Abstract
Playas are mostly small, ephemeral, recharge wetlands that are the lowest point of their own watershed. They are distributed throughout the semiarid western Great Plains, USA. Playas are biodiversity hotspots and are a primary source of recharge to the High Plains Aquifer. There are two hypotheses that explain for the formation of playas, the wind erosion hypothesis and the water dissolution hypothesis. The primary threat to playas is culturally accelerated sediment accumulation. Conversation programs in the US “Farm Bill” are the primary conservation mechanisms for playas.
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Bartuszevige, A. (2018). Playa Wetlands of the Great Plains (USA). In: Finlayson, C., Milton, G., Prentice, R., Davidson, N. (eds) The Wetland Book. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4001-3_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4001-3_16
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