Grassland

Location of Grassland

• Grasslands are found in the middle of large land masses or continents.The grasslands are located throughout America and found throughout Europe and Asia. The majority of this biome is found between 40° and 60° north or south of the Equator.

Grassland Climate

• Grasslands have cold winters and hot summers. A great variety of temperatures may also occur in the same place within a single day.Temperatures may change by as much as 30 °C from day to night, a diurnal (geographer’s word for daily) difference only beaten by hot deserts. However with total rainfall of between 250-500 mm per year, this is a much wetter biome than a desert.

Floral/Plant Adaptions

• Commonly Associated Plants: Little bluestem, sideoats grama, Texas grama, Silver Bluestem,Mesquite Shrub Grassland plant adaptations include deep roots, narrow leaves and brightly colored flowers. Grassland plants, particularly grasses themselves, grow from the base of the plant rather than the tips. This enables them to survive the fires that commonly occur in the dry, hot climate of grasslands

Little Bluestem

Sideoats grama

Texas Grama

Silver Bluestem

Mesquite Shrub

Violet

Fauna/Animal Adaptations

• Animals that live in the grassland: Bison, Cheetah, Gazelle, Lion, Rabbits and Tigers.
• Bison are adapted for migratory grazing by having low-slung heads, muscular limbs and necks, digestive systems that are able to extract nutrients from fibrous vegetation, hard hooves for rapid travel and woolly coats.
• Cheetahs have several special adaptations that allow them to reach top speeds. Wide nostrils and large lungs combined with a powerful heart and strong arteries provide more oxygen to their muscles.
• The adaptations of gazelles can be seen in the physical stature of these animals. Their medium size means less skin area for excess moisture loss through evaporation. Their long limbs allow them to sprint rapidly out of the range of predators.
• The lion's archetypal roar is used to communicate with other group members and warn intruders. Long, retractable claws help the lion to grab and hold prey.
• These adaptations let the rabbit have a greater field of vision, which helps in spotting food as well as predators. They also have strong legs that are made for running. Rabbits can run up to 16 meters a second, with the ability to change directions relatively quickly.
• Along with their big eyes, which help them see in low light, bush babies are adapted to nocturnal living with their large, collapsible ears that rotate independently like radar dishes to zero in on prey in the dark. The animals are ace jumpers, using powerful legs and extremely long tails to spring great distances.

Bison

Cheetah

Gazelle

Lion

Rabbit

Bush Baby

Untitled Slide

Flow of Energy

• Sun gives energy to grass
• Grass gives energy to the gazelle, baby bush, rabbit, and bison
• Gazelle gives energy to the lion and cheetah
• Nothing eats a bush baby or a rabbit

Grassland Biodiversity

• The grassland biome covers about one-quarter of the Earth's land surface and in North America grasslands account for about 15 percent of the continent. Ecological processes such as fire and precipitation help to maintain the unique character of grasslands. Frequent fire prevents woody plants from dominating grassland habitats, as does relatively low annual precipitation. Annual precipitation in the grassland biome of North America falls in a gradient from west to east, with the shortgrass prairie to the west receiving up to 10 inches, the mixedgrass prairie in the central portion of the continent receiving up to 20 inches, and the tallgrass prairie further east enjoying precipitation of up to 40 inches per year. Unique from most other biomes, grasslands are relatively simple in structure but rich in number of species. However, most areas of the prairie have experienced serious declines in biodiversity. Grasses have been especially impacted by decades of human induced alterations to the prairies that have allowed for the invasion of non-native species. Today, non-native grasses account for 13 - 30 percent of prairie grass species. Loss of diversity continues as forested patches, tilled soil, and woody corridors increase on the prairie landscape. Grasslands of the Great Plains once acted as a virtually impenetrable barrier between wildlife and plants of eastern and western forests. Where new deciduous forests border highways and communities, plants, birds and mammals previously unknown on the prairie now have migration corridors. Altered prairie landscapes have fostered reduced biodiversity by encouraging hybridization between species that once were geographically isolated. Such is the case with the hybridization of at least six sub-species of birds along forested tracts and new forest corridors.

Sources

• https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAPQVW_enUS888&ei=VIVFXoKvMIG6sgXeiZqQCQ... https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAPQVW_enUS889&ei=6RxMXp3vFaqytgWFx7KwAQ... https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=dcola&hsimp=yhs-030&type=gsp_dea... https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrWnXH0ekxepGMAFgcPxQt.;_ylc=X1MD... /search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrUiZ34ekxegUsAWgwPxQt.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcw...
• https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-habitat/biodiversity-in-the-gr...