The Sand Sheet

The Sand Sheet
Author: Arturo Longoria
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2017-02-03
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1623495008

More than two million acres of sand, born and blown from an ancient sea beginning about ten thousand years ago, stretch across eight counties in deep South Texas. Known as the Coastal Sand Plain, the Texas Coastal Sand Sheet, or just the Sand Sheet, it is a region of few people, little rainfall, and no water. Among the dunes and dry, brown flats, only the hardiest shrubs and grasses provide habitat for the coyotes, quail, and rattlesnakes that live here. Arturo Longoria, whose cabin sits amid the sand scrub and desert motts of granjeno, brasil, and mesquite, knows this land intimately. A student of bushcraft and natural history, Longoria found refuge in this remote and hostile country as he recovered from a rare illness. He weaves a story of beauty and survival in a land where the vastness of Texas' storied ranches and rich oil fields serves as the backdrop for a steady migration of long distance “travelers,” who cross over the border and into el desierto at great peril. This book is about a harsh and dangerous landscape that has nonetheless given sustenance and solace to a writer for whom the Sand Sheet became both his home and his inspiration.

A Photographic Guide to the Vegetation of the South Texas Sand Sheet

A Photographic Guide to the Vegetation of the South Texas Sand Sheet
Author: Dexter Peacock
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: Plants
ISBN: 9781623497828

The South Texas Sand Sheet, also known as the Coastal Sand Plains and the Llano Meste o, is a vast region covering more than two million acres at the southern tip of the state, just north of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The landscape's distinctive feature is the dunes created from sheets of sand blown inland from the shoreline of an ancient sea. Highly diverse native plant communities help make it one of the state's most cherished ecological regions as well as the premier hunting region in the world for northern bobwhites. The Sand Sheet is a constantly shifting semi-arid landscape, shaped by wind, ranching, energy production, and, increasingly, by growing urban populations surrounding the region. Organized with the nonbotanist or beginning-level botanist in mind, A Photographic Guide to the Vegetation of the South Texas Sand Sheet includes 200 of the most common grasses, flowering plants, vines, cacti, and woody plants of the South Texas Sand Sheet, 56 of which are species endemic to Texas and 15 of which can only be found in this region. Species are grouped by physical appearance, allowing budding naturalists, landowners, and students to find a specific plant without needing to first understand how families and species are grouped scientifically. Each plant entry includes a representative sampling of photos for that species, showing how it might look from a distance, up close, and at different stages of its life cycle. This handy snapshot of plant life in the South Texas Sand Sheet will enable anyone to easily identify Sand Sheet plants, learn more about their uses, and understand their value to the region.

Inland Dunes of North America

Inland Dunes of North America
Author: Nicholas Lancaster
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2020-05-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030404986

Inland sand dunes are widespread in North America and are found from the North Slope of Alaska to the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico and from the Delmarva Peninsula in the east to Southern California in the west. In this edited book, we highlight recent research on areas of inland dunes that span a range from those that are actively accumulating in current conditions of climate and sediment supply to those that were formed in past conditions and are now degraded relict systems. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars of physical geography, geomorphology, environmental sciences, and earth sciences. Contributions include detailed analyses of individual active dune systems at White Sands, New Mexico; Great Sand Dunes, Colorado; and the Laurentian Great Lakes; as well as the vegetation-stabilized dunes of the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Colorado Plateau. Additional chapters discuss the widespread partially vegetated dune systems of the central and southern Great Plains; the relict dunes of the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern USA; and active and stabilized dunes of the Colorado Plateau and the southwestern deserts of the USA and northern Mexico.

Geoscientific Research in Northeast Africa

Geoscientific Research in Northeast Africa
Author: Heinz Schandelmeier
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 622
Release: 2017-12-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1351445243

This volume focuses on approaches towards a better understanding of the geological, hydrogeological and paleoclimatic evolution of Northeast Africa. Among the topics discussed are Phanerozoic interplate dynamics, sedimentology and stratigraphy, and mineral deposits and metallogeny.