Grasslands: Prairies and Savannas

1. Grasslands: Prairies and Savannas By: Julie Seong & Magda Martynko

2. Grasslands Around the World

3. Locations of Grasslands • Grasslands are found in Africa, Australia, South America, Indonesia, Europe, British Columbia, and North America. • This biome is found in areas that are usually dry. • Grasslands are dominated by grasses rather than trees and shrubs.

4. What defines grasslands? • Grasslands include Prairies and Savannas. • Grasslands contain treeless vegetation, multiple forms of dense/tall grasses, woody plants, very dry land, and large grazing animals. • The summers are very hot, and winters can become extremely cold. • January = 20 degrees Fahrenheit • July = 70 degrees Fahrenheit. • Grasslands receive about 10-30 inches of precipitation annually.

5. Climatograph

6. Prairies FUN FACT: Prairie plants have deep, massive roots that absorb nearly all available water. Some roots can be three times longer than the plant above them. Extensive areas of flat,gently sloping, hilly land with rolling grasslands. Densely covered in tall grass with very few trees. It’s soil is rich with nutrients which is ideal for plant life.

8. Different types of Prairies • Wet prairies: a native lowland grassland occurring on level, saturated, or seasonally inundated stream and river floodplains. • Mesic prairies: high moisture land found on sites that have relatively much of the growing season. • Hill prairies: found on top of hills, bluffs, ridges. • Dry prairies: very dry land found on slopes and well-drained uplands. • Sand prairies: found on drier hills in the Great Plains.

9. Savannas • Land with scattered individual trees. • Warm/dry climate with seasonal droughts but also has rainy seasons. • Annual rainfall is from about 20-50 inches per year. • The soil in savannah is permeable by water and air with rapid drainage of water. • Sometimes classified as forests because of its predominant vegetation that consists of grasses and forbs (flowering plants such as sunflowers).

11. Common plants Prairies Savannas Grasses are adapted to hot, dry areas: they have long, narrow leaves that lose less water than larger leaves do and their root systems are extensive and deep so that they can acquire water even during drought conditions. Tress in savannas can store water for days. Savannas also has special built-in mechanisms allowing the plant to lie dormant during drought. • There are several types of grasses that grow in the grassland biome, such as buffalo grass, ryegrass, foxtail, wild oats, and purple needlegrass. • Some of the types of flowers are: milkweed flower, Lilies, Sweet coneflower , Poison Ivy, purple coneflower, Red Bud plant, lead plant, blue flag, cardinal flower, wild lupine, asters, big blue stem, and many other types.

12. Milkweed Purple Coneflower Turk's Cap Lily Poison Ivy Grasses

14. Common animals Prairie Savanna Herbivores: Zebras, Giraffes, Kangaroos, Elephants, Ostriches, Rhinoceroses, Sandhill Crane, Killdeer. Carnivores: Lions, Warthogs, Bison, Hyenas, Leopards, Cheetahs, Snakes, hawks, and eagles. • Herbivores: Prairie Chicken, Bison, Canadian Geese, Wild Turkey. • Carnivores: Coyotes, Eagles, Bobcats, the Gray Wolf. • Decomposers: Dung Beetle & other insects.

16. Illinois is a prairie • Lands with homogeneous stand of grasses and forbs. • Black soil prairie, sand prairie, gravel prairie, dolomite prairie, hill prairie, and shrub prairie are some of the types that are found in Illinois. • The largest original prairie type was the Grand Prairie (black soil prairie) of central Illinois, with flat landscapes, deep soil, and poor natural drainage resulting in wet conditions during part of the year.

17. Human disturbances • Large number of animals are hunted for their valuable parts such as elephant tasks or lions killed for their fur. • Animals killed for their meats. For example, bison are hunted for their meat. • Used for raising livestock for human consumption and for milk and other dairy products. • Fires started by humans spread quickly through grasses damaging the soils.