Grassland

Grassland PDF Author: Richard Manning
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140233881
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
More than forty percent of our country was once open prairie, grassland that extended from Missouri to Montana. Taking a critical look at this little-understood biome, award-winning journalist Richard Manning urges the reclamation of this land, showing how the grass is not only our last connection to the natural world, but also a vital link to our own prehistoric roots, our history, and our culture. Framing his book with the story of the remarkable elk, whose mysterious wanderings seem to reclaim his ancestral plains, Manning traces the expansion of America into what was then viewed as the American desert and considers our attempts over the last two hundred years to control unpredictable land through plowing, grazing, and landscaping. He introduces botanists and biologists who are restoring native grasses, literally follows the first herd of buffalo restored to the wild prairie, and even visits Ted Turner's progressive--and controversial--Montana ranch. In an exploration of the grasslands that is both sweeping and intimate, Manning shows us how we can successfully inhabit this and all landscapes.

Grassland

Grassland PDF Author: Richard Manning
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140233881
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
More than forty percent of our country was once open prairie, grassland that extended from Missouri to Montana. Taking a critical look at this little-understood biome, award-winning journalist Richard Manning urges the reclamation of this land, showing how the grass is not only our last connection to the natural world, but also a vital link to our own prehistoric roots, our history, and our culture. Framing his book with the story of the remarkable elk, whose mysterious wanderings seem to reclaim his ancestral plains, Manning traces the expansion of America into what was then viewed as the American desert and considers our attempts over the last two hundred years to control unpredictable land through plowing, grazing, and landscaping. He introduces botanists and biologists who are restoring native grasses, literally follows the first herd of buffalo restored to the wild prairie, and even visits Ted Turner's progressive--and controversial--Montana ranch. In an exploration of the grasslands that is both sweeping and intimate, Manning shows us how we can successfully inhabit this and all landscapes.

Grasses and Grassland Ecology

Grasses and Grassland Ecology PDF Author: David J. Gibson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019852918X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This book is the most up to date and thorough account of the natural history of the plants that comprise the most important food crop on Earth, the grasses and grasslands.

Grassland Biome

Grassland Biome PDF Author: Grace Hansen
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 1680805592
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
Readers will learn about the two main types of grassland biomes, which are tropical grasslands (savannas) and temperate grasslands. The text will focus on the climate, plants, and animals that are found on grasslands around the world. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Abdo Kids is a division of ABDO.

Grasslands of the World

Grasslands of the World PDF Author: Victor R. Squires
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351652206
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This book begins with a brief account of the extraordinary sequence of events that led to emergence of grasslands as major vegetation formations that now occupy some of the driest and hottest and the highest and coldest on earth as well as vast steppes and prairies in more temperate climes. It is the story of grasses successfully competing with forests and woodlands, aided and abetted by grazing herbivores and by humans and their use of fire as a tool. It is a story of adaptation to changing climates and the changing biophysical environments. A major focus of the book is the Palaearctic biogeographic realm that extends over some 45 million km2 and thus more than 1/3 of the terrestrial ice-free surface on Earth. It comprises extensive grasslands of different types and origin, which can be subdivided into (1) natural grasslands with (1a) steppes (climatogenic in dry climates), (1b) arctic-alpine grasslands (climatogenic in cold climates) and (1c) azonal and extrazonal grasslands (pedogenic and topogenic) as well as (2) secondary grasslands created and sustained by human activities, such as livestock grazing, mowing or burning. Grasslands of the Palaearctic do not only form a major basis for the agriculture of the region and thus its food supply, but are also crucial for other ecosystem services and host a supra proportional part of the realm’s plant and animal diversity. To reflect that suitability of grasslands for biodiversity strongly depends on their state, we apply the term High Nature Value grassland to those natural grasslands that are not degraded (in good state) and those secondary grasslands that are not intensified (semi-natural). The situation in a variety of countries where grasslands are evolving under the influence of global climate change is also considered. Case studies are presented on Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, India, China, South America, North America and Australia. The concluding chapter examines a set of themes arising from the chapters that make up the bulk of this book. The following provide a focus: recent history of grassland biomes – brief recap of current thinking and recent trends with special reference to dry grasslands in the Palearctic regions; the current status of grasslands and germplasm resources (biodiversity) – an overview; management systems that ensure sustainability; how to recover degraded grasslands; socio-economic issues and considerations in grassland management; the impacts of environmental problems in grasslands such as future climate change and intensification and the problems/prospects facing pastoralists and other grassland-based livestock producers.

Grassland Restoration and Management

Grassland Restoration and Management PDF Author: David Blakesley
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784270717
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Following the destruction of 95% of meadows during the twentieth century, there is an urgent need to understand what little unspoiled habitat remains in order to plan the management and restoration of existing sites, as well as re-creating future grassland habitats. This book is a much-needed guide to grassland restoration and management. Providing a thorough overview of recent research on grassland restoration and its implications for practical grassland restoration and management, it introduces grassland communities and the wildlife they support, including examples of species of conservation concern, and considers the management of semi-natural grassland habitats with particular emphasis on drier grassland habitats. Chapters cover: - Grassland character and communities - Introduction to grassland wildlife - Managing semi-natural grassland - Grassland restoration – threats and challenges - Opportunities in grassland restoration - Plant material for grassland restoration - Defining success in grassland restoration. A variety of management techniques are examined, including soil amendment, cultivation, harvesting and maintenance in creating suitable conditions for the successful restoration of species-rich grasslands. It is essential reading for conservationists, site owners or managers, practitioners, conservation organizations and students of ecological restoration with an interest in the creation of new grassland habitats, the restoration of semi-natural grassland, as well as the continuing management of semi-natural (unimproved) grassland communities.

Grassland Ecosystems

Grassland Ecosystems PDF Author: Pam Watts
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 1629699209
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 51

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Book Description
This title will introduce readers to grassland ecosystems, the plants and animals that thrive there, its climate, its food web, any threats to it, and conservation efforts. Readers will also learn about the most well known grasslands and their unique characteristics.. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Core Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Grassland

Grassland PDF Author: Walter F. Wedin
Publisher: ASA-CSSA-SSSA
ISBN: 9780891181712
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Grassland: Quietness and Strength for a New American Agriculture takes on the task of increasing our awareness of the vital role grass and grassland plants have in ensuring a sustainable future for America. Geared toward agriculturists, students, the public, and policymakers, Grassland aims to inspire and provide the reader the foundation needed to move into the future. Three main sections * track the history of grassland farming, highlighting the voices of grassland advocates * examine the current roles that grassland plays throughout the United States * look at the benefits grass-based agriculture can provide when grass is treated as an essential resource As Wendell Berry so eloquently argues in the foreword to Grassland, True farmers have minds that are complex and responsible...They understand and honor their debts to nature. They understand and honor their obligations to neighbors and consumers...In the time that is coming, we are going to need many more such farmers than we have, and we will need them much sooner than we can expect to get them.We will get them only to the extent that young people come along who are willing to fit their farming to the nature of their farms and their home landscapes, and who recognize the paramount importance of grass and grazing animals to good farming everywhere. This book will help that happen.

Sonoita Plain

Sonoita Plain PDF Author: Carl E. Bock
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816523627
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
The Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch is a tract of 8,000 acres on the Sonoita Plain that was established in 1968 by the Appleton family and is now part of the sanctuary system of the National Audubon Society. To all appearances it is an ordinary piece of land, but for the last 35 years it has been treated in an extraordinary way - by leaving it alone. No grazing to influence grass production. No dam building to hold back flash floods. No pest control. No firefighting. By employing such nonaction, might we gain a glimpse of what this land was like hundreds, even thousands, of years ago? Through essays and photographs focusing on the Research Ranch Sanctuary and surrounding area, this book reveals the complex ecology and unique aesthetics of its grasslands and savannas. Carl and Jane Bock and Stephen E. Strom share a passion for the remarkable beauty found here, and in their book they describe its environment, biodiversity, and human history.

What If There Were No Bees?

What If There Were No Bees? PDF Author: Suzanne Slade
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1404860193
Category : Agricultural ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Book Description
Talks about each habitat and shows what would happen if the food chain was broken.

The Desert Grassland

The Desert Grassland PDF Author: Mitchel P. McClaran
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
"Leading experts in geography, biology, botany, zoology, and geoscience present new research on the desert grassland and review a vast amount of earlier work. They reveal that present-day grasses once grew in the ice age forests that existed in these areas before the climate dried and the trees vanished, and how the intensity and frequency of fire can influence the plant and animal species of the grassland.