Grassland

=Grassland Biome!!!! =

Members:
 * Dilan, Arthur ||
 * Phillips, Stephen ||
 * Bythewood, Kevin ||
 * Tejeda, Kenia ||
 * Ruffin, Peter ||
 * Houle, Kathleen ||
 * Nerkizian, Nairi ||



media type="custom" key="13108276" align="center"

**Biome Introduction:**
If you want to come to a place with some of the worlds greatest animals and the best views them go to the grasslands. you can act like a big animal and "hunt" in the grasslands you can see some of the best flowers only here in the grasslands. So come and go to the Asian Steppe Biome, South American Pampas, African Savanna and have the time of you life.



**Asian Steppe Biome:**
= = ==If you want to go to a place that has a warm climate and awesome animals then the Asian steppe is the place to go. The Asian steppes has some typical birds which are bustards, quails, sand grouse, and the red-legged hobby. Wild sheep and goats live in the mountains and on the plateau regions to the north of the Himalayas Tibet is the home of the wild yak. The only place to see these animals is here and the new york zoo, but the Asian steppe is better and less expensive. The climate is not that bad right now it is warm and in Mongolia they enjoy over 250 sunny days a year. Yet the in this extreme climate the temperatures range from 90°F in the summer to minus 50°F in winter (National Geographic). This is not all bad if you don't go in the winter or just bundle up. The are mountain ranges and valleys generally from east to west. The deepest one in the eastern Tien Shan is the Turfan Depression, within which is the lowest point in Central Asia 505 feet below sea level (Tien Shan). Now that is a far drop. if you want to take a wonderful hike you should go on the Celestial Mountains that Stretch about 1,500 miles from west-southwest to east-northeast, it mainly straddles the border between china and Kyrgyzstan and bisects Turkistan. It is about 300 miles wide in places at its eastern and western extreme but narrows to about 220 miles in width at the centre. Now that is a big mountain, so if you want to hike don't forget to bring your boots and maybe a tent to camp out under the stars. == ====

**South American Pampas:**


==**How Big Is The South American Pampas? :They cover an area of 300,000 square miles or 777,000 square kilometers, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes Mountains and they ****are flat, fertile plains. **==

==**Climate: The average temperature is 64° F. The highest temperature is about 77° F the lowest temperature is about 40° F. Winds from the Atlantic Ocean effect the Argentinian climate because the moist air makes summers uncomfortably humid.Much of the pampas are dry and sandy. The areas that have water have been taken by the people of Argentina. There are two types of Pampas; the Humid Pampas and the Dry Pampas. The Humid Pampas gets an average of 900 mm of precipitation and covers most of the Buenos Aires Province. The Dry Pampas is located on the center of Argentina and gets an average of 700mm of precipitation. **==

==**Animals: living in the Pampas are the ** Geoffroy's cat **Burrowing owl, Pampa deer, gray fox, guanacos and rhea, an ostrich-like bird. The Geoffroy cat has very sharp nails making it easier to climb and strike their prey The burrowing owl hunts for insects, rodents, or birds and sleep underground. Guanacos live in the wild here. They are perfectly suited for the pampas. Their long necks help them see danger coming, and they can quickly run across the rocky plains. **== ==**Plants:the Pampas Grass is a very pretty, large and unique kid of grass. An amazing feature about Pampas Grass is that it can live in almost any habitat for example like in hard rocky areas, flooded areas, dry, damp grounds and its normal habitat. They can grow to an impressive size, about 8-12 feet tall,its leaves are only .5 inches to .75 inches wide but can be to 10 feet long. It grows in large clumps called tussock, each tussock is about 12 feet tall with many plants in it. The leaves are like razors and can cut you by simply rubbing your skin but it becomes inflamed. Its also used as a decoration, they make a nice ornamental plant because of its large plume-like flowers. This plant has an incredible seed output, each plant puts out over 1 million seed in its life time. In New Zealand and Hawaii the Pampas Grass is banned because they think its weed and are on their noxious weed list. **==

This is the Pampas Grass, they are about 12 feet tall with many plants. The producers, primary, second, and tertiary consumers depend on the decomposers in ordero stay alive. = = = **__African Savanna__** =

== The African Savanna biome is tropical grassland in Africa. It is the largest biome in southern Africa, covering 46% of its area, and over 1/3 of the area of South Africa. It is well organized in Kalahari region of South Africa. The African Savanna covers Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D'ivore, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa. ==

**__ Seasons: __**
== During the rainy season, beginning in May and ending in November, they get fifteen to twenty-five inches of rain a month. In the dry season they only get about four inches of rain. The dry season occurs more then seven months of the year, from October to March in the southern hemisphere and April to September ==

**__ Trees & Animals: __**
== The African Savanna is a thorn bush savanna, which has many different kinds of plants such as Acacia Senegal, Candelabra tree, Jackal berry tree, Umbrella Thorn Acacia, Whistling Thorn, Bermuda Grass, Baobabs, and Elephant grass. The Serengeti Plains are a grass savanna that has very dry but nutrient-rich Volcanic sand. Around 2 million large plant-eating mammals live in the Savanna. There are 45 species of mammals, almost 500 species of birds, and 55 species of acacia in the Serengeti Plains. There are animals such as Lions, African Wildcats, Klipspringer, Steenbok, Burch Ell’s Zebra, African Savanna monitor, and Puff Adderss. If you want to observe an animal in the African Savanna, you should look at [|Black Rhinoceros]. They mostly live in Southern Chad and Sudan to South Africa. **T **he Black Rhinoceros is, in fact, gray in color but varies according to the mud in which it wallows. It has no hump on its neck but has a large head, held horizontally, which bears two horns and som**etime**s a third small horn. Its upper lip is pointed and mobile, which helps the animal to browse on the leaves, buds, and shoots of small trees and bushes. Less sociable than the square-lipped rhinoceros, black rhinoceroses live alone, except for mothers and young. Adults live in overlapping home ranges, with boundaries marked by dung heaps. ==

The Decomposers or Detrivores – Termites, Mushrooms, Insects and Microorganisms.
= 3 Distinct Location =

Kenya
== Tanzania has a tropical climate. In the highlands, temperatures range between (10 and 20 °C (50 and 68 °F)) during cold and hot seasons respectively. The rest of the country has temperatures rarely falling lower than 20 °C (68 °F). The hottest period extends between November and February (25–31 °C / 77–87.8 °F while the coldest period occurs between May and August (15–20 °C / 59–68 °F). Annual temperature is 32 °C (89.6 °F). The climate is cool in high mountainous regions.Tanzania has two major rainfall regions. One is uni-modal (December–April) and the other is bi-modal (October–December and March–May). The former is experienced in southern, south-west, central and western parts of the country, and the latter is found to the north and northern coast. In the bi-modal regime the March–May rains are referred to as the long rains or Masika, whereas the October–December rains are generally known as short rains or Vuli. As this country lies in equator here the climate is hot and humid. The easterlies winds cause rainfall in the eastern coastal region. ==

Sierra Leone
== == == Sierra Leone is country of western [|Africa] . The prevalence of [|savanna] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> vegetation increases to the north as precipitation decreases. The savannas owe their present extent and character largely to the erosion produced by farming, grazing, and the use of fire. There are some small areas of climax savanna—a closed area of broad-leaved, low-growing trees and tall tussocky grasses. Other savannas are derived from forest and are characterized by fire-resistant savanna trees with tall grasses. Tracts of tallgrass Savanna also occur. Remnants of mangrove swamps constitute the main coastal vegetation community, especially in the saline tidal areas of river estuaries. Piassava, a kind of <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none;">[|raffia palm] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,'Arial Unicode MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">, is common in the swampy grasslands of the south. ==

**If you would like to learn more about the grasslands watch this amazing viedo.** []
 * Works Cited:**

“Asia.” //Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online//. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. [].

Dilan, Arthur. //Temperte Grasslands//. N.p., Oct. 1996. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. “Grassland .” Editorial. //Biomes of the Earth Online//. Facts on file online, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. [].

"Geography of Grasslands." //Biomes of the Earth Online//. Infobase Publishing. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. <[]>.

National Geographic Society. //National Geographic//. National Geographic Society, 1996. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. [].

Ritter, Michael E. “The Physical Environment: an Introduction to Physical Geography.” //The Physical Environment//. The Physical Environment, 2003-2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. [].

"Tien Shan." //Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online//. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. <[]>.