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News tagged with grassland

Forest and savanna can switch quickly

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two recent studies have found that environmental changes can bring previously stable forests and grasslands to tipping points that produce sudden large-scale and sometimes irreversible changes ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

Why the leopard got its spots

Why do leopards have rosette shaped markings but tigers have stripes? Rudyard Kipling suggested that it was because the leopard moved to an environment "full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 20, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (12) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Mesquite trees displacing Southwestern grasslands

As the desert Southwest becomes hotter and drier, semi-arid grasslands are slowly being replaced by a landscape dominated by mesquite trees, such as Prosopis velutina, and other woody shrubs, a team of University ...

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 18, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Dry conditions spurred advanced photosynthesis

The need to conserve water played a vital role in driving plants to evolve a specialised form of photosynthesis, scientists have shown.

Biology / Evolution

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Overgrazed grasslands tied to locust outbreaks

While residents of the United States and much of Europe think of locust plagues as biblical references, locust swarms still have devastating effects on agriculture today, especially in developing countries ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New plant ecology study challenges conventional wisdom

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of 58 ecologists, including UC Davis researcher Louie Yang, has found that habitat productivity does not predict the quantity or diversity of plant species, as has been ...

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

What is war good for? Sparking civilization, suggest archaeology findings from Peru

Warfare, triggered by political conflict between the fifth century B.C. and the first century A.D., likely shaped the development of the first settlement that would classify as a civilization in the Titicaca basin of southern ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (6) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

The grass is always greener

(PhysOrg.com) -- Recent study of grasslands shows that species variety more important to ecosystem services than previously thought.

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Soil microbes accelerate global warming

More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes soil to release the potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, new research published in this week's edition of Nature reveals. "This feedback to our changing atmosphere means ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Most plant species important in various and varying ecosystems: study

From the kinds that people sneeze at, to the kinds that have prickly seeds that stick to pant legs, there are many different types of plants in grasslands around the world.

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Scientists urge halt to road through Serengeti

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have appealed for a halt to plans to build a road through the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania in 2012, saying it will be an environmental disaster.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 17, 2010 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

'Space ball' drops on Namibia

A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (32) | comments 54

Catastrophic drought looms for capital city of Bolivia

Catastrophic drought is on the near-term horizon for the capital city of Bolivia, according to new research into the historical ecology of the Andes.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 12, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers find that rare lady beetles prefer traditional diet

(PhysOrg.com) -- Experts from South Dakota State University and the nearby North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory watched helplessly as a colony of rare, captive lady beetles was lost in 2008, then ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 19, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Lowly termite, not the lion or elephant, may be the star of Africa's savanna

The majestic animals most closely associated with the African savanna -- fierce lions, massive elephants, towering giraffes - may be relatively minor players when it comes to shaping the ecosystem.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 25, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae) and other herbaceous (non-woody) plants (forbs). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica. In temperate latitudes, such as northwestern Europe and the Great Plains and California in North America, native grasslands are dominated by perennial bunch grass species, whereas in warmer climates annual species form a greater component of the vegetation.

Grasslands are found in most ecoregion of the Earth. For example there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications (subdivisions) of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome ('ecosystem'), which is one of eight terrestrial ecozones of the Earth's surface.

For more information about Grassland, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.