The Rimrock Report THE UNIVERSITY OF AR I Z O N A , SCHOOL OF NATURAL RE SOURCES AND THE ENVIRONMENT Volume 7, Issue 3 July 2014 Grass Inside this issue: There is not a sprig of grass that shoots Grass 2-3 uninteresting to me. Thomas Jefferson Chris’ Hot Topic of 4-6 Range Thomas Jefferson; 3rd President of the United States, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, diplomat, statesman, inventor … range nerd. Who knew? Actually Plant of the “Week” 7-9 that should not be a big revelation. At least not to Rimrock Regulars. Y’all are pretty sharp, as opposed to being in the half of the class that makes the top half possible. Most of you will remember that Jefferson lived on a plantation called Monticello in Virginia Open Range 10 and that he instructed Lewis and Clark to document the flora and fauna they Coordinator Position encountered in their search for a northwest passage. But I still find it interesting that Better Rangeland 11-14 Thomas Jefferson found grass interesting. Maybe range folks are not that “out there” Photos Workshop after all. Maybe we are in good company. At this point I will resist the temptation to View from the Rim 15 say something about him not being the only US president that was interested in grass and just stick to the subject. Grass. As we have discussed in this space before, most of Just Me Talking 15 us in this country if we think about grass at all, probably take it for granted. It is something to play sports on, or a good place for a picnic (as long as there are no ticks, chiggers, ants, or other little critters in it). We mow it, water it, fertilize it, and mow it again. The average person is probably vaguely aware that cows eat grass. Some could answer correctly that grass is a plant and a few might know that plants “grass…the use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Fewer still could tell you what photosynthesis is unless original that is an “app” that I am not aware of. Grass, just plain old everyday grass. What’s the big deal? green Ranchers know what the big deal is; range cons technology know, soil scientists know, hydrologists know. But if I were a natural resources grad student and …” some pinheaded professor on the final exam asked me to write a “tweet” that would communicate the essence of grass to a 30- something urban professional in Boston or a congressional staffer in DC… how would I Sideoats Grama, V Bar V Ranch say that in 140 characters ? Well how about… The Rimrock Report Grass...continued Grass, the original green technology. Solar powered renewable resource. Catches rain, occupies wind, holds soil. Food, fuel, fiber, and fun. Derived in the early 15th century from the Old English word “graes” it comes from the same root word as “grow”. Grasses are a diverse family, ranging from wheat and corn to bamboo. Table 1 illustrates the taxonomic classification of grass. According to the NRCS Plant Table 1. Taxonomic classification hierarchy for a grass species. Database website, the family Kingdom Plantae Poaceae has 324 genera. Some Sub-kingdom Tracheobionta genera have only one species. For instance, Blepharoneuron contains Superdivision Spermatophyta only B. tricolepsis (Pine Division Magnoliaphyta Dropseed), Western Wheatgrass is Class Liliopsida the only example of Pascopyrum Subclass Commelinidae (P. smithii). Others such as Order Cyperales Bouteloua, named for two Spanish Family Poaceae botanists, contain many different Genus Aristida species (25). Notable among these would be my favorite, B. Species arizonica curtipendula (Sideoats Grama), as Common Arizona Three-awn well as Blue Grama (B. gracillis), Black Grama (B. eriopida) and Santa Rita Mountain Grama (B. eludens). Santa Rita Mountain Grama is found in southeast Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico (Figure 1) and is considered a threatened species. Festuca is another highly populated genus (85). Our own Arizona Fescue (F. arizonicus) is among 6 species named for states, i.e. F. californicus, idahoensis, hawaiiensis, and the not so obvious versuta (Texas) and brevissima (Alaska). How would you like to find F. aloha in your quadrat? As alluded to above, providing food for herbivores is one of the most important functions of grass, but there are many others. Did you know for instance that there are medicinal uses for grass? Don’t get ahead of me. Seriously, several Native American cultures used Vanilla Grass (Hierochloe odorata) as a cold remedy. Ashes from Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) were used to relieve indigestion… Roots of Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis) were chewed and then used to treat the wound in castrated colts.. (... and I am not recommending you use these, this is just for information purposes...). Did you know that Bamboo is a grass and is one of the most popular building materials in Asia. You can even make clothes and bedding out of it. And if you recycle it through a Giant Panda, or elephant, etc... you can get paper. Don’t believe me? Check out this website. Page 2 Volume 7, Issue 3 Grass...continued Need more Jeopardy study material? Crammin’ for Cash Cab? Here we go: Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is one of the primary feedstock sources of cellulosic ethanol production. Here are a couple different viewpoints on that: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/debunking-myths-about-nuclear-fuel-coal-wind-solar-2 One school of thought on the origin of the term “grass roots” is that it originated in 1876 in a book about the Black Hills: “gold is found almost everywhere, in the bars, in the gravel and sand of the beds, even in the 'grass roots’ ”. It has of course been used most often since then as a reference to political movements which start at local levels. There are approximately 24,000 lbs/acre of roots in typical tallgrass prairie. Pioneers made sod houses by cutting bricks of soil held together by grass roots. In general, Bamboo is the world’s fastest growing grass, sometimes as much as 4 feet per day. Indian Ricegrass, House Rock Valley Marsh is grassland under water. Albedo is the % of light reflected rather than absorbed. Green grass (0.25) has a higher albedo than bare soil (0.17). Fresh asphalt has an albedo value of 0.04 compared to fresh snow which has a value of 0.80- 0.90. Curly Mesquite (Hilaria belangeri) and Vine Mesquite (Panicum obtusum) are not trees, they are grasses. It is a myth that grass seeds found in the Egyptian Pyramids have been planted and germinated. In 2012, Americans produced approximately 251 million tons of municipal solid waste. Of this amount, 13.5 % was from yard trimmings. This is enough dry matter to feed all the mature beef cows in the US for a month. Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses are hollow from the top to the ground. There are several interesting versions of this little rhyme, I will let you look them up if you are interested... Had enough yet? Yeah, I think we have made the point. Grass is pretty important. So here is just one more shot. A few weeks ago I was out looking at forest/range restoration sites with Steve Campbell, Navajo County Extension Director, and we were standing in a former dog-hair pine thicket/soon to be savannah, talking about ecosystem health in general when he said “Trees get the glory, but grass holds the world together”. Ranks right up there with Jefferson. Foxtail Barley, Mingus Mountain Page 3 The Rimrock Report Chris’ Hot Topic of Range One of the most exciting things about Rangeland Ecology is how dynamic it is. There is no simple answer to any question, and land management is a practice of balancing art with science. Vegetation dynamics are influenced by variables such as soil type, precipitation, invasive species, and fire. One variable that is often ignored is atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2). When atmospheric CO2 is mentioned, it is most often in association with influences on temperature and potentially resulting global issues such as melting glaciers and rising oceans. What is typically not mentioned is the direct impact CO2 has on plant growth. It is all about photosynthesis, the process Carbon Dioxide (Wikipedia) in which a plant converts CO2 and light into energy. Photosynthesis was covered in detail by Doug’s January Rimrock article titled, “The effects of global warming and rotational grazing on wolf predation of feral horses.” Don’t let that title fool you, that article really was all about photosynthesis. In short, there are three main pathways of photosynthesis; C3, C4, and CAM. C3 is the primitive ancestral form of photosynthesis, developed some 2500 million years ago (MYA) in cyanobacteria and ruled the world when plants first took to land 450 MYA. At the time the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was high enough that simple diffusion was plenty to keep the engine of photosynthesis running smoothly and efficiently. C3 is a decent system, as far as primitive systems go, and the majority of today’s plants still use it. C3 dominated forest circa 400 MYA (Edward Riou) Page 4 Volume 7, Issue 3 Chris’ Hot Topic of Range...continued Well time continued ticking by; pine trees evolved in the Carboniferous age, Pangea came and went, flowering plants evolved during the Triassic, the K-T meteor caused a mass extinction, etc. Throughout this time CO2 fluctuated, but stayed relatively high (Figure 1). Then around 30 MYA CO2 levels started falling dramatically; decreasing to a low of 200 Parts Per Million (PPM) some 10 MYA (Figure 2).