Grasslands are a type of vegetation that is widespread in the temperate zone of our planet. They are rich in herbs and flowers, as well as a variety of animal species. What representatives of flora and fauna inhabit it? What are the meadow food chains? Read about it below.

Nature and grassland food chains

Depending on how and where they formed, meadows are divided into continental, floodplain, mountain and other types. All of them represent an area covered with turf and dense, mostly perennial, herbage.

The meadows do not form an independent natural zone and rather belong to the azonal vegetation, which is often located near forests. In nature, they occur in regularly flooded or heavily moistened areas - in lowlands or floodplains. Alpine and subalpine meadows are found in the mountains, for example, in the Alps, the Carpathians, the Caucasus, the Andes and the Himalayas. There they begin above the belt of forests.

The emergence of meadows is often facilitated by a person. So, many of them were formed on the site of cleared cutting areas. After some time, they can turn into forests again, but most often they are not allowed to do this, as they are used as pastures for livestock.

The abundance of herbs attracts here a huge number of insects, birds and small mammals, which form the basis of the local nature. Here are some examples of the grassland food chain:

• Green grass - locust - lizard - kestrel.
• Flower ovaries - caterpillar - wagtail - falcon.
• Nectar - butterfly - toad - snipe.
• Green grass - roe deer - lynx.
• Cereals - mouse vole - marten.

Plants

The first link in the food chain characteristic of the meadow (as well as for any other biocenosis) is occupied by plants. Here they are grasses sometimes up to 1.5 meters high. There are practically no trees and shrubs on them, but there are many cereal and legume species.

Dry meadows are usually covered with small grasses, such as fescue, bent grass, bluebells, rough kulbaba, hawkweed, cat's foot. The subalpine mountain territories are covered with feather grass, carnations, composite flowers, buttercups, poppies, forget-me-nots. Swamp vegetation is often found in lowland meadows. For example, in a highly humid area, mosses appear, which can crowd out other vegetation.

Animals

Animals The world of meadows is something between a zone of swamps and forests. Many insects and amphibians live here, but there are also ungulates and fairly large predators.

Herbivores are next in the food chain after grasses. These include bees, butterflies, caterpillars, beetles, locusts, grasshoppers, mice, hamsters, hares, wild sheep, goats, deer and various birds.

The third and fourth links of the chain include animals that feed on other animals (zoophages). They can include both exclusively carnivorous and omnivorous species. This includes ladybugs, spiders, ticks, moles, mice, lizards, toads, and snakes. Among meadow birds there are snipe, corncrake, partridge, field lark, kestrel, quail, wagtail.

Often the food chain of the meadow is completed by small predators, for example, falcon, hawk, kestrel, owl, marten. But in search of food, larger representatives of the fauna can also come here. A fox, a wolf, a bear can wander into the meadow. In mountainous areas, jackals, lynxes and even tigers are found here.

In my native Tyumen region, the meadow community is poorly represented, and only in its very south. Basically, all Tyumen meadows are pastures with oversown meadow grass, which feeds on livestock. But even here there is a small section of the forest-steppe, where even rare representatives of the meadow fauna are found, which were brought to us from the Kazakh lands.

narrow fenders

These small beetles with an elongated body can reach a length of up to 2 cm. They have fairly long whiskers and a head without a neck. The elytra have an elongated shape and a strong chitinous cover, sometimes slightly pubescent.

Adult beetles live on flowers and on the surface of the soil; they are less common on trees. They feed on pollen.

big jerboa

It is also called an earthen hare, and it came to our region, being imported from Central Asia. Its spread in the meadow part of the forest-steppes was facilitated by:

• His omnivorous.
• Caution (has little contact with representatives of even a kind, with the exception of the mating season).
• The ability to survive the winter in hibernation.

The jerboa itself is very similar to a hare - the same long ears, but it differs in an extremely elongated tail (larger than its body), characteristic of jerboas.

Its hind legs are also elongated and more adapted for jumping than for running. It feeds on all kinds of forage grass roots and insects. He builds his dwelling in the form of holes with branched passages. However, there may be temporary holes.

steppe polecat

Another immigrant from Central Asia. Nocturnal representative of the genus of ferrets and weasels of the marten family. Its physiological data are as follows:

• Body length - up to 56 cm.
• Tail length - up to 18 cm.
• Body weight - up to 2 kg.

There are no plant foods in the diet, it is a predator. It hunts rodents, causing significant harm to poultry.

Food chain in the meadows of the Tyumen region

Thus, in relation to the topic of the assignment, food chain will look like this:

1. Narrow fenders.
2. Big jerboa.
3. Steppe polecat.

It is noteworthy that, although the ferret eats the jerboa, it is too large for him, so the ferret leaves his carcasses in reserve.

A meadow is a piece of land on which perennial herbaceous vegetation grows, forming a corresponding cover. Meadows usually occur on highly fertile soils, and in order for herbs to form, favorable water and temperature conditions are needed. environment. meadows have their own characteristics. The first link is usually made up of various - annual and perennial - plants that grow in abundance there. Among them are cereals, legumes, rosette and creeping, well-known flowers: bluebells, poppies, chamomile, cornflowers, clover and many others.

Meadow food chains

In the meadow, as in other areas where animals and plants grow in abundance, these food sequences are formed according to standard rules. Participants in the process are traditionally divided into producers and consumers. The former consume energy and nutrition for their functioning directly from materials that are not organic. So, most green plants get their nutrition with the help of the sun. And microorganisms living in the soil in the meadow (in one gram of fertile land up to a million or more) use gases and salts for energy. Such producers are, as a rule, the first link in the meadow food chain. They are consumed by consumers of the first plan, who eat plant foods, getting the necessary energy from it. Next come the consumers of the second (third, fourth) level, which are carnivores, that is, they feed on animal food. Closes the food chain of the meadow, as a rule, the strongest, fastest and largest predator that is found in this area. There are usually not many such animals, and their populations are limited.

Food chains in the meadow. Examples

Now let's move on to compiling these sequences. Usually they can consist of several links (sometimes 5-6). To compose a food chain for a meadow, knowledge is required: who lives in a given area, what kind of food base this or that animal has. We propose the following chain:

clover - butterfly - dragonfly - frog - already - hawk.

The first link in this composed sequence of 6 links is the plant, which receives inorganic substances from the soil and air and, with the help of sunlight and the process of photosynthesis, converts them into life energy. Butterfly, consumer of the first type, feeds on plant and nectar. The dragonfly eats the butterfly, the frog eats the dragonfly. Already eating frogs. And the snake itself can be eaten by a bird of prey, but a fox, for example, can also act as the last link.

to the pasture

There may also be a shorter supply chain, of 4 links, for example:

wheat - field mouse - snake (viper) - predatory or hawk).

1. Write down the names of the meadow plants that you managed to identify when working with the herbarium. Tick ​​the names of those plants that you have seen in nature.

2. Seryozha and Nadya's mother asks if you know the plants of the meadow. Cut out the pictures from the Application and place them in the appropriate boxes. Check yourself in the textbook. After self-checking, stick pictures.

3. Using the atlas-determinant "From Earth to Sky", find out the names of these meadow plants, sign. Mark the plants that you have met in nature (fill the circle).

4. Question Ant wants to introduce you to his insect friends. Guess who is in the pictures. Connect pictures and names with arrows.

Compare a bee and a flower fly; filly and grasshopper; dung beetle and gravedigger beetle. Highlight the signs by which they can be distinguished in nature (answer orally)

Comparison of a bee and a flower fly

Similarity:

• Yellow and black contrasting colors.
• Similar buzz.

Difference:

• The eyes of a flower fly are much larger than those of a flower bee.
• The flower fly has short antennae, while the bee has long antennae.
• A flower fly has two wings, and a bee has 4 - two fused burrows on each side.
• In a flower fly, the coloring on the abdomen consists of black and yellow spots, and in a bee, it consists of even stripes.

Comparison of filly and grasshopper

Similarity:

• The same arrangement of the hind legs.
• Similar hard elytra on the back.
• Identical antennae.
• Similar chirring (fillies chirp louder).

Difference:

• The abdomen of a grasshopper is much shorter than that of a filly.
• The grasshopper has more powerful and longer legs than the filly.
• Grasshoppers jump much higher than fillies.
• Grasshoppers are nocturnal, while fillies are nocturnal.
• The grasshopper is a predator, and the grasshopper is a herbivore.
• Grasshoppers benefit agriculture by eating larvae and harmful insects, while grasshoppers damage crops by eating plants in large quantities.

Comparison between dung beetle and gravedigger beetle

Similarity:

• The same mustache shape - lamellar

Difference:

• The gravedigger beetle has longer legs than the dung beetle.
• The gravedigger beetle can run fast, and the dung beetle moves slowly.
• The gravedigger beetle has bright orange stripes on its abdomen, while the dung beetle is colored dark blue.
• In the gravedigger beetle, the body length is smaller and has an oblong shape, the body of the dung beetle is one and a half times longer and has an oval shape.
  

5. Our observant Parrot is also in a hurry to give you a task. After all, someone who, and he is the best connoisseur of birds in the world. Recognize the birds by their characteristic behaviors and write the names. Find these birds in the drawings, number them.

1) Constantly shakes his tail: Wagtail
2) Makes a creaky cry "durg-durg": Landrail
3) Gives out his presence with the song "drink-weed": Quail

6. Make a diagram of the food chain characteristic of the meadow community in your area. Compare it with the scheme proposed by a neighbor on the desk. Use these diagrams to describe the ecological connections in the grassland community.

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