4A+Prairie+Dogs

Grassland Ecosystem media type="file" key="4A prairie dogs.wmv"

Abiotic factors These are factors of the environment that aren’t living like weather and temperatures. · Temp: 100 degrees as a high temp. And -40 degrees as a low temp. · Weather: it is dry with moderate rainfall · Soil layers: there are three layers, a top one (a), a middle one (b), and a bottom one (c) then rock. (a) and (b) consists of organic materials and layer (c) is glacial till. · Grasses generally grow to 20in.in the grassland

Biotic Factors These are factors of the ecosystem that are living. · Producers: the plants of the ecosystem(cone flowers, Indian grass, spiderworth, etc.) which gain their energy from the sun · Consumers: these are the animals that eat the producers(grasshoppers and prairie dogs) · Secondary Consumers: the animals that either eats producers and consumers or just consumers (meadow mole, horned toad, mnt. Plover and burrowing owl) · Tertiary consumers: animals that eat all of the other animals but themselves(coyote, hawk, black footed ferret and bull snake) · Decomposers: animals that eat dead organic material(worms, bacteria)



Importance Prairie dogs live in underground burrows, extensive warrens of tunnels and chambers marked by many mounds of packed earth at their surface entrances. Burrows have defined nurseries, sleeping quarters, and even toilets. They also feature listening posts near exits, so animals can safely keep tabs on the movements of predators outside. Prairie dogs spend a lot of time building and rebuilding these dwellings and other animals benefit from their labors. Burrows may be shared by snakes, burrowing owls, and even rare black-footed ferrets, which hunt prairie dogs in the dwellings.If the prairie dogs became extinct due to humans and other animals such as wolfs snakes and owls, the soil wouldn’t be aerated, we would over plant crops, and the crops would die. Bugs like grasshoppers would overpopulate and the predators of the prairie dogs would severely decrease in numbers. The predators would look for other food and if that food source is used enough it will eventual become extinct. The importance of prairie dogs is incredibly significant even if they do feed on our crops.  Threats 1.) Development · Bulldozed to death  · Trapped  · Buried alive  · Poisoned  ·  2.) Destructive Landscaping (landed converted to farming and pastureland) · Killed as pests

Conservation plan Our plan to save the prairie dogs is to simply make laws to protect them from threats such as poisoning, development of businesses, homes, etc. and burying them alive. I think that laws protecting prairie dogs should be carried out in all of the states so that there is no possible corruption in the grasslands of the U.S.A. Along with laws protecting the prairie dog, there should be stricter laws on pouching animals since this can affect the ecosystem too.

http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/grassland.html http://www.bcgrasslands.org/grasslands/grasslandsecosystems.htm http://agr.mt.gov/weedpest/pdf/VertBulletins/PraireDog.PDF http://prairiedogcoalition.org/ Original image: ' [|5-24-09 (190)] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/10363904@N00/3575690119 by: Heather Kaiser Original image: ' [|bounding leaps] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/31436403@N00/521138822 by: Chad King Original image: ' [|Under a Rock] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/67335469@N00/3941141160 by: Dean Gugler Original image: ' [|ferret] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/29015108@N04/2992643931 by: Bronia Original image: ' [|Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia)] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/34323709@N07/3639348025 by: Larry Meade Original image: ' [|Trouble!] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/33403047@N00/3590701894 by: Pat Original image: ' [|bison] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/94581043@N00/12401223 by: John DeGraff Original image: ' [|You see a rodent, a raptor sees lunch] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/34259482@N00/3166711193 by: Gavan Watson Original image: ' [|Streptomyces] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/47353092@N00/510712051 by: AJ Cann Original image: ' [|Flower of the Sun] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/47264866@N00/3786473588 by: Original image: ' [|Yay! The Purple Coneflowers (echinacea) came up again this year thicker than ever!] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/28510393@N07/2742916497 by: Cheryl Original image: ' [|indian grass] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/7641646@N03/2806732866 by: Ed Luschei http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/prairie-dog.html Original image: ' [|Golden Plover on Nólsoy] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/29955347@N06/3678791849 by: Rob Original image: ' [|Grasshopper] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/84493444@N00/2448635216 by: William Cho Original image: ' [|Gavião-carijó / Roadside Hawk (Rupornis magnirostris)] ' http://www.flickr.com/photos/88284858@N00/3762732704 by: Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes Image: '[|Dogs of Prairie]' [] Image: '[|Prairie Dogs Pile On]' [] Image: '[|Prairie dogs]' [] Image: '[|HSIBJ Grasslands]' [] Image: '[|Skewed]' [] Image: '[|Storm's ahead]' http://www.flickr.com/photos/97553707@N00/3660785119