Grassland and Chaparral By: Ron Gabbay, Moshe Sutton-Kravitz, Elle Nadav, Nicole Henzel

Tropical Grassland (climate) Hot dry weather all year around

Rainless and hot winter

Rainy summer that are warm and moist

Temperature for summer = 80 degrees; winter= 64 degrees

Australian savannas get around 18 inches of a rain per year.

African savannas get 3 times that amount

Tropical Grassland ( Animal and plant species) High insect population

Predators need to be quick, powerful, smart, and sneaky like cheetahs and hyenas in order to bring down fast alert animals like gazelles.

Many different types of birds live on a grassland (vultures and secretary)

Herbivores follow the rain and water as they travel.

More trees than temperate grassland and not many flowers. Trees are usually low and scattered.

Fire resistant trees and shrubs are a main source of vegetation because farmers burned most of the other lands.

Some plants have defense mechanisms like the thorny acacia bushes and therefore animals do not eat it.

Drier areas have less tall grasses than others.

Tropical Grassland (Soil and Human impact) During part of the year the soil is moist and rich, however, the other part of

the year the soil is dry.

Farmers and herders are burning and cutting down trees.

It is hard for people to get water during the winter because of the lack of rain.

Farmers also hunt animals at times.

Temperate Grasslands- climate and soil Climate varies depending on the distance of equator.

Northern grasslands are VERY hot in the summer (above 100 degrees) and VERY cold in the winter (down to -10 degrees).

Very little rainfall (12-20 inched per year), but Southern grasslands have more evenly spread rainfall throughout the year

Temperate grasslands are very windy.

Lightening storms create fire which burn plants which nourish soil

Upper layer is very fertile due to dead plants giving nourishment to living plants

Temperate Grasslands- plants, animals, human impact Various grasses and flowers such as; needle grass and golden rods

Wide range of animals varying from snakes and bugs to rhinos and lions

Fires caused by humans due to dry grasslands

Animals from farms graze in the grassland which decreases food

Polar Tundra Grasslands Location: Tundra stretches in a continuous belt across northern North America and Eurasia -

includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada

Climate: During the winter it is very cold and dark, with the average temperature around −28°C sometimes dipping as low as −50 °C. Generally daytime temperatures during the summer rise to about 12 °C (54 °F) but can often drop to 3 °C (37 °F) or even below freezing. Very windy area, with winds often blowing upwards of 48–97 km/h. Pecipitation, it is desert-like, with only about 15–25 cm falling per year.

Animal Species: Biodiversity of the tundras is low: 1,700 species of vascular plants and only 48 land mammals can be found, although millions of birds migrate there each year for the marshes. Notable animals in the Arctic tundra include flatfish, caribou (reindeer), musk ox, arctic hare, arctic fox, snowy owl, lemmings, and polar bears (only the extreme north).

Plant Species: consists mostly of grasses, sedges, heather, mosses, and lichens.

Polar Tundra Grasslands Soil: where the subsoil is permafrost (permanently frozen soil). The soil there is frozen from

25–90 cm (9.8–35.4 inches) down, and it is impossible for trees to grow.

Agriculture: bare and sometimes rocky land can only support low growing plants. During the summer, the top layer of the permafrost melts, leaving the ground very soggy and thaws just enough to let plants grow and reproduce.

Human Impact: many of these areas are protected through a national Biodiversity Action Plan. Due to the harsh climate of the Arctic tundra, regions of this kind have seen little human activity, even though they are sometimes rich in natural resources such as oil and uranium. A concern is that about one third of the world's soil-bound carbon is in the polar tundra areas. When the permafrost melts, it releases carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are greenhouse gasses, which leads to global warming.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra

Alpine Tundra Grasslands Location: Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide. Large regions of alpine tundra occur in the American

Cordillera in North and South America, the Alps and Pyrenees of Europe and the Rift Mountains of Africa.

Climate: The climate becomes colder at high elevations—this characteristic is described by the lapse rate of air: air tends to get colder as it rises, since it expands. The dry adiabatic lapse rate is10 °C per km of elevation or altitude. Therefore, moving up 100 meters on a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometers towards the pole .Typical high-elevation growing seasons range from 45 to 90 days, with average summer temperatures near 50° F. Growing season temperatures frequently fall below freezing, and frost occurs throughout the growing season in many areas .Precipitation occurs mainly as winter snow, but soil water availability is highly variable with season, location, and topography. High winds are common in alpine ecosystems, and can cause significant soil erosion and be physically and physiologically detrimental to plants.

Alpine Tundra Grassland Animal Species: Because alpine tundra is located in various widely-

separated regions of the Earth, there is no animal species common to all areas of alpine tundra. Some animals of alpine tundra environments include the Kea parrot, marmot, mountain goats, chinchilla, woodland caribou, and pika.

Plant Species: alpine vegetation is close to the ground and consists mainly of perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, and low-growing shrubs with prominent inclusions of lichens and mosses.

Alpine Tundra Grasslands

Soil: The alpine tundra's soil also has a layer of permafrost, but its active layer is not as soggy as the arctic tundra's. This is because rainfall in the alpine tundra runs off of the steep mountain sides instead of becoming saturated in the soil. Strong winds also sweep moisture from melting snow out of the soil leaving the top layer dry and dust like in the summer.

Human Impact: In spite of their high altitude location, alpine tundra ecosystems on Niwot Ridge and in other portions of the Rocky Mountain west have been used by humans since prehistoric times. Native Americans used the high terraces as butchering and camping sites over 7,000 years ago. Off road vehicles have wreaked havoc on the fragile tundra ecosystem. Hikers, unaware of their impact, have caused significant damage to this environment. A piece of litter can kill a plant it covers in just a few weeks. Soil erosion caused by trampling can have long lasting effects as it takes much longer for soil to develop in the alpinetundra.

source:http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/virtdept/ipvft/tundra.html

Chaparral climate and soil: During the summer the chaparral is very dry and temperatures get over 100

degrees Fahrenheit

During the winter it gets below freezing and the land is frosty

Rain comes only during the fall and spring and there are droughts during the summer

Soil is nutrient poor due to loss of trees which led to erosion

Chaparral plants and animals: Mainly chaparral plants that are adapted to the desert like environment and

bad soil can live here

Chaparral plants dominate the area not allowing other plants to grow

Plants are fire and drought resistant

The most common chaparral plants are various shrubs and oaks

Animals include ground birds, very few mammals such as the grysbok, dingoes, lynx, other predators, and various reptiles

Chaparral human impact Humans changing boimes to fit their needs has caused the soil to not be

healthy, from clear cutting and erosion

Human development has decreased the amount of big game and prey there are for predators in the chaparral

Humans have forced animals to move their homes and adjust their lifestyles