Central Great Plains (ecoregion)

Central Great Plains
Central Great Plains (area 27 on the map)
Ecology
Realm	Nearctic
Biome	Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Borders	Western High Plains to the northwest Southwestern Tablelands to the southwest Southern Rockies to the northwest Edwards Plateau to the south Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains to the southeast Flint Hills to the central-northeast Western Corn Belt Plains to the northeast Nebraska Sand Hills to the north
Bird species	228
Mammal species	88
Geography
Country	United States
State	Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska
Conservation
Habitat loss	50.68%
Protected	0.48%

The Central Great Plains are a semi-arid prairie ecoregion of the central United States, part of North American Great Plains. The region runs from west-central Texas through west-central Oklahoma, central Kansas, and south-central Nebraska.

It is designated as the Central and Southern Mixed Grasslands ecoregion by the World Wildlife Fund.

This is a large grassland area with very few trees running north-south from central Nebraska through central Kansas and western Oklahoma to north-central Texas, covering 282,000 km². This is a transition zone between the Central tall grasslands and Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregions to the east and the Western short grasslands to the west, while to the north lie the Northern mixed grasslands which have a cooler temperature and a much shorter growing season.

Cities located within the Central Great Plains ecoregion include:

The prevalent vegetation of the Central Great Plains ecoregion is a rich mixture of prairie mixed grass of medium height tallgrass and shortgrass. The ecoregion is encompassed by the tallgrass and shortgrass prairies. There are wildflowers among the grasses but very few trees and shrubs. The grasslands are heavily grazed and frequently disturbed by drought and fire. Other vegetation is drought-tolerant tree species (mesquite) and prickly pear cacti.