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Habitat Readings Habitat Readings Contents . Page What Is a Wetland? . 230 What Is Grassland? . .231 Stream and River Corridors . 232 Tundra . 234 Saltwater Marsh Habitat . 236 Freshwater Marshes . 238 Rocky-Intertidal Habitat . 240 Mudflat and Sandy Beach Habitats . 242 Prairie Potholes . 244 Playa Lakes . 246 Grasslands . 248 Habitat Illustration Note: The habitat illustrations are general and do not represent all the plant and animal species found in each habitat. As students learn more about these habitats, they can draw in new species and habitat differences. Students could also explore a local wetland or grassland and add the plants and animals they find. S H O R E B I R D S M 228 I Explore the World with Shorebirds! S A T R ER G S RO CHOOLS P What Is a Wetland? What do you think of when you hear Soil (non-woody) plants such as cattails the word wetland? Do you picture The way a wetland soil looks growing up out of the water. These mud squishing between your toes, and feels indicates its watery plants are called emergents. Many mosquitoes buzzing in your ear, surroundings. Dig up a small other types of wetlands have trees or a good place to catch a frog? amount of soil in a wetland, and growing in them and are called What kind of plants do you think it will either be wet (dripping forested wetlands. Swamps are of--trees, grass, or something in water off the end of your shovel) a type of forested wetland. All between? or saturated. Saturated soils will wetlands with fresh water are in a drip if you squeeze them tightly group called palustrine wetlands. To understand a wetland, break in your hand. Wetland soil is dark All wetlands with a mixture of the word in two. A wetland is both brown or black near the surface and fresh and salt water are in a group wet and land! Wetlands are places shades of gray deeper down (a foot called estuarine wetlands. where water and land meet. Here, or two). Rub the soil between your plants are adapted to wet, soggy fingers, and it will feel either slick Are There Wetlands Near You? conditions. Wetlands are usually or sticky. Slick means the soil is rich To find your closest wetland, first found in the area between deep in decaying plant matter or silt (fine look on a map for the nearest water water (a lake, pond, river, or ocean) inorganic material that settled out source. Maps will show you creeks, and dry land. Wetlands are low from flood waters). Sticky means streams, rivers, oceans, ponds, and spots within a watershed where the soil has a lot of clay in it. These lakes. Some maps even have little water collects. If the water is too soils hold lots of water and will not symbols that show wetland areas. deep for plants to grow (more dry very fast. Some of the soils Once you have found your closest than six feet deep), then wetland will smell like rotten eggs. Then water source on the map, go out to scientists call these areas deep- you know you are in a really wet that area and look around. Where water habitats. If the land is too wetland! is the ground soggy? What kinds dry for wetland plants to grow, then of plants are growing there? What it is called upland. Plants does the soil look, feel, and smell Wetland plants have special like? If you have water, wet soil, What Makes a Wetland adaptations to grow in wetland and water-loving plants, then you Wetlands are all about water. soil. Some plants, such as water have found a wetland! Hydro is the Latin word for water, lilies and bald cypress trees, and it can be found in the scientific grow in shallow water. Others, words that describe wetlands. like cottonwood trees and many Can you find the water (hydro) grasses, grow in wetlands where in the following description? the water is visible for only part (Hint: Look at the words in the of the year. Wetland plant names parentheses). All wetlands have: 1) can sometimes give you a hint that water (hydrology), 2) wet (hydric) they grow in wet places--swamp soils, and 3) water-loving plants rose, pondweed, duck potato, (hydrophytic vegetation). alligator weed, river birch, water lily, northern bog orchid, salt marsh Water cordgrass, sea lavender, and marsh Wetlands get their water in fern. several different ways, including rain water and runoff from higher Many Types of Wetlands ground, groundwater coming to the There are many different types of surface from deep underground, wetlands, and they come in all sizes. and flooding from nearby rivers, Wetlands can be as small as your streams or ocean tides. Some bedroom or as large as the Florida wetland may be wet all the time, Everglades which originally such as estuaries. Other wetlands covered 2.3 million acres! ay only be wet for short periods of time like prairie potholes. Freshwater marshes are the type Wetlands, whether wet temporarily of wetland most people think of or year-round, provide vital habitat first when someone says “wetland.” for plants and wildlife. They mainly have herbaceous S H O R E B I R D S M 230 I Explore the World with Shorebirds! S A T R ER G S RO CHOOLS P What Is Grassland? What do you think of when you grassland, stretching east and Buff-breasted Sandpipers now use hear the word grassland? Do you south from the Rocky Mountains. agricultural fields, highly grazed picture grasses rolling like waves, Here you find mainly buffalo grass pastures, and burned fields that tossed by a brisk wind? Do you see along with some blue grama grass, mimic their natural habitat. It herds of bison grazing under an needle grass, and wheatgrass. is good they are adapting, but almost endless blue sky? Do you they are now exposed to new feel the sun beating down on you In between these two types threats such as pesticides. Nesting as grasshoppers buzz around your of grasslands—in part of the shorebirds like the Mountain Plover head? Dakotas, south to northern Texas, are threatened by mowing during and through parts of Oklahoma, their breeding season. Biologists Grasslands were once a vast Kansas, and Nebraska—the plants are investigating what long-term ecosystem that covered much of of the tall- and short-grass prairies impacts these habitat changes may the central and western part of the mix. The mixed grass prairie is have on prairie- dependent species. United States. Large herds of bison where you find the most plant and They are also looking for ways to roamed and grazed freely. Huge animal diversity. promote good land stewardship colonies of prairie dogs dug through that will benefit landowners the soil, making it easier for Water and shorebirds. There are many grasses and wildflowers to sprout While it may seem that there is organizations working to conserve and grow. These creatures and little water in grasslands, the area this ecosystem for the good of all the others living in the grasslands is dotted with species. were adapted to extreme climates- shallow, temporary wetlands. -cold, hard winters and blazingly These areas provide vital water Are There Grasslands hot summers. Great floods often and habitat for many grassland in Your Backyard? followed droughts that dragged songbirds, shorebirds, and Finding true grassland in your on for years. Wildfire, sparked by waterfowl and drinking areas for neighborhood may be harder than intense storms, killed the bushes prairie mammals. you think. Of all the grassland and shrubs that threatened to take habitat that once stretched across over the open grassland, but the Soil the United States, less than 1 deeply rooted grasses quickly grew Grassland soils are dark and rich percent is left today. Most of the back. with humus (dead and decaying prairie we still have is missing some plant material). It was fertile soil of the very elements that made it What Makes a Grassland for farming. Farmers quickly true grassland: bison and prairie Just as the name suggests, learned how to break down through dogs. Was your state part of the grasslands are mostly made up the dense carpet of grass roots with grassland ecosystem? How much is of grass, but not the kind you their plows. The majority of prairie left today? find outside your front door. grasslands are now farmed. Big Bluestem, one of the tallest grassland grasses, grows over six Grasslands Today feet tall and could easily hide a Many of the original grasslands man on horseback. There are three and temporary wetlands have types of grasslands, each named disappeared today. Some states for the height of the grasses found have lost over 99 percent of their there. tall-grass prairies. Among North American birds, grassland birds Plants have shown the steepest population Tallgrass prairies are the declines of any bird group and wettest and run through the are now considered the highest center of North America. They conservation priority. These are dominated by big bluestem, important ecosystems have been little bluestem, Indian grass, replaced by the needs of a growing switchgrass, prairie cordgrass, and population for development and wheat grass. farming. As a result, many species are doing their best to adapt to The short-grass prairie is the the changing habitat conditions. driest and most westerly type of American Golden-Plovers and S H O R E B I R D S M 231 I Explore the World with Shorebirds! S A T R ER G S RO CHOOLS P Stream and River Corridors In many parts of the world, Inland stream and river corridors Looking at the illustration, list the wetlands undergo a natural (also called riparian habitat) are names of the plants and animals change with the seasons.
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