Where is Here Lecture 2

1
Where is HereLecture 2

• Prairie Ecosystems

2
The Urban Savannah

• Frontiers of the Prairie
• Frank Lloyd Wrights
• Prairie Skyscraper, Price Tower Arts center
• Chicago is as it was
• on the Ecotone
• coined from a combination of eco(logy) plus tone
• from the Greek tonos or tension in other words,
  
• a place where ecologies are in tension

Chicago Architecture Foundation
3
oikos-olgie, Ecology

• Study of the household, Total relationship .. of
  organic and inorganic environment
• Ecology is the scientific study of the
  distribution and abundance of living organisms
  and how the distribution and abundance are
  affected by interactions between the organisms
  and their environment
• 1866 Ernst Haeckel
• ontogeny recapitulates
• phylogeny
• Father of Evo-Devo,
• but also faked some data,
• like Mendel and Darwin?

4
ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
5
Ecosystem

• 1935, Tansley studying math and systems theory,
  quantifying relationships and community at
  various interlocking scales
• A biome is a homogeneous ecological formation
  that exists over a large region as tundra or
  steppes. The biosphere comprises all of the
  Earth's biomes -- the entirety of places where
  life is possible -- from the highest mountains to
  the depths of the oceans.

6
EcoZones/ Biomes/ Realms

• Australasia Antarctic Afrotropic
  Indo-Malayan Nearctic Neotropic Oceania
  Palearctic

Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, Shrublands Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, Shrublands
NA0801NA0802NA0803NA0804NA0805NA0806NA0807NA0808NA0809NA0810NA0811NA0812NA0813NA0814NA0815 California Central Valley grasslandsCanadian Aspen forests and parklandsCentral and Southern mixed grasslandsCentral forest-grasslands transitionCentral tall grasslandsEdwards Plateau savannaFlint Hills tall grasslandsMontana Valley and Foothill grasslandsNebraska Sand Hills mixed grasslandsNorthern mixed grasslandsNorthern short grasslandsNorthern tall grasslandsPalouse grasslandsTexas blackland prairiesWestern short grasslands
7
EcoRegions

• An ecoregion (ecological region), sometimes
  called a bioregion, is the next smallest
  ecologically and geographically defined area
  beneath "realm" or "ecozone".
• The WWF has identified 825 terrestrial
  ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater
  ecoregions across the Earth.
• "recurring pattern of ecosystems associated with
  characteristic combinations of soil and landform
  that characterise that region" (Brunckhorst,
  2000).
• Others have defined ecoregions as areas of
  ecological potential based on combinations of
  biophysical parameters such as climate and
  topography. Biodiversity is also an important
  aspect of the study of ecoregions. The
  biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that
  characterise an ecoregion tend to be distinct
  from that of other ecoregions
• Great Plains has 15 EcoRegions,
• Chicago, Central Tall Grasslands -gt Prairie Oak
  Transition

8
Upper Midwest forest-savanna transition (NA0415)

• One of the three ecotonal units separating the
  vast Great Plains grasslands from the forests of
  the eastern U.S. is the Upper Midwest
  Forest/Savanna Transition Zone
• The predominance of trees in a mosaic of forests,
  savannas, and woodlands, and by differences in
  dominance of major tree species.
• oak, maple, basswood woodland, forest, and
  savanna ecosystem (Küchler 1985). The boundaries
  of this ecoregion were heavily influenced by fire
  and drought

9
(No Transcript)
10
Central forest-grasslands transition

• extends from northern Illinois, across much of
  Missouri, and into eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and
  Texas.
• Is one of the larger savanna-type ecoregions,
  covering more than 380,000 km2
• separates the Eastern Deciduous Forests from the
  tallgrass and mixed grass prairies.
• higher tree and shrub densities.
• Annual precipitation ranges from 600-1040 mm,
  with wetter areas supporting a more closed tree
  canopy.
• The uniform soil type (mollisols) unites this
  wide-ranging ecoregion.
• Unfortunately, virtually no intact habitat
  remains because this ecoregion is one of the most
  converted of U.S. ecoregions.
• Almost all of this unit is intensively farmed for
  corn and soybeans.

11
Danger Danger

• Tall Grass Prairies.
• 99.9 plowed under
• 464 species declined long term survival is in
  danger
• 328 (71) are endemic
• Mixed Grassland Diversity
• 13 amphibians, 18 reptiles, 72 mammals, 160
  butterflies, 222 birds, 1595 species of grasses,
  sedges and wildflowers
• Species Richness index 2095,
• vs California Redwood forest 1710, Everglades
  1855

12
Prairie global distribution

• 1/3 or earths land surface
• Other world prairie ecosystems?
• Could we survive today without prairie
  grasslands? What are our major food stuffs?
• For example, a Temperate grassland or shrubland
  biome is known commonly as steppe in central
  Asia, savanna or veld in southern Africa, prairie
  in North America, pampa in South America and
  outback or scrub in Australia. Sometimes an
  entire biome may be targeted for protection,
  especially under an individual nation's
  Biodiversity Action Plan.
• Independent evolutionary origins, similarities on
  species compositions, species dependencies?
• Original site of Crop domestication
• Could we survive today without prairie
  grasslands? What are our major food stuffs?

13
Glaciers give way

• Chicago Encyclopedia
• 11,000 years ago
• Mastodons and woolly mammoths
• Evergreen Forest (still remnant evergreens)
• Before settlement map (browse)
• Humans? Large animals? giant beaver (Castoroides
  ohioensis), Harlan's musk ox (Bootherium
  bombifrons), and stag-moose (Cervalces scotti )
  all occurred in the Chicago region

14
World Grasslands
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
15
Grassland evolution in N. America
16
Bison

• First Europeans observation Coronado in 1540
  hunters following endless herds.. Impossible to
  number. precontact population estimated
  25-125Million

Last free roaming buffalo killed in Canada in
1883, US in 1891. Hides used for belts in the
industrial revolution.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bison
17
Badlands

• Badlands are a type of arid terrain with
  clay-rich soil that has been extensively eroded
  by wind and water. Canyons, ravines, gullies,
  hoodoos and other such geological forms are
  common in badlands. They are often difficult to
  walk upon. Badlands usually have a spectacular
  color display that alternates from dark
  black/blue coal stria to bright clays to red
  scoria.
• The term "badlands" has dual origins the Lakota
  called the topography "mako sica", literally "bad
  lands",

Chinle Badlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, Utah, US.
Row of hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park in
Utah
18
Loess Hills

• The Loess Hills are generally located between 1
  and 15 miles east of the Missouri River channel.
  These hills are the first rise in land beyond the
  flood plain, forming something of a "front range"
  for Iowa, and parts of Missouri and Nebraska
  adjacent to the Missouri River.
• During the Ice Age, glaciers advanced into the
  middle of North America, grinding underlying rock
  into dust-like "glacial flour".

Snow geese flying in front of the loess hills at
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in the
Missouri River bottoms near Mound City, Missouri
19
Making of Lake Michigan

• Whenever a glacier stabilizes for a time at the
  same position, the transported material
  accumulates into hilly moraines, several of which
  occur in the Chicago region

Wisconsin glaciation, reached its southernmost
extent near Shelbyville in central Illinois about
24,000 years ago 17,000 years ago is Time 0 for
Chicago, 12,000 for Lake
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
Sandy springboard

• Lake floor depressed because the heavy weight of
  the ice above the land surface
• The land depressed by the glacial ice gradually
  uplifted, a process called isostatic rebound .
• Good for skyscrapers!? 150 topsoil

23
Terra forming

• -17,000 -- -11,000.. Evergreen Spruces (white and
  black) and Deciduous Popular, Ash, Ironwook.
• Unique on the globe, warm winters cool summers
• -11,000 end of Pleistocene, beginning of Holocene
  warming to deciduous forest dominated by black
  ash, elm (Ulmus), and oak prevailed , better than
  today (few evergreens left)
• About 6,000 years ago, the climate again became
  drier, and the modern mosaic of prairie and
  woodland began to develop. Elm and other
  fire-sensitive trees decreased in abundance, and
  oak became the predominate tree on the landscape.

24

• Open Savannah Oak architecture
• Lots of light near a grassland
• Native Americans provided a constant source of
  ignition

25
(No Transcript)
26
Westerly wind protection

• Thicker forests were less subject to fire, and
  generally were on the protected east sides of the
  rivers. Eg Aurora
• Why do grasses withstand fire and trees/shrubs
  dont?