Grassland Ecosystem

 What is Grassland?

Grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbs and shrubs.

Examples of grasslands-

1. Steppes- found in Europe and Asia

2. Pampas- found in South America

3. prairies- found in North America

3. Veldt- found in South Africa an

4.  Downs- found in Australia.

In India, they are found mainly high Himalayas. The rest of India’s grasslands are mainly composed of the Steppes and Savana.

What is Grassland Ecosystem?

The Grassland Ecosystem covers about 10 percent of the Earth's surface. It is found where rainfall is about 15-75 cm per year not enough to support a forest, but more than that of true desert. Grassland ecosystem is an interaction between living organisms with each other and nonliving components of the grassland area.

Components of Grassland Ecosystem

The chief components of the Grassland Ecosystem are as below:

1.                                                      Abiotic Components:

 These are non-living thing components consist of light, temperature, soil, rainfall, organic substances and inorganic substances such as carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, nitrogen and phosphorous etc.

 

2. Biotic Components: 

These are living components and they are grouped into following three groups.

 

(I) Producers: 

In grassland, the primary producers of food are the grasses such as Aristida, Cynodon, Digitaria, Desmodium, Setaria etc and herbs and shrubs.

 

 (II) Consumers: 

The consumers are heterotrophic organisms in a grassland ecosystem. They are of three types.

 

(a)                                                     Primary consumers (Herbivores): 

These feed directly from the grasses and include herbivores / grazing animals such as Cows, Buffaloes, bisons Goats, Rabbits, Mouse, Deers, etc. and also insects like grasshopper, leafhoppers etc, termites, centipede, millipedes etc.

 

(b) Secondary consumers (First carnivores): 

These consumers are the carnivorous animals such as snakes, lizard, jackal, foxes, frogs, burrowing Owl, prairie dogs etc. which feed on the primary consumers.

 

(c) Tertiary consumers (Second carnivores): 

The tertiary consumer in the grassland ecosystem includes Hawk, Eagles and vultures which prey upon the secondary and primary consumer.

 

(III) Decomposers: 

The dead organic matter of the grassland is decomposed by the microbes like Actinomycetes, fungi (Mucor, Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Penincillium, and Cladosporium), and heterotrophic bacteria found in the soil. These decomposer or reducer organisms obtain energy to carry out life activities by breaking the dead organic  organic matter and  wastes .They release the minerals back into the soil thus making the soil for re-use.