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Eastern Corn Belt Plains

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↑Map Legend & Subregion List

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Name	†	Color on Map	EPA Code‡
Clayey High Lime Till Plains	○		55a
Loamy High Lime Till Plains	○		55b
Mad River Interlobate Area	○		55c
Pre-Wisconsinan Drift Plains	○		55d
Darby Plains	○		55e
Whitewater Interlobate Area	○		55f

† Status: ✓ = Complete ○ = Needs Image … = Incomplete ∅ = Stub Only

‡ This code refers to the US EPA's Level 4 ecoregion codes for the continental U.S., see here.

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↑About the Eastern Corn Belt Plains

The Eastern Corn Belt Plains make up a roughly-round region with irregular borders, covering most of western Ohio and central Indiana, stretching slightly into southern Michigan a good distance inland from Lake Erie.

This region consists of gently rolling plains with local terminal moraines. Wisconsin glacial deposits cover much of the area, except for a small area in the south where pre-wisconsin glacial till is exposed.

Natural cover here was forests of mostly American beech, with Elm-Ash forests the dominant cover on the wetter sites on soils formed from pre-Wisconsin deposits.

Most of this area has been cleared for agriculture, where corn, soybeans, and livestock production make up the bulk of the land use. Only small fragments of forest remain throughout the region. There is some urbanization, with mostly small-to-medium cities that have experienced extensive low-density suburbanization. Indianapolis, IN and Colombus, OH are major cities whose metropolitan areas are contained completely within this region. Cincinnati, OH is located at the border of the region. Smaller cities located here include Dayton, OH, Fort Wayne, IN, Lima, OH, and Springfield, OH.

The northeast of this region surrounds the more poorly-drained and industrially-developed Huron/Erie Lake Plains. There is a small border to the west with the Central Corn Belt Plains. To the north, there is a long border extending northeast-southwest with the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. To the south, there is an irregularly-shaped border with the Interior Plateau. To the northeast, this region has a small border along the lake to the north with the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands, and to the east, a longer border with the Erie Drift Plain. To the southeast there is also a small border with the Western Allegheny Plateau.

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↑References

1. Wiken, E., Griffith, G. "North American Terrestrial Ecoregions - Level III", Commission for Environmental Cooperation, (2011) Web.