dicots and have characteristics of the dicots, the term eudicots has subsequently been widely adopted in botany to refer to one of the two largest clades of angiosperms, monocots being the other. The remaining angiosperms are sometimes referred to as basal angiosperms or paleodicots, the other name for the eudicots is tricolpates, a name which refers to the grooved structure of the pollen. Members of the group have tricolpate pollen, or forms derived from it and these pollens have three or more pores set in furrows called colpi. In contrast, most of the seed plants produce monosulcate pollen. The name tricolpates is preferred by some botanists to avoid confusion with the dicots, numerous familiar plants are eudicots, including many common food plants, trees, and ornamentals. Most leafy trees of midlatitudes also belong to eudicots, with exceptions being magnolias and tulip trees which belong to magnoliids, and Ginkgo biloba. The name eudicots is used in the APG system, of 1998 and it is applied to a clade, a monophyletic group, which includes most of the dicots. The eudicots can be divided into two groups, the basal eudicots and the core eudicots, basal eudicot is an informal name for a paraphyletic group. The core eudicots are a monophyletic group, a 2010 study suggested the core eudicots can be divided into two clades, Gunnerales and a clade called Pentapetalae, comprising all the remaining core eudicots
7.
Rosids
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The rosids are members of a large clade of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classification and these orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families. Fossil rosids are known from the Cretaceous period, molecular clock estimates indicate that the rosids originated in the Aptian or Albian stages of the Cretaceous, between 125 and 99.6 million years ago. The name is based upon the name Rosidae, which had usually been understood to be a subclass, in 1967, Armen Takhtajan showed that the correct basis for the name Rosidae is a description of a group of plants published in 1830 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling. The clade was later renamed Rosidae and has been variously delimited by different authors, the name rosids is informal and not assumed to have any particular taxonomic rank like the names authorized by the ICBN. The rosids are monophyletic based upon evidence found by molecular phylogenetic analysis, three different definitions of the rosids were used. Some authors included the orders Saxifragales and Vitales in the rosids, others excluded both of these orders. The circumscription used in this article is that of the APG IV classification, which includes Vitales, the rosids and Saxifragales form the superrosids clade. This is one of three groups compose the Pentapetalae, the others being Dilleniales and the superasterids. The rosids consist of two groups, the order Vitales and the eurosids, the eurosids, in turn, are divided into two groups, fabids and malvids. The rosids consist of 17 orders, in addition to Vitales, there are 8 orders in fabids and 8 orders in malvids. Some of the orders have only recently been recognized and these are Vitales, Zygophyllales, Crossosomatales, Picramniales, and Huerteales. The phylogeny of Rosids shown below is adapted from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group website, the nitrogen-fixing clade contains a high number of actinorhizal plants. Not all plants in this clade are actinorhizal, however, media related to Rosids at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Fagales
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The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches and they belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The other families were split into three different orders, placed among the Hamamelidae, the Casuarinales comprised the single family Casuarinaceae, the Juglandales comprised the Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, and the Myricales comprised the remaining forms. The change is due to studies suggesting the Myricales, so defined, are paraphyletic to the two groups. Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest the following relationships, Missouri Botanical Gardens - Fagales WCSP, World checklist of selected plant families
9.
Fagaceae
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Fagaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes beeches and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Their leaves are lobed and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Leaf characteristics of Fagaceae can be similar to those of Rosaceae. Their fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, in the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit is a non-valved nut called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits, a characteristic of Fagaceae is their tendency to easily cross-pollinate with members of their same genus/section. In particular, oaks of the same section cross so easily that it is unclear how they manage to stay morphologically distinct, several members of the Fagaceae have important economic uses. Many species of oak, chestnut, and beech are used as timber for floors, furniture, cabinets. Cork for stopping wine bottles and a myriad other uses is made from the bark of cork oak, chestnuts are the fruits from species of the genus Castanea. Numerous species from several genera are prominent ornamentals, and wood chips from the genus Fagus are often used in flavoring beers, the Fagaceae are often divided into five or six subfamilies and are generally accepted to include 8 genera. Monophyly of the Fagaceae is strongly supported by morphological and molecular data. The Southern Hemisphere genus Nothofagus, commonly the southern beeches, was placed in the Fagaceae sister to the genus Fagus. The currently accepted view by systematic botanists is to place Nothofagus in its own family, fagoideae K. Koch Fagus L. —beeches, about 10 to 13 species, north temperate east Asia, southwest Asia, Europe, eastern North America Quercoideae Õrsted Castanea Mill. 1948—golden chinkapins, two species, western United States Lithocarpus Blume 1826—stone oaks, about 330-340 species, warm temperate to tropical Asia Notholithocarpus P. S. Manos, the genus Nothofagus, formerly included in the Fagaceae, is now treated in the separate family Nothofagaceae. The Fagaceae are widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, genus-level diversity is concentrated in Southeast Asia, where most of the extant genera are thought to have evolved before migrating to Europe and North America. Members of the Fagaceae are often dominant in northern temperate forests
10.
Oak
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An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks, the common name oak also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, the second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species, also, the acorns contain tannic acid, as do the leaves, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring, in spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a structure known as a cupule, each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group, the oak tree is a flowering plant. Oaks may be divided into two genera and a number of sections, The genus Quercus is divided into the following sections, Quercus, the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short, acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter, the leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded. The type species is Quercus robur, Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long, acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter, the section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia, styles long, acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Protobalanus, the live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter, the inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Lobatae, the red oaks of North America, Central America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter
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
13.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
14.
Synonym
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A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy, the word comes from Ancient Greek sýn and ónoma. An example of synonyms are the words begin, start, commence, words can be synonymous when meant in certain senses, even if they are not synonymous in all of their senses. For example, if one talks about a time or an extended time, long. Some academics call the former type cognitive synonyms to distinguish them from the latter type, some lexicographers claim that no synonyms have exactly the same meaning because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason, feline is more formal than cat, long and extended are only synonyms in one usage, synonyms are also a source of euphemisms. In the figurative sense, two words are said to be synonymous if they have the same connotation. a widespread impression that. Metonymy can sometimes be a form of synonymy, as when, for example, thus a metonym is a type of synonym, and the word metonym is a hyponym of the word synonym. The analysis of synonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, and hypernymy is inherent to taxonomy and it has applications in pedagogy and machine learning, because they rely on word-sense disambiguation and schema. Synonyms can be any part of speech, as long as both words belong to the part of speech. Such like, he expired means the same as he died, in English, many synonyms emerged in the Middle Ages, after the Norman conquest of England. While Englands new ruling class spoke Norman French, the lower classes continued to speak Old English, thus, today we have synonyms like the Norman-derived people, liberty and archer, and the Saxon-derived folk, freedom and bowman. For more examples, see the list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English, the purpose of a thesaurus is to offer the user a listing of similar or related words, these are often, but not always, synonyms. The word poecilonym is a synonym of the word synonym. It is not entered in most major dictionaries and is a curiosity or piece of trivia for being a word because of its meta quality as a synonym of synonym. Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings, for example, hot ↔ cold, large ↔ small, thick ↔ thin, synonym ↔ antonym Hypernyms and hyponyms are words that refer to, respectively, a general category and a specific instance of that category. For example, vehicle is a hypernym of car, and car is a hyponym of vehicle, homophones are words that have the same pronunciation, but different meanings. For example, witch and which are homophones in most accents, homographs are words that have the same spelling, but have different pronunciations
15.
Great Lakes
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Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 21% of the worlds surface fresh water by volume. The total surface is 94,250 square miles, and the volume is 5,439 cubic miles. Due to their sea-like characteristics the five Great Lakes have also long been referred to as inland seas, Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world by area, and Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country. The southern half of the Great Lakes is bordered by the Great Lakes Megalopolis, the lakes have been a major highway for transportation, migration and trade, and they are home to a large number of aquatic species. Many invasive species have been introduced due to trade, and some threaten the regions biodiversity, though the five lakes reside in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin. The lakes form a chain connecting the interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, the lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers, and are studded with approximately 35,000 islands. There are also several smaller lakes, often called inland lakes. The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the area of the entire basin is about the size of the UK. Lake Michigan is the one of the Great Lakes that is located entirely within the United States. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U. S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both Ontario and Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes, Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, New York and Wisconsins jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and the remaining states into one of the lakes. This designation, however, is not universal and those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as the lower lakes, because they are farther south. This corresponds to thinking of Lakes Erie and Ontario as down south, vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered upbound even though they are sailing toward its effluent current. The Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect the Great Lakes Basin to the Mississippi River System through man-made alterations, the St. Marys River, including the Soo Locks, connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, the St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The Detroit River connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, the Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal, bypassing the Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River connects Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which connects to the Atlantic Ocean
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Nova Scotia
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Nova Scotia is one of Canadas three Maritime provinces, and one of the four provinces which form Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia is Canadas second-smallest province, with an area of 55,284 square kilometres, including Cape Breton, as of 2016, the population was 923,598. Nova Scotia is the second most-densely populated province in Canada with 17.4 inhabitants per square kilometre, Nova Scotia means New Scotland in Latin and is the recognized English language name for the province. In Scottish Gaelic, the province is called Alba Nuadh, which simply means New Scotland. Nova Scotia is Canadas second-smallest province in area after Prince Edward Island, the provinces mainland is the Nova Scotia peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, including numerous bays and estuaries. Nowhere in Nova Scotia is more than 67 km from the ocean, Nova Scotia has many ancient fossil-bearing rock formations. These formations are rich on the Bay of Fundys shores. Blue Beach near Hantsport, Joggins Fossil Cliffs, on the Bay of Fundys shores, has yielded an abundance of Carboniferous age fossils, wassons Bluff, near the town of Parrsboro, has yielded both Triassic and Jurassic age fossils. Nova Scotia lies in the mid-temperate zone, since the province is almost surrounded by the sea, the climate is closer to maritime than to continental climate. The winter and summer temperature extremes of the climate are moderated by the ocean. However, winters are cold enough to be classified as continental – still being nearer the freezing point than inland areas to the west. The Nova Scotia climate is in ways similar to the central Baltic Sea coast in Northern Europe. This is in spite of Nova Scotia being some fifteen parallels south, areas not on the Atlantic coast experience warmer summers more typical of inland areas, and winter lows a little colder. The province includes regions of the Mikmaq nation of Mikmaki, the Mikmaq people inhabited Nova Scotia at the time the first European colonists arrived. In 1605, French colonists established the first permanent European settlement in the future Canada at Port Royal, the British conquest of Acadia took place in 1710. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 formally recognized this and returned Cape Breton Island to the French, present-day New Brunswick then still formed a part of the French colony of Acadia. The British changed the name of the capital from Port Royal to Annapolis Royal, in 1749, the capital of Nova Scotia moved from Annapolis Royal to the newly established Halifax. In 1755 the vast majority of the French population were removed in the Expulsion of the Acadians
17.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
18.
Alabama
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Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the U. S. states. At nearly 1,500 miles, Alabama has one of the nations longest navigable inland waterways, Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State, the state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long been the most industrialized city, the oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states in the southern U. S. suffered economic hardship, like other southern states, Alabama legislators disenfranchised African Americans and many poor whites at the turn of the century. Following World War II, Alabama grew as the economy changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified interests. The state economy in the 21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, in the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo. The word Alabama is believed to have come from the Alabama language, the words spelling varies significantly among historical sources. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, Allibamou. Sources disagree on the words meaning, some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba and amo. The meaning may have been clearers of the thicket or herb gatherers, the state has numerous place names of Native American origin. However, there are no correspondingly similar words in the Alabama language, an 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant Here We Rest. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek, experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization, trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no links to Mesoamerican culture
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Louisiana
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Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River
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Oklahoma
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Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States, the states name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning red people. The name was settled upon statehood, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged, on November 16,1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally Okies, and its capital, a major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. In 2007, it had one of the economies in the United States, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahomas primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With small mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, literally meaning red people, equivalent to the English word Indian, okla humma was a phrase in the Choctaw language used to describe Native American people as a whole. Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was approved in 1890. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,898 square miles and it is one of six states on the Frontier Strip and lies partly in the Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. It is bounded on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas, on the northwest by Colorado, on the far west by New Mexico, much of its border with Texas lies along the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, a failed continental rift. The geologic figure defines the placement of the Red River, the Oklahoma panhandles Western edge is out of alignment with its Texas border. The Oklahoma/New Mexico border is actually 2.1 to 2.2 miles east of the Texas line, the border between Texas and New Mexico was set first as a result of a survey by Spain in 1819. It was then set along the 103rd Meridian, in the 1890s, when Oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered the Texas line was not set along the 103rd Meridian. Surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, and the actual 103rd Meridian was approximately 2.2 miles to the east and it was much easier to leave the mistake than for Texas to cede land to New Mexico to correct the surveying error. The placement of the Oklahoma/New Mexico border represents the true 103rd Meridian, cimarron County in Oklahomas panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four other states, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa, at 4,973 feet above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The states lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel, Oklahoma, which dips to 289 feet above sea level
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Kansas
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Kansas /ˈkænzəs/ is a U. S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribes name is said to mean people of the wind or people of the south wind. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous, tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. When it was opened to settlement by the U. S. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided. The abolitionists eventually prevailed, and on January 29,1861, after the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. By 2015, Kansas was one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. Kansas, which has an area of 82,278 square miles is the 15th largest state by area and is the 34th most populous of the 50 United States with a population of 2,911,641, residents of Kansas are called Kansans, officially. Mount Sunflower is Kansass highest point at 4,041 feet, for a millennia, the land that is currently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, in 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, from 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from Missouri and silver and furs from Santa Fe, wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today. In 1827, Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state, the Kansas–Nebraska Act became law on May 30,1854, establishing the U. S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and opening the area to broader settlement by whites. Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day Denver, Colorado Springs, Missouri and Arkansas sent settlers into Kansas all along its eastern border. These settlers attempted to sway votes in favor of slavery, the secondary settlement of Americans in Kansas Territory were abolitionists from Massachusetts and other Free-Staters, who attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring Missouri. Directly presaging the American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes that earned the territory the name of Bleeding Kansas, Kansas was admitted to the United States as a free state on January 29,1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. He was roundly condemned by both the conventional Confederate military and the partisan rangers commissioned by the Missouri legislature and his application to that body for a commission was flatly rejected due to his pre-war criminal record
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Nebraska
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Nebraska /nᵻˈbræskə/ is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. Its area is just over 77,220 sq mi with almost 1.9 million people and its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River. The state is crossed by many trails and was explored by the Lewis. Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state of the United States in 1867 and it is the only state in the United States whose legislature is unicameral and officially nonpartisan. Nebraska is composed of two major regions, the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains. The Dissected Till Plains is a region of rolling hills. The Great Plains occupy most of western Nebraska, characterized by treeless prairie, the state has a large agriculture sector and is a major producer of beef, pork, corn, and soybeans. Two major climatic zones are represented in Nebraska, the half of the state has a humid continental climate, and the western half. Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European exploration. The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, when European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control the region. In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apaches, by 1703, France had developed a regular trade with the native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples. After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720. The party was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a force of Pawnees and Otoes. The massacre of the Villasur expedition effectively put an end to Spanish exploration of Nebraska for the remainder of the 18th century, in 1762, during the Seven Years War, France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. Frances withdrawal from the area left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi, by 1773, later that year, Mackays party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV, near present-day Homer. In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U. S. Army post west of the Missouri River, the army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement did not begin in any numbers until after 1848, on May 30,1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, the territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha
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Minnesota
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Minnesota is a state in the midwestern and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U. S. state on May 11,1858, the state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan Land of 10,000 Lakes. Its official motto is LÉtoile du Nord, Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U. S. Minnesota is known for its progressive political orientation and its high rate of civic participation and voter turnout. Until European settlement, Minnesota was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, in recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America has broadened its historic demographic and cultural composition. Minnesotas standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls, Minneiska, Minneota, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, Minnesota is the second northernmost U. S. state. Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel. The state is part of the U. S. region known as the Upper Midwest and it shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, with 86,943 square miles, or approximately 2.25 percent of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th-largest state. Minnesota has some of the Earths oldest rocks, gneisses that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean, the roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1, in more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of the state and sculpted its terrain. The Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago and these glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift, much of the remainder of the state outside the northeast has 50 feet or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago and its bed created the fertile Red River valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi downstream from Fort Snelling. Minnesota is geologically quiet today, it experiences earthquakes infrequently, the states high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet, which is only 13 miles away from the low of 601 feet at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a rolling peneplain. Two major drainage divides meet in Minnesotas northeast in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed, precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean
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Soil pH
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The soil pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity in soils. PH is defined as the logarithm of the activity of hydronium ions in a solution. In water, it ranges from -1 to 14, with 7 being neutral. A pH below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline, Soil pH is considered a master variable in soils as it controls many chemical processes that take place. It specifically affects plant nutrient availability by controlling the chemical forms of the nutrient, the optimum pH range for most plants is between 5.5 and 7.0, however many plants have adapted to thrive at pH values outside this range. While pH is the measure of H+ in solution, Al3+ is important in acid soils because between pH4 and 6, Al3+ reacts with water forming AlOH2+, and Al2+, releasing extra H+ ions, every Al3+ ion can create 3 H+ ions. Many other processes contribute to the formation of soils including rainfall, fertilizer use, plant root activity. Acid soils can also be caused by such as acid rain. Rainfall, Acid soils are most often found in areas of high rainfall, excess rainfall leaches base cation from the soil, increasing the percentage of Al3+ and H+ relative to other cations. Additionally, rainwater has a slightly acidic pH of 5.7 due to a reaction with CO2 in the atmosphere that forms carbonic acid, Fertilizer use, Ammonium fertilizers react in the soil in a process called nitrification to form nitrate, and in the process release H+ ions. Plant root activity, Plants take up nutrients in the form of ions, however plants must maintain a neutral charge in their roots. In order to compensate for the positive charge, they will release H+ ions from the root. Some plants will also exude organic acids into the soil to acidify the zone around their roots to help solubilize metal nutrients that are insoluble at neutral pH, weathering of minerals, Both primary and secondary minerals that compose soil contain Al. Highly weathered soils are characterized by having high concentrations of Fe. Acid rain, When atmospheric water reacts with sulfur and nitrogen compounds that result from industrial processes, however the amount of acidity that is deposited in rainwater is much less, on average, than that created through agricultural activities. Mine spoil, Severely acidic conditions can form in soils near mine spoils due to the oxidation of pyrite, Potential acid sulfate soils naturally formed in waterlogged coastal and estuarine environments can become highly acidic when drained or excavated. Decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms releases CO2 which when mixed with water can form carbonic acid. Alkaline soils have a high saturation of base cations and this is due to an accumulation of soluble salts which are classified as either saline soil, sodic soil, saline-sodic soil or alkaline soil
25.
Quercus falcata
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Quercus falcata, commonly known as the southern red oak or Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section of the genus Quercus native to the eastern and south-central United States. Quercus falcata occurs on dry or sandy upland sites from southern New York south to central Florida and west to Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In the northeastern portion of its range the species is rare and found almost exclusively along the coast. The base of the leaf is distinctly rounded into a bell shape. They are dark green and shiny above, and rusty and hairy below, particularly along the midrib, the seed is a short acorn 9–16 mm long, bright orange-brown, enclosed for one-third to half of its length in a flat cup. The acorn matures at the end of its second season, the bark is dark brownish gray with narrow, shallow ridges. Southern red oak has been reported to form hybrids with several other red oaks in the region
26.
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
27.
Prince Edward Island
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Prince Edward Island is a province of Canada consisting of the island of the same name, as well as several much smaller islands. It is one of the three Maritime Provinces and is the smallest province in land area and population. It is the only jurisdiction of North America outside the Caribbean to have no mainland territory. The backbone of the economy is farming, it produces 25% of Canadas potatoes, historically, PEI is one of Canadas older settlements and demographically still reflects older immigration to the country, with Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and French surnames being dominant to this day. According to the 2011 census, the province of Prince Edward Island has 140,204 residents and it is located about 200 kilometres north of Halifax, Nova Scotia and 600 kilometres east of Quebec City. It consists of the island and 231 minor islands. Altogether, the province has a land area of 5,685.73 km2. The main island is 5,620 km2 in size, slightly larger than the U. S. state of Delaware and it is the 104th-largest island in the world and Canadas 23rd-largest island. The island is named for Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the son of King George III. Prince Edward has been called Father of the Canadian Crown, Prince Edward Island is located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, west of Cape Breton Island, north of the Nova Scotia peninsula, and east of New Brunswick. Its southern shore bounds the Northumberland Strait, the island has two urban areas. A much smaller urban area surrounds Summerside Harbour, situated on the southern shore 40 km west of Charlottetown Harbour, as with all natural harbours on the island, Charlottetown and Summerside harbours are created by rias. Rolling hills, woods, reddish white sand beaches, ocean coves, under the Planning Act of the province, municipalities have the option to assume responsibility for land-use planning through the development and adoption of official plans and land use bylaws. Thirty-one municipalities have taken responsibility for planning, in areas where municipalities have not assumed responsibility for planning, the Province remains responsible for development control. The islands lush landscape has a bearing on its economy. The author Lucy Maud Montgomery drew inspiration from the land during the late Victorian Era for the setting of her classic novel Anne of Green Gables, today, many of the same qualities that Montgomery and others found in the island are enjoyed by tourists who visit year-round. The smaller, rural communities as well as the towns and villages throughout the province, retain a slower-paced, Prince Edward Island has become popular as a tourist destination for relaxation. The economy of most rural communities on the island is based on small-scale agriculture, industrial farming has increased as businesses buy and consolidate older farm properties
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United States Department of Agriculture
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Approximately 80% of USDAs $140 billion budget goes to the Food and Nutrition Service program. The largest component of the FNS budget is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, after the resignation of Thomas Vilsack on January 13,2017 and the departure of President Barack Obama from office on January 20,2017, the acting Secretary of Agriculture is Michael Young. Activities in this include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides healthy food to over 40 million low-income. The USDA also is concerned with assisting farmers and food producers with the sale of crops and it plays a role in overseas aid programs by providing surplus foods to developing countries. This aid can go through USAID, foreign governments, international bodies such as World Food Program, the Agricultural Act of 1949, section 416 and Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, also known as Food for Peace, provides the legal basis of such actions. The USDA is a partner of the World Cocoa Foundation, early in its history, the economy of the United States was largely agrarian. Officials in the government had long sought new and improved varieties of seeds, plants. In 1837 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, a Yale-educated attorney interested in improving agriculture, became Commissioner of Patents and he began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and agricultural societies. In 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for the collection of agricultural statistics, Ellsworth was called the Father of the Department of Agriculture. In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior, in the ensuing years, agitation for a separate bureau of agriculture within the department or a separate department devoted to agriculture kept recurring. Lincoln called it the peoples department, in the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, and farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank, finally, on February 9,1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level. In 1887, the Hatch Act provided for the funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 then funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, with these and similar provisions, the USDA reached out to every county of every state. During the Great Depression, farming remained a way of life for millions of Americans. The Department of Agricultures Bureau of Home Economics, established in 1923, published shopping advice and recipes to stretch family budgets and make food go farther. USDA helped ensure that continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisted with loans for small landowners. The Department of Agriculture was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2015 of $139.7 billion, the Washington Post reports that he said There are days when I have literally nothing to do, he recalled thinking as he weighed his decision to quit
29.
Quercus velutina
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Quercus velutina, the eastern black oak or more commonly known as simply black oak, is a species in the red oak group of oaks. It is widespread in eastern and central North America, found in all the states from Maine to Texas, inland as far as Ontario, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma. Quercus velutina was previously known as yellow oak due to the pigment in its inner bark. It is a relative of the western black oak found in western North America. Black oak is well known to hybridize with other members of the red oak group of oaks being one parent in at least a dozen different named hybrids. The leaves of the black oak are alternately arranged on the twig and are 10–20 cm long with 5–7 bristle tipped lobes separated by deep U-shaped notches, the upper surface of the leaf is a shiny deep green, the lower is yellowish-brown. There are also stellate hairs on the underside of the leaf that grow in clumps, the inner bark of the black oak contains a yellow pigment called quercitron, which was sold commercially in Europe until the 1940s. Key Characteristics, Sun leaves have very deep u-shaped sinuses, the buds are velvety and covered in white hair. The fruits or acorns of the black oak are medium-sized and broadly rounded, the cap is large and covers almost half of the nut. In southern New England, black oak grows on cool, moist soils, elsewhere it occurs on warm, moist soils. The most widespread soils on which black oak grows are the Udalfs and these soils are derived from glacial materials, sandstones, shales, and limestone and range from heavy clays to loamy sands with some having a high content of rock or chert fragments. Black oak grows best on well drained, silty clay to loam soils, black oak grows on all aspects and slope positions. It grows best in coves and on middle and lower slopes with northerly and easterly aspects and it is found at elevations up to 1,200 m in the southern Appalachians. The most important factors determining site quality for black oak are the thickness and texture of the A horizon, texture of the B horizon, aspect, other factors may be important in localized areas. For example, in northwestern West Virginia increasing precipitation to 1,120 mm resulted in increased site quality, in southern Indiana, decreasing site quality was associated with increasing slope steepness. Near the limits of black oaks range, topographic factors may restrict its distribution, at the western limits black oak is often found only on north and east aspects where moisture conditions are most favorable. In southern Minnesota and Wisconsin it is found only on ridge tops. Black oak is often a predominant species in the canopy of an oak–heath forest, black Oak is the forest cover type that designates pure stands of the species or those in which it makes up more than 50 percent of the stand basal area
30.
Pollination
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Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred to the female reproductive organs of a plant, thereby enabling fertilization to take place. Like all living organisms, seed plants have a major goal. The reproductive unit is the seed, and pollination is a step in the production of seeds in all spermatophytes. The process is different in angiosperms from what it is in gymnosperms. In angiosperms, after the grain has landed on the stigma. Sperm cells from the pollen grain then move along the tube, enter the egg cell through the micropyle and fertilise it. A successful angiosperm pollen grain containing the gametes is transported to the stigma. Its two gametes travel down the tube to where the containing the female gametes are held within the carpel. One nucleus fuses with the bodies to produce the endosperm tissues. In gymnosperms, the ovule is not contained in a carpel, details of the process vary according to the division of gymnosperms in question. Two main modes of fertilization are found in gymnosperms, the study of pollination brings together many disciplines, such as botany, horticulture, entomology, and ecology. The pollination process as an interaction between flower and pollen vector was first addressed in the 18th century by Christian Konrad Sprengel and it is important in horticulture and agriculture, because fruiting is dependent on fertilization, the result of pollination. The study of pollination by insects is known as anthecology, pollen germination has three stages, hydration, activation and pollen tube emergence. The pollen grain is severely dehydrated so that its mass is reduced enabling it to be easily transported from flower to flower. Germination only takes place after rehydration, ensuring that premature germination does not take place in the anther, hydration allows the plasma membrane of the pollen grain to reform into its normal bilayer organization providing an effective osmotic membrane. Activation involves the development of actin filaments throughout the cytoplasm of the cell, hydration and activation continue as the pollen tube begins to grow. In conifers, the structures are borne on cones. The cones are either pollen cones or ovulate cones, but some species are monoecious, a pollen cone contains hundreds of microsporangia carried on reproductive structures called sporophylls
31.
Deer
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Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the deer and the chital, and the Capreolinae, including the elk, reindeer, the Western roe deer. Female reindeer, and male deer of all species, grow, in this they differ from permanently horned antelope, which are in the same order, Artiodactyla. The musk deer of Asia and water chevrotain of tropical African and Asian forests are not usually regarded as true deer and form their own families, Moschidae and Tragulidae, respectively. Deer appear in art from Palaeolithic cave paintings onwards, and they have played a role in mythology, religion and their economic importance includes the use of their meat as venison, their skins as soft, strong buckskin, and their antlers as handles for knives. Deer hunting has been a sport since at least the Middle Ages. Deer live in a variety of biomes, ranging from tundra to the tropical rainforest, while often associated with forests, many deer are ecotone species that live in transitional areas between forests and thickets and prairie and savanna. The majority of deer species inhabit temperate mixed deciduous forest, mountain mixed coniferous forest, tropical seasonal/dry forest. Clearing open areas within forests to some extent may actually benefit deer populations by exposing the understory and allowing the types of grasses, weeds, additionally, access to adjacent croplands may also benefit deer. However, adequate forest or brush cover must still be provided for populations to grow, however, fallow deer have been introduced to South Africa. There are also species of deer that are highly specialized, and live almost exclusively in mountains, grasslands, swamps. Some deer have a distribution in both North America and Eurasia. Examples include the caribou that live in Arctic tundra and taiga and moose that inhabit taiga, huemul deer of South Americas Andes fill the ecological niches of the ibex and wild goat, with the fawns behaving more like goat kids. Mountain slope habitats vary from moist coniferous/mixed forested habitats to dry forests with alpine meadows higher up. The foothills and river valleys between the mountain provide a mosaic of cropland and deciduous parklands. The rare woodland caribou have the most restricted range living at altitudes in the subalpine meadows. Elk and mule deer both migrate between the alpine meadows and lower coniferous forests and tend to be most common in this region, elk also inhabit river valley bottomlands, which they share with White-tailed deer. They also live in the aspen parklands north of Calgary and Edmonton, the adjacent Great Plains grassland habitats are left to herds of elk, American bison, and pronghorn antelope
32.
Squirrel
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Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots, flying squirrels, Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa, and were introduced by humans to Australia. The earliest known date from the Eocene period and are most closely related to the mountain beaver. That word squirrel, first attested in 1327, comes from the Anglo-Norman esquirel which is from the Old French escurel and this Latin word was borrowed from the Ancient Greek word σκίουρος, skiouros, which means shadow-tailed, referring to the bushy appendage possessed by many of its members. The native Old English word for the squirrel, ācweorna, survived only into Middle English before being replaced, Squirrels typically have slender bodies with bushy tails and large eyes. In general, their fur is soft and silky, although much thicker in some species than others, the color of squirrels is highly variable between—and often even within—species. In general, the limbs are longer than the fore limbs. Their paws include a poorly developed thumb, and have soft pads on the undersides. Unlike most mammals, Tree squirrels can descend a tree head-first and they do so by rotating their ankles 180 degrees so the hind paws are backward-pointing and can grip the tree bark. Squirrels live in almost every habitat from tropical rainforest to desert, avoiding only the high polar regions. They are predominantly herbivorous, subsisting on seeds and nuts, but many will eat insects, as their large eyes indicate, in general squirrels have an excellent sense of vision, which is especially important for tree-dwelling species. They also have very versatile and sturdy claws for grasping and climbing, many also have a good sense of touch, with vibrissae on their heads and limbs. The teeth of sciurids follow the typical rodent pattern, with large gnawing incisors that grow throughout life, the typical dental formula for sciurids is 1.0.1.31.0.1.3. Many juvenile squirrels die in the first year of life, adult squirrels can have a lifespan of 5 to 10 years in the wild. Some can survive 10 to 20 years in captivity, Squirrels breed once or twice a year and give birth to a varying number of young after three to six weeks, depending on species. The young are naked, toothless, and blind. In most species of squirrel, only the female looks after the young, in general, ground-dwelling species are social animals, often living in well-developed colonies, but the tree-dwelling species are more solitary. Squirrels cannot digest cellulose, so they must rely on foods rich in protein, carbohydrates, during these times, squirrels rely heavily on the buds of trees
33.
Bird
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Birds, a subgroup of Reptiles, are the last living examples of Dinosaurs. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at ten thousand. Birds are the closest living relatives of crocodilians, the fossil record indicates that birds evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, Birds, especially those in the southern continents, survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Birds have wings which are more or less developed depending on the species, the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have evolved for swimming. Many species annually migrate great distances, Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and bird songs, and participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or, rarely, Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents, most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. Some birds, such as hens, lay eggs even when not fertilised, songbirds, parrots, and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser, Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry, the first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system currently in use, Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda, Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria
34.
Ectomycorrhiza
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An ectomycorrhiza is a form of symbiotic relationship that occurs between a fungal symbiont and the roots of various plant species. The mycobiont tends to be predominantly from the phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, Ectomycorrhizas form between fungi and the roots of around 2% of plant species. These tend to be composed of plants, including species from the birch, dipterocarp, myrtle, beech, willow, pine. Unlike other mycorrhizal relationships, such as arbuscular mycorrhiza and ericoid mycorrhiza, instead, they form an entirely intercellular interface, consisting of highly branched hyphae forming a latticework between epidermal and cortical root cells, known as the Hartig net. Ectomycorrhizas are further differentiated from other mycorrhizas by the formation of a hyphal sheath, known as the mantle. This sheathing mantle can be up to 40 µm thick, with hyphae extending up to several centimeters into the surrounding soil. This hyphal network aids in water and nutrient uptake often helping the host plant to survive adverse conditions, and in exchange, many EcM fungal fruiting bodies are well known. These include the important and edible truffle and the deadly death caps. They also form on many common temperate forest trees, such as pines, oaks, willows, Douglas firs, eucalypts, there have been tremendous advances in research concerning ectomycorrhizal identification and ecological importance over the past few years. This has led to a complete understanding of the intricate. These advances in knowledge have led to increased applicability in areas such as management and restoration, forestry. Mycorrhizal symbioses, in general, are ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems, paleobiological and molecular evidence suggest that arbuscular mycorrhizas, in particular, originated at least 460 million years ago. EcM plants and fungi exhibit a wide distribution and are similarly present across all continents, suggesting the EcM symbiosis has ancient evolutionary roots. Pinaceae represents the oldest extant plant family in which symbiosis with EcM fungi occurs, a popular theory proposed by Read postulates that habitat type and the distinct functions of different mycorrhizas help determine the particular symbiosis that will become predominant. In this theory, EcM symbioses evolved in relatively productive ecosystems, such as boreal forests, in this scenario, ectomycorrhizas are a somewhat intermediate form, having greater mineralization capacities than arbuscular mycorrhizas and less so than types such as ericoid mycorrhizas. This is supported by studies, some of which also purport arbuscular mycorrhizas to be the ancestral trait. According to this data, many non-mycorrhizal and other mycorrhizal forms represent evolutionary specializations, Fungi tend to be composed of soft tissues, making fossilization difficult and the discovery of fungal fossils incredibly rare. This is compounded by the size and ephemeral nature of ectomycorrhizas
35.
Ascomycota
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Ascomycota is a division or phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, form the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species, the defining feature of this fungal group is the ascus, a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of the Ascomycota are asexual, meaning that they do not have a sexual cycle, the ascomycetes are a monophyletic group, i. e. it contains all descendants of one common ancestor. Familiar examples of sac fungi include morels, truffles, brewers yeast and bakers yeast, dead mans fingers, the fungal symbionts in the majority of lichens such as Cladonia belong to the Ascomycota. There are many plant-pathogenic ascomycetes, including apple scab, rice blast, the fungi, black knot. Several species of ascomycetes are biological model organisms in laboratory research, most famously, Neurospora crassa, several species of yeasts, and Aspergillus species are used in many genetics and cell biology studies. Penicillium species on cheeses and those producing antibiotics for treating infectious diseases are examples of taxa that belong to the Ascomycota. They are fungi which produce microscopic spores inside special, elongated cells or sacs, known as asci, Asexual reproduction, Asexual reproduction is the dominant form of propagation in the Ascomycota, and is responsible for the rapid spread of these fungi into new areas. Asexual reproduction of ascomycetes is very diverse from both structural and functional points of view, the most important and general is production of conidia, but chlamydospores are also frequently produced. Furthermore, Ascomycota also reproduce asexually through budding, 1) Conidia formation, Asexual reproduction may occur through vegetative reproductive spores, the conidia. Asexual, non-motile haploid spore of a fungus, which is named after the Greek word for dust, conia and they are typically formed at the ends of specialized hyphae, the conidiophores. Depending on the species they may be dispersed by wind or water, conidiophores may simply branch off from the mycelia or they may be formed in fruiting bodies. The hypha that creates the sporing tip can be similar to the normal hyphal tip. The most common differentiation is the formation of a bottle shaped cell called a phialide, as all of these asexual structures are not single hyphae. In some groups, the conidiophores are aggregated to form a thick structure, in the order Moniliales, all of them are single hyphae with the exception of the aggregations, termed as coremia or synnema. These produce structures rather like corn-stokes, with many conidia being produced in a mass from the aggregated conidiophores, the diverse conidia and conidiophores sometimes develop in asexual sporocarps with different characteristics. Some species of Ascomycetes form their structures within plant tissue, either as parasite or saprophytes and these fungi have evolved more complex asexual sporing structures, probably influenced by the cultural conditions of plant tissue as a substrate
36.
Quercus montana
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Quercus montana, the chestnut oak, is a species of oak in the white oak group, Quercus sect. It is also called rock oak because of its presence in montane. They tend to have a spread of 18–22 m. A 10-year-old sapling grown in full sun will stand about 5 m tall and this species is often an important canopy species in an oak-heath forest. Extensive confusion between the oak and the swamp chestnut oak has occurred, and some botanists have considered them to be the same species in the past. The application of the name Q. montana to the oak is now accepted, since Q. prinus is of uncertain position. The chestnut oak is readily identified by its massively-ridged dark gray-brown bark, the chinkapin oak also has much smaller acorns than the chestnut oak. The chestnut oak is distinguished from the swamp white oak because that tree has whitened undersides on the leaves. Characteristics of the chestnut oak include, Bark, Dark, fissured into broad ridges, branchlets stout, at first bronze green, later they become reddish brown, finally dark gray or brown. Wood, Dark brown, sapwood lighter, heavy, hard, strong, tough, close-grained, used for fencing, fuel, and railway ties. 0.7499, weight of cu. ft.46.73 lbs, winter buds, Light chestnut brown, ovate, acute, one-fourth to one-half of an inch long. Leaves, Alternate,5 to 9 in long,3 to 4 1⁄2 in wide, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, coarsely toothed, teeth rounded or acute. They come out of the bud convolute, yellow green or bronze, shining above, when full grown are thick, firm, dark yellow green, somewhat shining above, pale green and pubescent below, midribs stout, yellow, primary veins conspicuous. In autumn they turn a dull yellow soon changing to a yellow brown, flowers, May, when leaves are one-third grown. Staminate flowers are borne in hairy catkins two to three long, calyx pale yellow, hairy, deeply seven to nine-lobed, stamens 7 to 9. Pistillate flowers in spikes, peduncles green, stout, hairy, involucral scales hairy, stigmas short. Scales small, much crowded toward the rim sometimes making a fringe, the acorns of the chestnut oak are 1. 5–3 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, among the largest of native American oaks, surpassed in size only by the bur oak and possibly swamp chestnut oak. This species is a predominant ridge-top tree in eastern North American hardwood forests and it often grows with multiple trunks, often as a result of logging or prior injury to the main stem
37.
Appalachian Mountains
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The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period and it once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before naturally occurring erosion. The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east-west travel, as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines, definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians. A common variant definition does not include the Adirondack Mountains, which belong to the Grenville Orogeny and have a different geological history from the rest of the Appalachians. The range covers parts of the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft. The highest of the group is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet, the term Appalachian refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the mountain range with its surrounding hills. The Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas and Oklahoma were originally part of the Appalachians as well, the name was soon altered by the Spanish to Apalachee and used as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north. Pánfilo de Narváezs expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15,1528, now spelled Appalachian, it is the fourth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US. After the de Soto expedition in 1540, Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the mountains themselves. The first cartographic appearance of Apalchen is on Diego Gutierrezs map of 1562, the name was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century. A competing and often more popular name was the Allegheny Mountains, Alleghenies, in the early 19th century, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either Appalachia or Alleghania. In U. S. dialects in the regions of the Appalachians. In northern parts of the range, it is pronounced /ˌæpəˈleɪtʃᵻnz/ or /ˌæpəˈleɪʃᵻnz/, the third syllable is like lay. There is often debate between the residents of the regions as to which pronunciation is the more correct one. Elsewhere, a commonly accepted pronunciation for the adjective Appalachian is /ˌæpəˈlætʃiən/, the whole system may be divided into three great sections, Northern, The northern section runs from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the Hudson River. The Monteregian Hills, which cross the Green Mountains in Quebec, are also unassociated with the Appalachians, Central, The central section goes from the Hudson Valley to the New River running through Virginia and West Virginia. Southern, The southern section runs from the New River onwards and it consists of the prolongation of the Blue Ridge, which is divided into the Western Blue Ridge Front and the Eastern Blue Ridge Front, the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, and the Cumberland Plateau
38.
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
39.
Firewood
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Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, Firewood can be seasoned or unseasoned. It can be classed as hardwood or softwood, however, demand for this fuel can outpace its ability to regenerate on a local or regional level. Good forestry practices and improvements in devices that use firewood can improve local wood supplies, harvesting or collecting firewood varies by the region and culture. Some places have specific areas for firewood collection, other places may integrate the collection of firewood in the cycle of preparing a plot of land to grow food as part of a field rotation process. Collection can be a group, family or an individual activity, the tools and methods for harvesting firewood are diverse. Some firewood is harvested in woodlots managed for that purpose, deadfall that has not started to rot is preferred, since it is already partly seasoned. Standing dead timber is considered better still, for it has less dirt on the trunk, allowing tools to stay sharper longer, harvesting this form of timber reduces the speed and intensity of bushfires, but it also reduces habitat for snag-nesting animals such as owls and some rodents. Harvesting timber for firewood is normally carried out by hand with chainsaws, thus, longer pieces - requiring less manual labour, and less chainsaw fuel - are less expensive and only limited by the size of the firebox. In most of the United States, the measure of firewood is a cord or 128 cubic feet, however. The BTU value can affect the price, prices also vary considerably with the distance from wood lots, and quality of the wood. Buying and burning firewood that was cut only a distance from its final destination prevents the accidental spread of invasive tree-killing insects. In most parts of the world, firewood is only prepared for transport at the time it is harvested, then it is moved closer to the place it will be used as fuel and prepared there. The process of making charcoal from firewood can take place at the place the firewood is harvested, most firewood also requires splitting, which also allows for faster seasoning by exposing more surface area. Today most splitting is done with a hydraulic splitting machine, another method is to use a kinetic log splitter, which uses a rack and pinion system powered by a small motor and a large flywheel used for energy storage. There are many ways to store firewood and these range from simple piles to free-standing stacks, to specialized structures. Usually the goal of storing wood is to keep away from it. Stacks, The simplest stack is where logs are placed next to and on top of each other, the height of the stack can vary, generally depending upon how the ends are constructed
40.
Quercus coccinea
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Quercus coccinea, the scarlet oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. The scarlet oak can be mistaken for the pin oak, the black oak, on scarlet oak the sinuses between lobes are C-shaped in comparison to pin oak, which has U-shaped sinuses and the acorns are half covered by a deep cap. Scarlet oak is native to the central and eastern United States, from southern Maine west to Wisconsin and Missouri, and south as far as Louisiana, Alabama. It occurs on dry, sandy, usually acidic soils and it is often an important canopy species in an oak-heath forest. Quercus coccinea is a deciduous tree growing to 20–30 m tall with an open. The leaves are green, 7–17 cm long and 8–13 cm broad, lobed, with seven lobes. Each lobe has 3-7 bristle-tipped teeth, the common English name is derived from the autumn coloration of the foliage, which generally becomes bright scarlet, in contrast, pin oak foliage generally turns bronze in autumn. The acorns are ovoid, 7–13 mm broad and 17–31 mm long, a third to a half covered in a cup, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after pollination. Scarlet oak is planted as an ornamental tree, popular for its bright red fall color, although the tree is less commonly seen in cultivation than Q. rubra. The cultivar Splendens has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, the wood is generally marketed as red oak, but is of inferior quality, being somewhat weaker and not forming as large a tree. In Burns, Russell M. Honkala, Barbara H. Hardwoods, United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture. 2 – via Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. Quercus coccinea images from Vanderbilt Unitersity Interactive Distribution Map of Quercus coccinea photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Missouri in 1932
41.
Quercus palustris
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Quercus palustris, the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its range due to its ease of transplant, relatively fast growth. Its distinctive shape is considered unique among hardwoods, Quercus palustris is mainly distributed in the eastern and central United States from Connecticut west to eastern Kansas, and south to Georgia, west to eastern Oklahoma and Kansas. It is also native in the south of Ontario, Canada. The pin oak is well adapted to life in Australia and is quite widespread across the Australian continent especially in the cooler southern States such as Victoria. Is also well adapted to life in Argentina, especially in the Río de la Plata region, Pin oak grows primarily on level or nearly level, poorly drained alluvial floodplain and river bottom soils with high clay content. Pin oak is found on sites that flood intermittently during the dormant season. It does not grow on the lowest, most poorly drained sites that may be covered with standing water much of the growing season. However, it does grow extensively on poorly drained upland pin oak flats on the till plains of southwestern Ohio, southern Illinois and Indiana. The level topography and presence of a claypan in the soil of these areas cause these sites to be wet in winter. It is a deciduous tree growing to 18–22 metres tall. A 10-year-old tree grown in full sun will be about 8 metres tall, young trees have a straight, columnar trunk with smooth bark and a pyramidal canopy. By the time the tree is 40 years old, it develops more rough bark with a loose, the leaves are 5–16 centimetres long and 5–12 centimetres broad, lobed, with five or seven lobes. Each lobe has 5-7 bristle-tipped teeth, the sinuses are typically u-shaped and extremely deep cut. In fact, there is approximately the amount of sinus area as actual leaf area. The leaf is hairless, except for a very characteristic tuft of pale orange-brown down on the lower surface where each lobe vein joins the central vein. Overall autumn leaf coloration is generally bronze, though individual leaves may be red for a time, the acorns, borne in a shallow, thin cap, are hemispherical, 10–16 millimetres long and 9–15 millimetres broad, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after pollination. The acorn is unpalatable because the kernel is very bitter, a fast-growing pioneer or riparian species, pin oak is relatively short-lived, with a maximum lifespan of 120 years against many oaks which can live several centuries
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Quercus shumardii
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Quercus shumardii, the Shumard oak, spotted oak, Schneck oak, Shumard red oak, or swamp red oak, is one of the largest of the oak species in the red oak group. It is closely related to Texas red oak, Nuttalls oak and it is found locally north to southern Michigan, southern Pennsylvania, Maryland, western New York, and the extreme south of Ontario, Canada. Mature Shumard oak typically reach heights of 25 to 35 meters, trunk diameter is typically 60 to 100 centimeters, typical size varies according to region, with larger specimens occurring in the southern portions of its native range in the United States. Record Shumard oaks have been measured at up to 42 meters tall, young specimens generally exhibit conic or ovate crowns, with the upper crown filling in as the tree reaches maturity. Trunks are relatively straight and vertical, trunks may have deeply fluted buttresses near the ground. Shumard oak is found in lowland areas and is able to survive where the soils experience flooding for six weeks of the year. The young bark of the Shumard oak is light grey, very smooth, Shumard oak bark darkens and develops ridges and furrows as it ages. There are occasionally white splotches on the bark, Shumard oak twigs terminate in a cluster of buds. The buds are lighter in color than the olive-green twigs, the young twig is highly reflective. The leaves are arranged alternately and are obovate with 5–9 lobes. The leaves mature to between 10 to 21 centimeters in length, the surfaces are glabrous, except for the tufted vein axils. They are dark green on the top, while the bottom is a lighter shade of green. The leaves turn brown to red in the fall, and sometime have hues of yellow mixed in, fall colors are relatively late, specimens in central Texas may be at their most red in early December, while Florida specimens may not color substantially until February. Shumard oak bears relatively large acorns, which reach up to 3 centimeters in diameter. Acorns take between 1.5 and 3 years to mature, and may go unnoticed during their early stages of development. The acorns of the Shumard oak provide food for various songbirds, game birds such as turkey and quail, waterfowl, white-tail deer, feral hogs. The leaves and twigs can also provide browse for white-tail deer, oak wilt can attack all red oaks, including the Shumard oak. Other diseases that attack Shumard oaks are various fungi that can grow on the leaves, powdery mildew, canker diseases, Shumard oak is valued for commercial use, as a shade tree, and as a food source for various birds and mammals
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Species richness
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Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take account the abundances of the species or their relative abundance distributions. Species diversity takes into account both species richness and species evenness, depending on the purposes of quantifying species richness, the individuals can be selected in different ways. They can be, for example, trees found in a plot, birds observed from a monitoring point. Once the set of individuals has been defined, its species richness can be quantified, provided the species-level taxonomy of the organisms of interest is well enough known. Applying different species delimitations will lead to different species richness values for the set of individuals. In practice, people are interested in the species richness of areas so large that not all individuals in them can be observed and identified to species. Then applying different sampling methods will lead to different sets of individuals being observed for the area of interest. When a new individual is added to a set, it may introduce a species that was not yet represented in the set, for this reason, sets with many individuals can be expected to contain more species than sets with fewer individuals. Resampling methods can be used to bring samples of different sizes to a common footing, the observed species richness is affected not only by the number of individuals but also by the heterogeneity of the sample. If individuals are drawn from different environmental conditions, the richness of the resulting set can be expected to be higher than if all individuals are drawn from similar environments. The accumulation of new species with increasing sampling effort can be visualised with a species accumulation curve, such curves can be constructed in different ways. Many organism groups have most species in the tropics, which leads to latitudinal gradients in species richness, there has been much discussion about the relationship between productivity and species richness. Results have varied among studies, such that no consensus on either the pattern or its possible causes has emerged. Species richness is often used as a criterion when assessing the conservation values of habitats or landscapes. However, species richness is blind to the identity of the species, an area with many endemic or rare species is generally considered to have higher conservation value than another area where species richness is similar, but all the species are common and widespread. Latitudinal gradients in species diversity Rapoports rule Scaling pattern of occupancy Species-area curve Species discovery curve Storage effect Kevin J. Gaston & John I, ecosystems and Human Well-being, Current State and Trends, Volume 1
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Phytophthora cinnamomi
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Phytophthora cinnamomi is a soil-borne water mould that produces an infection which causes a condition in plants called root rot or dieback. The plant pathogen is one of the worlds most invasive species and is present in over 70 countries around the world, Phytophthora cinnamomi lives in the soil and in plant tissues, can take different shapes and can move in water. During periods of environmental conditions, the organisms become dormant chlamydospores. When environmental conditions are suitable, the chlamydospores germinate, producing mycelia and sporangia, the sporangia ripen and release zoospores, which infect plant roots by entering the root behind the root tip. Zoospores need water to swim through the soil, therefore infection is most likely in moist soils, mycelia grow throughout the root absorbing carbohydrates and nutrients, destroying the structure of the root tissues, rotting the root, and preventing the plant from absorbing water and nutrients. Sporangia and chlamydospores form on the mycelia of the root. Early symptoms of infection include wilting, yellowing and retention of dried foliage, infection often leads to death of the plant, especially in dry summer conditions when plants may be water stressed. Phytophthora cinnamomi is a diploid and heterothallic species with two mating types, A1 and A2, sexual reproduction in heterothallic Phytophthora species ordinarily occurs when gametangia of opposite mating type interact in host tissue. This interaction leads to the formation of oospores that can survive for periods in or outside the host. Phytophthora cinnamomi is also capable of self-fertilization, Phytophthora cinnamomi mating type A2 cultures can be induced to undergo sexual reproduction by exposure to damaging conditions, that is by exposure to hydrogen peroxide or mechanical damage. When phytophthora dieback spreads to native plant communities, it kills many susceptible plants, resulting in a permanent decline in the biodiversity and a disruption of ecosystem processes. It can also change the composition of the forest or native plant community by increasing the number of resistant plants, native animals that rely on susceptible plants for survival are reduced in numbers or are eliminated from sites infested by Phytophthora dieback. Damage to forests suspected to be caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi was first recorded in the United States about 200 years ago, of particular concern is the infection and dieback of large areas of forest and heathland which support threatened species in the south-west corner of Western Australia. Many plants from the genera Banksia, Darwinia, Grevillea, Leucopogon, Verticordia and this in turn will impact on animals reliant on these plants for food and shelter, such as the southwestern pygmy possum and the honey possum. Phytophthora cinnamomi is also a problem in the Mexican state of Colima, killing several native oak species and it is implicated in the die-off of the rare endemic shrub Ione manzanita in California, as well. In addition to damage to native woodlands, Phytophthora cinnamomi can infect fruit trees, nut trees. Research has shown that Phytophthora cinnamomi can infect club mosses, ferns, cycads, conifers, cord rushes, grasses, lilies and this is a remarkable range for a plant pathogen and highlights the effectiveness of Phytophthora cinnamomi as an aggressive primary pathogen. The Invasive Species Specialist Group includes this species in its list of 100 of the Worlds Worst Invasive Alien Species, Phytophthora dieback affects a large number of common garden species, natives and horticultural crops
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Phytophthora ramorum
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Phytophthora ramorum is the oomycete plant pathogen known to cause the disease sudden oak death. The disease kills oak and other species of trees and has had devastating effects on the oak populations in California and Oregon, symptoms include bleeding cankers on the trees trunk and dieback of the foliage, in many cases eventually leading to the death of the tree. Such plants can act as a source of inoculum for new infections, with the spores that can be transmitted by rainsplash. P. ramorum was first reported in 1995, and the origins of the pathogen are still unclear, very few control mechanisms exist for the disease, and they rely upon early detection and proper disposal of infected plant material. The disease is known to exist in Californias coastal region between Big Sur and southern Humboldt County and it is confirmed to exist in all coastal counties in this range, as well as in all immediately inland counties from Santa Clara County north to Lake County. It has not been found east of the California Coast Ranges and it was reported in Curry County, Oregon, in 2001. Sonoma County has been hit hardest, having more than twice the area of new mortality of any county in California. About the same time, a disease in continental Europe. It was first discovered in California in 1995 when large numbers of tanoaks died mysteriously and it has subsequently been found in many other areas, including Britain, Germany, and some other U. S. states, either accidentally introduced in nursery stock, or already present undetected. In tanoaks, the disease may be recognized by wilting new shoots, older leaves becoming pale green, dark brown sap may stain the lower trunks bark. Bark may split and exude gum, with visible discoloration, after the tree dies back, suckers try to sprout the next year, but their tips soon bend and die. Ambrosia beetles will most likely infest a tree during midsummer. Later, bark beetles produce fine, red boring dust, small black domes, the fruiting bodies of the Hypoxylon fungus, may also be present on the bark. Leaf death may occur more than a year after the initial infection, in coast live oaks and Californian black oaks, the first symptom is a burgundy-red to tar-black thick sap bleeding from the bark surface. These are often referred to as bleeding cankers, including rhododendron, madrone, evergreen huckleberry, California bay laurel, buckeye, bigleaf maple, toyon, manzanita, coast redwood, Douglas fir, coffeeberry, honeysuckle, and Shreve oak. P. ramorum more commonly causes a severe disease known as ramorum dieback/leaf blight on these hosts. Characteristic symptoms are dark spots on foliage and in some hosts the dieback of the stems, the disease is capable of killing some hosts, such as rhododendron, but most survive. Disease progression on these species is not well documented, redwoods exhibit needle discoloration and cankers on small branches, with purple lesions on sprouts that may lead to sprout mortality
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