A grassland is part of an ecosystem and an ecosystem is when an environment has living and nonliving parts that work together or interact with each other.
In each ecosystem, the living parts depend on the nonliving parts in order to survive.
A grassland is a place or a part of land that has flowering plants and different kinds of grasses and wildflowers.
A grassland does not have very many trees and there is not much rain, so the soil of a grassland is very dry.
The dry soil prevents many trees from growing because trees need more water to grow.
In a grassland, trees do oftentimes grow along creeks or rivers where there is more water, but the grasses of the grassland are very strong because they have deep roots.
The plants and grasses depend on these deep roots to help protect them from insects and other animals or from cooler weather.
With the deep roots, the plants are able to survive, even if the top of the plant dies such as in the wintertime.
When the weather warms up, the root will still be alive, and the plant will grow back.
The deep roots also help the plants to find water in the hot summers and when the weather is dry.
Even though grasslands do not get a lot of water, some grasslands get more than others. When grasslands get more rain, they have tall-grass prairies.
When grasslands get less rain, they have short-grass prairies. A prairie is grassland that is in North America.
Steppes are grasslands that are found in Russia, Mongolia and Ukraine. There are over 4,000 miles of steppes in Asia.
In South America, over 300,000 Pampas, or grasslands, are found.
There are many different animals and insects that are found in the grasslands including turkeys, eagles, snakes, rabbits, mice, prairie dogs, turkeys, bobcats, foxes, bison, butterflies, grasshoppers and more.
The grasslands are made up mostly of grasses and plants including plants such as needle grass, butterfly weed, sunflowers and more.
Many grasslands are found in North America, in South America and in Asia. Grasslands are generally found between deserts and forests because there is not enough rain to grow trees but too much to be a desert.