Life in Grasslands at Nose Hill, by: Priti and Nushara

Nose Hill Park is located in North West Calgary, Alberta. It is considered as a place welcoming biodiversity and protects the valuable ecosystems that it has developed over the course of many years. Because it has been established a park, the organisms and vegetation found in the park can feely adapt to meet its environment’s necessary requirements, because of the lack of disturbances caused by humans. Our class of Biology 20 IB students visited Nose hill park on September 2011 to reinforce the concepts we learned in our ecology unit and to study the differences and similarities between ecosystems that can be found there.

 We were in charge of investigating the grasslands component and research of Nose Hill Park. Our topic in this subject was to investigate the contrast between organisms found in hilly parts of the grassland as opposed to flat areas. The area we chose to build our quadrant in was located at latitude of 51 °, 6.814 minutes north, and a longitude of 114°, 7.788 minutes west. The quadrant also was at an altitude of 1186 meters.

            Before comparing and analyzing our data, we decided to gather some basic information on grassland in general. Grasslands can be divided into to two categories, the more humid prairies, containing tall grasses, and dry steppes, where short grasses can be found. The most common type of grassland located in North America, are the dry steppes. Grasslands in general are usually found north and south of 30° latitude, in dryer climates. The average rainfall ranges from 30 cm to 150 cm, depending on its resemblance to deserts or temperate forests. Seasonal droughts are is a common part of the climate of grassland. The change in seasons also greatly affects the temperature of grasslands, and the terrain is typically flat, which prevents them from resisting high winds. Areas of higher precipitation can be identified by the long prairie grasses, and short grass prairie grass indicates the area receives less rainfall and high winds. Research also showed that grasslands in North America have almost disappeared, due to overgrazing (grazing grasslands so heavily that the vegetation is damaged and the soil becomes liable to erosion), cultivation, and soil erosion disaster in the 1930s. The Dust Bowl was also known as the “Dirty Thirties” because it was a period of severe dust storms that caused sufficient agricultural and ecological damage to American and Canadian prairie lands. It was due to severe droughts and extensive farming, and the weather changed drastically, including hail storms, dust storms, and just plain erratic weather. Because the weather was so unpredictable, vegetation failed to adapt so quickly, and as a result, died.

            Our observations: as said earlier, areas can be identified by studying the vegetation grown in the areas. We observed that there was an abundance of vegetation on the hill we investigated, however the flat areas at the bottom of the hill contained less vegetation. The flat areas however contained taller prairie grasses, rather than shorter ones. We also noted that the vegetation on the hill was mostly shrubs and berry plants, lacking prairie grasses, but contained stronger plants (thick branched and sturdy). Knowing that areas receiving a higher source of precipitation produce higher prairie grass, then we can safely conclude that flat areas receive precipitation than higher areas do. This is because when rain falls, the excess water rolls down the hill into the flat areas, which then evenly distributes water all round the flat areas. Therefore, this access to more precipitation allows the prairie grass to grow taller.  This also connects with the quadrant we used; it was not completely flat, although it was more flat than the hill. This shows that the quadrant doesn’t absorb all the excess water that it receives from the hilly areas, but for gains more water therefore allowing taller vegetation to inhabit the area.

Figure 1. These types of plants were common in higher ground

            The reason there wasn’t an abundance of vegetation in the flat areas when compared to hilly areas is also most likely due to the impact of humans. Visitors to the park don’t usually tend to walk around the hilly areas, and stays around the more flat areas because it is easier to access. This would have an impact on the growth of vegetation because plants on the hill wouldn’t get stepped on or disturbed nearly as much as the vegetation in the flat areas would.

We also noted, as earlier stated that the vegetation found on the hill were quite stable and strong. This could be due to the plants adaptation to resistance to wind. The vegetation on the hill would receive the full impact of the wind force, while the vegetation growing in the flat areas would receive only a slight breeze, or a 1/5^th of the original wind force. This would explain how the plants on the hill are stable and strong, because they have adapted to protect themselves from gusty winds.

Figure 2. plant types varied as moved up hill

There was a variety of different kinds of species that we found on the hill. A plant species that was abundant in the hilly areas was common snowberry Symphoricarpos albus. This plant species is mostly found in dry slopes and hills. It is an erect shrub that is 0.5-1 m tall and often reddish brown branches. The leaves are opposite, thin, oval-shaped, and 2-4 cm long. The flowers are pink to white, and contains berries which are usually 6mm long. The berries last through the winter, and are considered poisonous. The berries are an important winter food source for quail, peasant, and grouse. Another plant species we found is the Saskatoon berry Saskatoon amelanchier alnifolia. It grows mainly dry areas, and cannot tolerate flooding of any sort. It is a deciduous shrub that has leaves that are oval, and are 2-5 cm. An organism we found on the hilly areas, were ants formica podzolica. Ants can be found all over the park, but most commonly in grasslands and forests. The diet of ants varies from smaller insects, other vegetables, most plant life to sugary substances. Ants are considered to be a primary and secondary consumer. Ladybugs are also very abundant in the hilly areas of grasslands. They range in size from 1/16 to 2/8 inch in length and mostly red, orange, or yellow with black spots. They are considered to be secondary consumers. We also found a grasshopper among the grass in the flat area.   

Figure 4.  Long grasses on the flat area.

The flat areas of the grasslands also contains organisms usually from the same species (when concerning vegetation, its usually long prairie grass). The common types of grasses we found were prairie wedge grass, blue bunch wheat grass, northern reed grass, and western wheat grass. These grasses range from 0.500 meters to more than 1 meter. It is clear to see the lack of variety of organisms in flat areas. The soil sample we took was found from in the flat areas. It was packed together and there was no presence of live organisms within the soil.  Tightly packed results due to overgrazing that occurred years ago.

Figure 5.  Tightly packed soil.

Hill Profile

Distance from origin (m)	Degrees measured from 90° (°)
	+/- 1.0°
	Replicate 1	Replicate 2	Replicate 3
0.00	11	20	20
1.00	6	2	5
2.00	3	5	19
3.00	15	20	11
4.00	5	11	2
5.00	5	10	22
6.00	14	13	25
7.00	20	12	25
8.00	19	21	23
9.00	8	1	19
10.00	27	21	15

Table 1.0: the measurements of corresponding angles to specific distances from the bottom left corner of a quandrant of 10 by 1 meters. The quadrant was constructed at nose hill park, and was located at a latitude of 51 °, 6.814 minutes north, and a longitude of 114°, 7.788 minutes west. The quadrant also was at an altitude of 1186 meters. There are three replicates for each distance measured.

Distance from origin (m)		Average angle from 90° (°)
		+/- 1.0°
0.00		17
1.00		4.3
2.00		9.0
3.00		15
4.00		6.0
5.00		19
6.00	26
7.00	19
8.00	21
9.00	9.3
10.00	21

Table 2.0: the average calculations of the three replicates of the angle measurements of the distance from the bottom left corner. The quadrant was constructed at nose hill park, and was located at a latitude of 51 °, 6.814 minutes north, and a longitude of 114°, 7.788 minutes west. The quadrant also was at an altitude of 1186 meters.

Figure 5. Hill profile of quadrant The quadrant was constructed at nose hill park, and was located at a latitude of 51 °, 6.814 minutes north, and a longitude of 114°, 7.788 minutes west. The quadrant also was at an altitude of 1186 meters.

References

Introduction to earth science, Lianco A.A, Goodwill trading Co., Inc.

http://bio20nosehill.webs.com/organisms.htm

Hertz, B. (2002). Volume 1 . Nashville: The soutwestern company.