Temperate Grassland Biome

Purple Needlegrass -

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/bulletinboard/view_items.cfm?MenuID=5189&CategoryID=1

FoxTail

http://www.ontariowildflower.com/wildflower_waste2.htm

Buffalo Grass

http://www.windriverseed.com/photogallery/Photo%20gallery.htm

 saiga antelopes -

-http://thejunglestore.blogspot.com/2008/07/beyond-dorothy-and-toto-kansas.html 

http://www.chs.k12.nf.ca/science/b3201/WebCT-Copy/units/unit1-02.htm

Major Predators

Gray Wolf

http://training.fws.gov/DEO/endang/IMAGES.html

Coyote

http://blog.seattlepi.com/capitolhill/author.asp?author=43400&page=3

Major Primary Consumers

Prairie dogs

http://training.fws.gov/DEO/endang/IMAGES.html 

Pronghorns

http://www.digital-images.net/Showcase/AsstAnmls/body_asstanmls.html

Major Producers

 Perennial Grasses

http://home.howstuffworks.com/perennial-grasses-and-foliage.htm

ryegrass

http://www.uoregon.edu/~mhuiskam/a8/page1.html

Regions

Austrailia Murray-Darling Basin.kmz

Argentina pampas.kmz

Canada High Plains.kmz

Human Activities

Temperate Grassland's adundant grasses suits well with herbivores so that allows people to do livestock farming, such as dairy farming and cattle ranching, and cereal farming which are major activities in temperate grassland.

Also a lot of leaves decay so those make healthy soil which helps people in agricultural by enabling them to grow wheats. Farmers use machines; for example, they use fertilizers, which play crucial role in improving soil fertility, for dairy farming. People make produce milk, butter, cheese, and milk power and export them to other nations. Especially in Australia, wheat-sheep farming is large; sheeps and wheat benefit from each other because sheeps eat wheat and provide manure for the wheat fields.

http://library.thinkquest.org/26634/grass/Temperate/activities.htm

Culture

           The indigenous tribe that lived in Great Plains of North America, temperate grassland, was the Plains Indians. The tribe is separated into two groups, nomadic group who follows buffalo herds and another group is also referred as Prairie Indians who as well a hunt buffalo but also live in villages and raise crops.

          The Plains Indians depended on hunting of mammals such as buffalo and antelope and the bison was their main food. Also they built teepees which look like triangles. When they were hunting the bison, they would try to herd them off cliffs so that they could easily kill them. Also they made a v-shaped funnel, about 1 mile long, made of fallen trees, rocks, etc so that buffalo could fall into it. It was before guns were invented, so they used spears, brows, arrows, and so on to hunt.

http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/archaeology/Publications/General/Hunter%E2%80%93Gatherer%20Foraging%20Strategies%20in%20Tropical%20Grasslands.pdf 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indians

http://www.westernerspublications.ltd.uk/WPL%20People%20of%20the%20Buffalo.htm

http://www.aradergalleries.com/detail.php?id=1685

Human Dominance

     The human dominance in temperate grassland is 40.4%, quite high, which is the 6th highest percentage among 13 biomes. And the percentage of undisturbed habitat is 27.6% which is 3rd lowest percentage among the biomes {text}.

     Temperate grassland has not extreme temperature througout the year as the graph indicates; in winter its temperature is about -1C˚ and in summer, it is about 26C˚ so that ables people to farm in moderate temerature. Also temperate grassland is not very humid, in fact, dry; the highest precipitation during the year is about 13C˚. So that makes crops to flourish, for example, many farmers in temperatre grassland are engaged in cereal, wheat, farming. Compare to temperate broad-leaf forest or temperate rainforests which have higher precipitation, their human dominace percentages are higher than that of temperate grassalnd,81.9% and 46.1% {text}. The temperature and the precipitation of temperate grassland show that they are suitable for people to farm and grow livestock.

     Due to moderate and dry temperature, temeprate grassland is mainly consist of grasses such as  perennial grass, ryegrass, buffalo grass, and so on, which provide sufficient food for primary consumers such as pronghorns, saiga antelopes, and prairie dogs (and predators such as coyote and gray wolves eat them). Since primary consumers such as sheep are suitable for temperate grassland's temperature and precipitation, people are also engaged in livestock farming. Moderate temperature and precipitation of temperate grassland makes grasses to grow so that many primary consumers are able to eat them which enable people to engage in livestock farming and agriculture, which resulted in 40.4% human dominance.

Work Cited

-http://library.thinkquest.org/26634/grass/Temperate/animal.htm