Grasslands

Question 1

Grassland History

Answer 1

-Evolved with humans 37 MYA
-evolved with megafauna

Question 2

What are native California grasses and grasslands like?

Answer 2

-Perennial
-Evergreen
-The color purple and blue
-Bunch grass
-70% of the plant is underground
-wildflowers
-Ex: Giant Wild Rye and Purple Needle Grass

Question 3

What are non-native grasses and
grasslands like?

Answer 3

-Annuals
-Dense grass, not bunch
-Med evolved with humans
-Ex: Brome grass, Wild Oat Annuals, Fountain Grass

Question 4

Buffalo

Answer 4

-1800: 68 million (Herd 25 miles long)
-1870-1875: 2.5 million buffalo killed annually
-1883: the last large herd containing about 10,000 buffalo was slaughtered
-1890: less than 1000 buffalo remained in the U.S.
-Today 200,000 exist in public and private herds in the U.S. and Canada

Question 5

Vernal Pools

Answer 5

-depressions in areas where a hard underground layer prevents rainwater from draining down into the subsoils
-fills up in spring, evaporates near the end of summer
-endemic plants that only survive temporarily (200 species in them, 100 of which are endemic to CA)
-Located in Historic Central Valley, Riverside, San Diego

Impact:
-Rarest ecosystem in CA and most endangered
-grows rice
-urban development
-73 endangered species in them

Question 6

Oak Woodlands

Answer 6

-occur in grasslands
-20 species of oak, 10 endemic to CA
-Pathogens from other regions: American Chestnut, Elm, and Sudden Oak Death