management of the north american prairies

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Positive and negative effects on the Prairies of North America and how to manage them.

Grassland is found almost on every continent of the world except Antarctica. They are one of the earth’s major biomes as they support a large amount of plant and animal life that reflect the climate and conditions of the grasslands. Temperate grassland is found between 40° - 50° north and south of the equator. The temperature ranges from -15 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius and has between 250mm – 1000mm rainfall annually. There are long grasses and short grasses e.g. saltbush and buffalo grass; these reflect the type of soil they grow in, either chestnut, brown or chernozem soils, these are determined whether precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration or where evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation. The land is used for agriculture and herding/ranching. The prairies cover most of North America, in states such as Kansas, Iowa and Alberta. The area has changed dramatically over time, as there only used to be tribal type settlements (Native Americans) that used the land properly and did not damage it for agriculture and grazing. When the Europeans came over they did not know how to use the land properly and damaged large areas due to over cultivation, grazing and burning. The prairies today are still used for cultivation and grazing but there are problems due to dry farming, over grazing and over cultivation that have led to high soil erosion and a dust bowl. Leeching is a problem is some areas of the prairies but overall it is a very small effect.

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There are many negative effects on the prairies and these are; over grazing (ranching), where the animals such as buffalo are kept in a certain area to feed on the grass and its roots to an extent that there is nothing left for re-growing to occur so the soil cannot bind together and the wind blows huge amounts of dry soil away. From the times of the Native Americans there were 60 million bison and buffalo which were ranched but both the Native Americans and Europeans have made these animals almost extinct. This means that the biodiversity of the ...

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