Biome Project

Biome Travel Blog: Temperate Grassland

Temperate grasslands are located north of 23.5 degrees North and south of 23.5 degrees South. The major temperate grasslands include the veldts of Africa, the pampas of South America, the steppes of Eurasia, and the plains of North America.

Temperate grasslands have hot summers and cold winters. Summer temperatures can be well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, while winter temperatures can be as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. They typically have between 10 and 35 inches of precipitation a year, much of it occurring in the late spring and early summer. Snow often serves as a reservoir of moisture for the beginning of the growing season. Seasonal drought and occasional fires help maintain these grasslands. The average sunlight that falls on any particular grassland area will depend primarily on its latitude, as well as on patterns of weather such as cloud cover or precipitation, and the time of year. The Astronomical Applications Department database provides a daily and monthly table of records for a given location over an entire year. Using the tool for 2010 (the last complete year of data), the average amount of sunlight that falls on the Prairie regions of North America is about 12.1 hours, and for the steppes of Russia and the Pampas it's approximately 12.2 hours.

Temperate grasslands have dark, deep soil with very fertile topsoil. Because grasses aren't burned out in seasonal fires, the humus portion of the soil is thicker and rich with nutrients as grass dies and re-grows. The rotted roots hold the soil together and provide a food source for living plants.

The various species of grasses that grow in temperate grassland include purple needlegrass, blue grama, buffalo grass, and galleta. Flowers include asters, blazing stars, coneflowers, goldenrods, sunflowers, clovers, psoraleas, and wild indigos. The seasonal drought, occasional fires, and grazing by large mammals all prevent woody shrubs and trees from invading and becoming established. However, a few trees, such as cottonwoods, oaks, and willows grow in river valleys.

            Animals that live in temperate grasslands must adjust to dry terrain in which just 10 to 30 inches of rainfalls per year, making temperate grasslands less diverse. Temperate grasslands are characterized by short grasses measuring just a few inches in height. The grasses, upon which many animals in the grassland biome rely for food, thrives during the warm growing season, going dormant during the cold winter. The grasslands of North America used to provide millions of buffalo with important food resources, but today, few buffalo remain due to hunters killing most of them in the 1800s. Most of the surviving buffalo are protected in state and national parks, including Yellowstone National Park. Antelope and deer use the plains grasslands where they chomp on the short grasses. In Africa, gazelles, zebras and rhinoceros graze on the grass. Some of the smaller mammals include mice and jack rabbits. Skunks, weasels such as black-footed ferrets and badgers also call the grasslands home. Several species of snakes thrive in the grasslands, including the harmless garter snake and poisonous rattlesnake. Prairie dogs, ground squirrels and pocket gophers rely on burrows for safety and to raise their young. Big cats such as cheetahs and lions hunt prey in temperate grasslands. In North America, wolves, coyotes and foxes hunt for mice, rabbits and deer. These predators help keep populations of grazing animals in check so the grazers do not eat all the grass and other plants in the biome. In the Russian grasslands, polecats, members of the weasel family, make up some of the larger predators. There are also decomposers on the temperate grassland – insects like termite and dung beetle, bacteria like rhizobium. 

            In a food web, the plants are the producers that transfer sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into energy. The insects, small mammals and grass-eating animals are the primary consumers that consume plants primarily. The predators are the secondary consumers that eat the primary consumers. The decomposers help to break down dead organisms.
         Here's a link to a PREZI on the food web of temperate grassland.Click Here

            In order to survive the environment, adaptations took place. Plants in the grassland biome have adapted to annual fire events. For example, though the parts of plants that are aboveground, such as stems and leaves, are destroyed by fire, their root systems are able to resprout following the fire event. In addition, some plants produce seeds that require a fire event to begin the germination process. Animals that live in grassland ecosystems exhibit a number of different adaptations. For example, many animals that are found in grassland biomes are grazers such as pronghorn antelope. Other animals, such as prairie dogs, live in underground burrows that allow them to spend time in a cool environment rather than in the hot and windy conditions aboveground.

         There are examples of symbiosis in temperate grassland. There are three types of symbiosis: commensalism, mutualism and parasitism.

1.      Commensalism: An example of commensalism in the grasslands is when the cattle graze the grass, the insects disturb insects that live inside the grass. The cattle egrets eat the disturbed insects and they benefit from this action, but the cattle is not affected by this. Another example is when large nurse plants give protection to seedlings that are young. The young seedlings grow under the leaves, which offer protection from grazing, frost stress in the winter, and heat stress in the summer.
   
2. Mutualism: An example of mutualism in the grasslands happens between herbivores and the bacteria in their stomach. Since the grasslands is a land full of grass and is a cellulose-rich area, the bacteria inside of the herbivores help them break it down for them to use it as nutrients.
   Furthermore, the African buffalo and ox pecker also share mutualism. The ox pecker picks parasites, like ticks, off of the buffalo.
   

1. Parasitism: In the grasslands, one example of parasitism is the brown-headed cowbird and other birds in the region. The brown-headed cowbird lays its own eggs inside of nests of other birds and lets the other birds raise their birds for them. This lets the brown-headed cowbird extend their genealogy while the other bird has the burden of taking care of a bird.
Moreover, another instance of parasitism is between rattle and other grasses. Rattle lives on the roots of grasses. I t gains energy by feeding on the nutrients and water through the roots. But people declared rattle to be only hemiparasitic because this also reduces competition by allowing other grasses to grow in grasslands. Moreover, another instance of parasitism is between rattle and other grasses. Rattle lives on the roots of grasses. I t gains energy by feeding on the nutrients and water through the roots. But people declared rattle to be only hemiparasitic because this also reduces competition by allowing other grasses to grow in grasslands.

            Human have negative impacts on the temperate grassland environment. Human activities caused climate change, which causes draught and harms the grassland. People have exploited a lot of the temperate grasslands, thus destroyed the habitat of animals. The excessive hunting also diminishes the number of animals.  

Work Cited List

Berg, Susan. “What Are Grassland Biome Adaptations?” eHow. Web.

Defenders of Wildlife. “Temperate Grasslands.” Web.

Eguren, Alvaro. Prezi. Web.

Hamilton, Melissa. “Types of Soil in the Grassland Biome.” eHow.com. Web.

Nicholas, Randy. “The Average Sunlight of the Grassland Biome.” eHow.com. Web.

“Temperate Grasslands.” http://tgrobinandjohn.weebly.com/human-impacts.html.

Wagner, Nancy. USA Today. Web.

Webbers, Charles. “The Grassland Biome.” University of California Museum of Paleontology. Web.
http://zaneandjackproject.weebly.com/symbiotic-relationships.html.

Image credits:

Burton, Adam. BBC.

Fletcher, Martin. www. Californiagarden.com.

Kyle and Casey. http://2010biome.wikispaces.com/Kyle+and+Casey.

Loosemore, Sandra. J. http://www.frogsonice.com/photos/sep-fells/.

http://grasslandscience10.weebly.com/temperate-grassland.html.

http://tgrobinandjohn.weebly.com/climatograph.html.

http://www.jeinc.com/bison-buffalograss-turf.

http://www.delange.org/CottonwoodTree/CottonwoodTree.htm.