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Ecological and Cultural Setting Tallgrass Prairie: an Imperiled Ecosystem Life Along the Ecotone

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Ecological and Cultural Setting Tallgrass Prairie: an Imperiled Ecosystem Life Along the Ecotone Shaping the prairie landscape Ecological and cultural setting Kansas Biological Survey Bosnak / Kirsten Tallgrass prairie: An imperiled ecosystem Tallgrass prairie once covered 140 million acres John Madson/ The tallgrass prairie is a delicate yet resilient ecosystem. It harbors of North America. This map shows the pre-1850 significant biodiversity, with more than 200 species of native plants on the Tallgrass Prairie boundaries of tallgrass, mixed-grass and shortgrass Rockefeller Prairie alone. This biodiversity can serve as a measurable prairies that once spanned much of central North Publishing , Falcon standard of environmental health and also may hold keys to the maintenance America. The amount of annual rainfall diminishes and improvement of human health. The prairie is a self-renewing system, with from east to west, and this precipitation gradient complex interactions and interdependencies among its plants, animals and produces changes in vegetation. physical environment. Many factors have interacted to affect the current Biology Media / Berkeley, Calif. Berkeley, / Media Biology eastern tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Only about 1 percent of the tallgrass prairie 55” ecosystem remains; two-thirds of that occurs west 12” 16” 47” Historical factors 20” 35” 31” Tallgrass prairie Mixed-grass prairie of here in the Flint Hills. It survives there because Shortgrass prairie • Climate (rainfall and temperature) soils are too rocky to plow and native vegetation The red lines above indicate annual rainfall • Native American cultures and Euro-American settlers makes good pasture for cattle. Here, in this area, amounts and their relationship to changes •Fire in prairie type as rainfall amounts decrease soils are more amenable to plowing and farming. from east to west. • Native grazers Craig Freeman / Kansas Biological Craig FreemanSurvey / Aboriginal conditions Primary ecological drivers in today’s environment For centuries, until about 1800, the Kansa lived in • Climate (rainfall and temperature) and helped maintain a vast prairie-forest landscape • Human activity in this region. Their activities and the interaction of •Fire fire, grazers (such as bison and elk) and climatic • Invasive species conditions sustained this native landscape. Today, the greatest threats to the prairie are habitat destruction and Fire, cow, ax and plow Campbell Scott / KansasBiological Survey Above: Rockefeller Native Prairie in late September, with forested areas nearby. Inset: Map of North American biomes. fragmentation, invasive species and improper management. The KU Field Euro-American settlement of this region, beginning Station is actively involved in conservation of its native prairie and restoration about 1850, rapidly altered native ecosystems. of adjacent lands to prairie habitat. Restoration involves specific, ongoing Prairies were destroyed directly by plowing or Life along the ecotone activities, including: indirectly through suppression of wildfires that • control of exotic (non-native) species; allowed trees to invade. Forests were cut and An ecotone is an area where two different biotic communities meet. Ecotones occur on many scales — from a small clearing in a • removal of invasive species (e.g., red cedar and other trees); wetlands drained. In addition, many non-native forest, where open field meets woods, to a continental scale, where major biomes converge. • seeding of native plants; plants and animals were introduced. • management emulating historical forces (e.g., fire and grazing). The KU Field Station, and all of northeastern Kansas, is located within the prairie-forest ecotone of the continental U.S. This climatic Kansas Biological Survey Bosnak / Kirsten Craig Freeman / Kansas Biological Craig FreemanSurvey / Today transition zone between eastern deciduous forest and grassland (prairie) biomes exhibits strong east-west environmental gradients, In the 1850s, Douglas and Jefferson counties were including rapid decline in precipitation going westward. This is a key factor in determining which plants dominate a particular area. 95 percent prairie. Today, all that remains are a few remnant prairies scattered among farm fields, Because some organisms in ecotones are near the edge of their tolerance for environmental conditions, their populations are woodlands and towns. It is critical that we preserve sensitive to slight changes. Thus, the KU Field Station is well-suited for studying effects of climate change on ecological and Monarch butterfly caterpillar on common milkweed at these remaining examples of our natural heritage. environmental phenomena. Rockefeller Native Prairie..
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