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05 Prairies

This document provides information about temperate grasslands, including their locations, climates, plant and animal species, soils, and the role of fire and large herbivores. Temperate grasslands developed in mid-Tertiary in the lee of rising mountain ranges in North America. They have seasonal climates with cool winters and hot, commonly dry summers.

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Leighton Thompson
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53 views54 pages

05 Prairies

This document provides information about temperate grasslands, including their locations, climates, plant and animal species, soils, and the role of fire and large herbivores. Temperate grasslands developed in mid-Tertiary in the lee of rising mountain ranges in North America. They have seasonal climates with cool winters and hot, commonly dry summers.

Uploaded by

Leighton Thompson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Temperate Grasslands

Prairies, (N. Am. [Great Plains,


Palouse, California])
Steppes (Russia - Ukraine [HungaryRumania])
Pampas (Argentina - Uruguay)
Veldt (S. Africa); NZ tussock
grasslands

Temperate grasslands

prairies, steppes, pampas, veldt..

Temperate grasslands
Prairies and steppes have continental
climates characterised by large
annual range of temperature, cool cold winters, with most of
precipitation as snow, and hot,
commonly droughty summers because
of high evapotranspiration rates.

North
American
grasslands

Calgary

Cheyenne

Omaha

Abilene

Chicago

Palouse prairie
eastern
Washington,
and Oregon,
Idaho

California grasslands

Classifying
the
American
prairie
above:
Carpenter, 1940.
below:
Clements and Weaver, 1939.

Mean annual temperature and


precipitation in US prairies

Temperature regimes
(Great Plains stations)

35
30

Temperature (C)

25
20
15

Calgary
Cheyenne
Omaha

10

Chicago
Abilene

5
0
-5
-10
-15
J

Precipitation regimes
(west- east transect)

120

100

80

60
Cheyenne
Omaha
Chicago

40

20

0
J

Chicago
M

Omaha
A

Cheyenne
N

The prairie-forest boundary


Budyko suggested that
the forest grassland boundary
in the midwest
corresponds with a
dryness ratio* of 1.1
-1.2 (=dotted line)

Budyko dryness ratio values, N. America


Hare (1980) Atmos.-Ocean 18, 127-153.

Pacific air mass dominance period


(months of the year)
9 months
<1 month

12 months

<1 month

Soils
Loessic parent material - derived
from aeolian reworking of glacial and
fluvioglacial deposits in northern
North America and Europe during late
glacial periods.
Limited areas of glacial, fluvioglacial,
and alluvial deposits

Soil genesis
In humid areas on forest margins BRUNIZEMS
are the dominant soil type. Characterized by
moderately acid A horizon (pH 5-6).

In tall-grass prairies CHERNOZEMS

(MOLLISOLS) are dominant. A horizon has pH


of about 6-7. Dominant processes are
melanization and calcification. Rodent (esp.
gopher) and insect activity may recycle >100
ton/ha/of soil per year to surface.

Chernozem/Mollisol profiles
mixed-grass

Melanization

Calcification

short grass

Soil mosaic
in humid
prairies
(humic
gleys in
hollows; soil
erosion on
ridges)

Soil catena in
dry prairies
1. Chernozem
1

2. Solonetz
3. Solod

depression

Na, Mg, etc

textural B;
Na+ saturation of
B and C horizons

Solonetzic solod profile

Chernozem
-solonetz
mosaic in
grazed
steppe,
Rumania

C
S
S

Some common grass species

1. Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem)


2. Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama)
3. Schizachyrium scoparius (little bluestem)
4. Koeleria macrantha (?)
5. Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama)

Grass-climate relations
(highly schematic)

W.Wyoming

~2m tall
~1m tall
~0.5m tall

E. Illinois

Topography and plant cover: mixed


grass prairies (ungrazed)

Grass phenology

Cardinal temperatures for net


photosynthesis, C4 and C3 plants

C4 grasses:

a) less tolerant
of low
temperatures
(e.g. flowering
inhibited by
night T <13C)
b) more
tolerant of
moisture
deficits

10

% C4
grasses
in
regional
grass
flora

20
30
40
50
60
80

70

Polar and
tropical source
areas for
prairie grasses
Note: no pre-Miocene
grass fossils known
from plains area.
Conclusion: Prairies
developed in lee of
rising Cordillera in midTertiary.

C3

Agropyron, Elymus
Koeleria, Poa, Stipa
+ sedges

Bouteloua, Buchloe
Andropogon

C4

Prairie forbs
Streletsk reports 180 spp of flowering plants
from the Ukrainian steppes (only 20 of which
are grasses).
In the tall-grass prairies of North America
>70 spp may be in flower at once.
Forbs have variable drought tolerances and
phenologies.
Flowering times range from March (e.g.
Tulipa/Hyacintha in steppes) - Sept/Oct (e.g.
Delphinium spp.).

Some N. American prairie


forbs

1. Amorpha canescens
2. Asclepias tuberosa
3. Helenium autumnale
4. Verbena stricta
5. Aster laevis

note:
60-80% below-ground

1000 kcal m-2 a-1

Annual
production
of plant
biomass in
prairie
grasslands

Biomass
(ungrazed
prairie)

Grazers

relatively small
intake by shoot
grazers vs. root
suckers
(predominantly
nematodes)
BUT is this a
product of
historical
factors?

1000 kcal m-2 a-1

Consumption:

Rapid decline in
grazer
populations in
last 200 years
as a result of
habitat
destruction
and hunting.
Buffalo - almost extinct;
Gophers - 98% decline

1900

Buffalo grazing: Manitoba


In vallies and humid situations, the grass grows to a
great height, which fattens our horses in a short
time, but the buffalo usually makes choice of the
hilly, dry ground to feed on, the blades of grass on
which are small, short and tender. When a numerous
herd of these animals stay any length of time in one
place, the ground is absolutely barren there for the
remainder of the season
Umfreville (1790)

Buffalo grazing: North Dakota


This afternoon I rode a few miles up Park river.
The few spots of wood along it have been ravaged by
buffaloes; none but the large trees are standing . . .
The small wood and brush are entirely destroyed, and
even the grass is not permitted to grow. The bare
ground is more trampled by these cattle than the
gate of a farmyard . . .
Alexander Henry (1801)

Was there a grazing


sequence?
Antelope reported
to follow buffalo;
they appear to
prefer heavilygrazed land with
dense populations
of forbs.
Antilocapra americana

Colonization of old coyote burrows


by gophers - effects of dogtown
on neighbouring vegetation

pre-

post-

~10 m

Eastern Colorado prairies: burrow entrances shown by arrows

Effects of
dogtown age
on local plant
cover:
grassland
replaced by
herbaceous
shubland

Carnivores

(all hole nesters)

Burrowing owl

Kit fox

Badger

+ swift fox, coyote, wolf, bears


Photo credits: Greg Lasley, Bill Standley

Pre-Pleistocene fauna
Selection of prairie flora for tolerance of
heavy grazing a product of radiation of
diverse herbivore assemblage in Mio-Pliocene.
In the Pliocene the N. American plains were
home to 7 genera of horses, 12 genera of
antelopes; camelids, peccaries, tapirs and
rhinoceroses (plus a diverse group of
carnivores)
Think of a Nebraskan Serengeti.

Pliocene plains fauna

Fire on the prairies


Are the tall-grass
prairies a climatic
climax, or is fire the
predominant
generative and
maintaining factor?

The argument in favour of fire:


I grew up in the timbered upland peninsula formed by the
junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The prairie
began a few miles to the north and extended far into Iowa.
The broad rolling uplands were prairie, whatever their age
and origin, the stream-cut slopes were timbered.. From
grandparents I heard of the early days when people dared
not build their houses beyond the shelter of the wooded
slopes, until the plough stopped the autumnal prairie fires.
In later field work in Illinois, in the Ozarks, in Kentucky, I
met parallel conditions of vegetation limits coincident with
breaks in relief. I gave up the search for climatic
explanation of the humid prairies.
Carl Sauer, 1969. Agricultural Origins and Dispersals.

A prairie landscape in Illinois,


showing the restriction of woodland to
moister (and more fire-proof) valley
bottoms

Prairie fires: Texas


the Indians of the interior have another intolerable
method, . . . which is to fire the plains and
forests . . . both to drive the mosquitoes away and at
the same time drive lizards and like things from the
earth to eat. They also kill deer by encircling fires;
deprived of pasturage, the animals are forced to
seek it where the Indians may trap them.
Cabeza de Vaca, A.N. Relacin (1542)
Shipwrecked by a hurricane on the coast of Texas
with his crew in 1527; Cabeza de Vaca lived with the
Indians in Texas from 1528-1535.

Prairie fires: the Dakotas


the Plains are on fire in view of the fort on both
sides of the river, it is said to be common for the
Indians to burn the Plains near their Villages every
Spring for the benefit of their horses and to induce
the Buffalow to come near them.
Lewis and Clarks Journals - describing their winter
quarters in North Dakota in 1805.

Prairie fires: Oklahoma


[Oct 31, 1832] It was the time when hunting parties of
Indians set fire to the prairies; the herbage . . . was in
that parched state, favorable to combustion . . .
Irving, W.A. A Tour on the Prairies (1835)
[Oct. 24, 1849] yesterday we could see the smoke of
the Prairie burning in every direction but today it got
close to us. It was the work of the Osages
Woodhouse, S.W. Journals (1992)

Fire and prairie restoration


Fire season
Spring

Late-summer

Flame height (L, m)

1.90.4

0.70.1

Intensity (I; kW/m)1

1260520

12020

Litter consumption
(%)

100

912

I= 259.83L2.174

Data: Copeland et al., 2002. Restoration Ecology,

Fire and prairie restoration


20
18

20

All plant species

18

16

16

14

14

12

12

10

10

0
1996

1998

1996

1998

Native plant species

1996

1998

1996

1998

Data: Copeland et al., 2002. Restoration Ecology,

Fire and prairie restoration


16

Flowering times

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1996

1998

1996

1998

Data: Copeland et al., 2002. Restoration Ecology,

Prairies in the late Quaternary


PollenViewer
Where were the prairies at LGM?
Most LGM pollen assemblages in southern Great
Plains have no modern analogues,
but
Neb/Kansas ~ open subalpine forest/parkland?
C.Texas ~ sagebrush steppe?
northern Mexico-NM ~ juniper/pinyon woodland?

*see Poaceae and prairie forbs

Climatic
change
produces a
shifting
prairie forest
ecotone
(cf. Hypsithermal)
500 km

Wets

AD

Droughts

Recent (and future?) climate change in


the prairies (Moon Lake, ND)

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