Grassland: Mission: Biomes

Grasslands are generally open and continuous, fairly flat areas of grass. They are often located between temperate forests at high latitudes and deserts at ... Atmosphere Heat HumanPresence Land Life Natural Events All Drought DustandHaze Earthquakes Fires Floods Landslides Man-made SeaandLakeIce SevereStorms TemperatureExtremes UniqueImagery Volcanoes WaterColor RemoteSensing Snow&Ice Water Collections ABCsfromSpace AmazonDeforestation AppliedSciences AstronautPhotography BlueMarble EarthatNight EarthfromAfar FallColors SeaLevelRise U.S.NationalParks WorldofChange EOExplorer Topics Search Images GlobalMaps Articles Blogs EOExplorer Grassland Temperature Dependentonlatitude,theannualrangecanbebetween-20°C(-4°F)to30°C(86°F). Precipitation Grasslandsreceivearound500to900millimeters(20–35inches)ofrainperyear. Vegetation Grasses(prairieclover,salvia,oats,wheat,barley,coneflowers) Location TheprairiesoftheGreatPlainsofNorthAmerica,thepampasofSouthAmerica,theveldtofSouthAfrica,thesteppesofCentralEurasia,andsurroundingthedesertsinAustralia Other FoundoneverycontinentexceptAntarctica Example:Austin,Texas MonthlyTemperatureandPrecipitationfrom1970-2000 Month AverageMonthlyPrecipitation(mm) AverageMonthlyTemperature(°C) January 46 10 February 56 12 March 49 16 April 69 20 May 122 24 June 96 27 July 49 29 August 51 29 September 88 26 October 87 21 November 65 15 December 50 11 SumAnnualPrecip. 828 DownloadtheData(csv) Climograph LocationMap Description Grasslandsaregenerallyopenandcontinuous,fairlyflatareasofgrass.Theyareoftenlocatedbetweentemperateforestsathighlatitudesanddesertsatsubtropicallatitudes.Grassesvaryinsizefrom2.1m(7ft)tallwithrootsextendingdownintothesoil1.8m(6ft),totheshortgrassesgrowingtoaheightofonly20to25cm(8to10in)tall.Theseshortgrassescanhaverootsthatextend1m(about3ft)deep. Theheightofgrasscorrelateswiththeamountofrainfallitreceives.Grasslandsreceiveabout500to950mmofrainperyearcomparedtodeserts,whichreceivelessthan300mmandtropicalforests,whichreceivemorethan2,000mm.Whiletemperaturesareoftenextremeinsomegrasslands,theaveragetemperaturesareabout-20°Cto30°C.Tropicalgrasslandshavedryandwetseasonsthatremainwarmallthetime.Temperategrasslandshavecoldwintersandwarmsummerswithsomerain. Thegrassesdiebacktotheirrootsannuallyandthesoilandthesodprotecttherootsandthenewbudsfromthecoldofwinterordryconditions.Afewtreesmaybefoundinthisbiomealongthestreams,butnotmanyduetothelackofrainfall. Mission:Biomes Missions TheGreatGraphMatch ToPlantorNottoPlant?   Biomes Rainforest Grassland ConiferousForest TemperateDeciduousForest Desert Tundra Shrubland   Resources MetricConverter Glossary TeacherResources AboutMission:Biomes Stories,experiments,projects,anddatainvestigations.Downloadissuesforfree. Links GrassFiresCharKansas,Oklahoma ComeFlywithMe FiresinRussiaandMongolia SouthAfricaandLesotho AFireCloudinArgentina WorldClim