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Grasslands By Andrew John Alex and Josh
About Grasslands • About a quarter of the land on earth comprises of grasslands. The grassland biome, in fact, exists in every continent, apart from Antarctica. The grassland biome lies on both sides of the two belts of desert that encircle the earth. The tropical grassland biome, which is nearest the equator, is hot all through the year. The grasslands that are located farther away from the equator, like the prairies in the United States, known as temperate grasslands, have more varied temperatures, being hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter.
Plants of a Grassland • Grassland Plants: Grasses are the type of plants that predominate the temperate grasslands. Shrubs and trees occur very rarely in this biome. There are several types of grasses that grow in the grassland biome, such as buffalo grass, ryegrass, foxtail, wild oats, and purple needlegrass. Although animals feed on these grasses, they can survive because the point of growth of the grasses is very near the surface of the ground. Besides, they survive even fires due to the underground buds and stems. The trees and shrubs that grow in the grassland biome, on the other hand, are easily destroyed in fires. There are also many types of wildflowers that grow in temperate grasslands, such as wild indigos, clovers, sunflowers, goldenrods, blazing stars, and asters.
Types of grassland • Tall Grasslandsalmost 30 inches of rain per year. • grasses grow up to 5 feet tall. • Mixed Grasslandsabout 20 inches of rain per year. • grasses between 2 and 3 feet tall. • Short Grasslandsonly about 10 inches of rain per year. • grasses grow up to 2 feet tall.
Animals of the Grassland • around the world are home to unique kinds of animal life that can survive in these biomes. Large sized grazers like the bison, as has been mentioned above, used to roam the grasslands of North America, until the settlers hunted them nearly to extinction as they moved west. All grasslands have the common features of having plenty of grass as food and lacking cover from predators. Hence the types of animals that inhabit the grasslands around the world are similar, being predominantly plant eating or herbivorous ungulates, which are animals that have long legs and hoofs, like deer and horses, which enable them to outrun their predators. Some of the animals that belong to the temperate grasslands of North America are: coyotes, prairie dogs, gophers, antelope, bison, eagles, wild turkey, Canadian geese, bobcats, the gray wolf, fly catchers, and various types of insects. There are similar animals that inhabit the steppes, such as foxes, falcons, antelopes, and the lynx.
