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Bison resting in prairie grass at the National Bison Range in Montana. (Courthouse News photo / David Reese)
(CN) In a research effort four decades in the making, experts have constructed a comprehensive picture on the health of the bunchgrass prairie, one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America.
Despite once being one of the most eminent ecosystems in the North American continent, particularly in the Rockies, intermountain bunchgrass prairies have found themselves on a steep decline in recent decades. Widely regarded as one of the most threatened ecosystems, bunchgrass prairies cover less than 1% of the land they once did and have gradually become drier, hotter areas in recent years.
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IMAGE: The intermountain bunchgrass prairie at the National Bison Range, Montana, USA at one of the study areas. view more
Credit: Gary Belovsky
Over 40 years of monitoring, an endangered bunchgrass prairie became hotter, drier and more susceptible to fire annually but dramatic seasonal changes (not annual climate trends) seem to be driving the biggest changes in plant production, composition, and summer senescence. Gary Belovsky and Jennifer Slade of The University of Notre Dame, Indiana, present these findings in the open-access journal
PLOS ONE on December 23.
Intermountain bunchgrass prairie is one of North America s most endangered ecosystems, now covering less than 1 percent of the area it once did. Over the past century, bunchgrass prairies have become warmer and drier, and human-driven climate change is expected to continue that trend, with potential impacts on bunchgrass ecosystems. However, bunchgrass is often overlooked in studies of grasslands.