What are some fun facts on the temperate grassland biome?

Temperate Deciduous Biome?

• Answer:

  The deciduous forest is the only biome whose whole environment changes so dramatically in between seasons. It goes from the open sunny ground in winter to summer canopy shaded ground. These change in the grounds exposure provides a niche for winter blooming plants that take advantage of the seasonal sunlight increase despite the cold temperatures. Even the trees blossom before they leaf out having been selected for earlier blooming times by the pollinator's increased ease of maneuvering and by the wind's freer flow to move pollen from flower to flower. The opening of mature flowers for reproduction is anthesis. Plants blossoming in winter have prevernal anthesis. Many deciduous forest plants bloom before or near the vernal equinox in late March but before they leaf out so are perivernal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Forsythia_close-up.jpg Perivernal anthesis followed by vegetative bud break 1. If the plant is producing conspicuous flowers it is attracting an animal to pollinate. Wind pollinated plants use catkins or cones, not conspicuous flowers. Wind pollinated trees include willows, alders, beech and oak species that have inconspicuous reproductive organs (pendent or erect catkins) not bright colored flowers. Perivernal catkins open when the wind is freer to flow unimpeded by the leaf canopy. 2. Understory and ground plants like red bud (Cercis canadensis), witch hazel (Hamemalis), serviceberry (Amelanchier), forsythia, flowering cherry (Prunus), willows (Salix spp), Helleborus, Daphne, and Sarcococca must grow the blossom entirely from stored nutrients since there are no leaves providing photosynthesis. Flowering competes with vegetative growth for resources when both begin early. The reproductive advantage to flowering before vegetative growth is there are few other plants blossoming to distract the pollinators. This ensures the chances of cross pollination are increased; that the pollinator will travel from plant to plant pollinating more members of the same species rather than visiting other species between. Further these smaller trees and plants are not blocked by the taller canopy trees. 3. A large dense display of flowers is visually attractive over longer distances without interference from leaves. 4. Flowering species that open with large numbers of flowers in a brief period attract the social pollinators like bees and wasps that can communicate the location of high volume, quality, nectar sources. 5.Timing anthesis for pollination is always tied to the time needed for fruit growth/seed maturation and efficient seed dispersal. Early pollination ensures more time for fruit maturation and dispersal before winter. Fruit must be mature before the migrant seed dispersal partner leaves the region. Bird dispersed fruit must be grown well before birds migrate and mammal dispersed fruit must be grown well before mammals hibernate. Temperate forest trees have toothed leaf margins far more than tropical leaves. There is a direct correlation between the leaf margin pattern and the climate. The presence of a toothed edge on a leaf seems to offer unfolding leaves maximal photosynthesis as soon as possible on the day they open. As the trees open their leaf buds when breaking winter dormancy it is thought that the teeth increase the rate of transpiration so the plant is maximally active when the temperature is greatest that day. Ecological Significance of Toothed Leaves in Temperature Forest Trees http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2120/is_n4_v78/ai_19586623 Plasticity in phenotype adjusts Acer toothyness to climate http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007653 Research in leaf shape as it relates to climate http://droyer.web.wesleyan.edu/research.htm Leaf teeth might aid with guttation where springs are cold and wet. Guttation helps keep leaves turgid and move more water than by transpiration alone. This could help unfolding/expanding the leaf and help if late freezes cause embolisms in the xylem. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118693927/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 Guttation in Populus species http://www.jstor.org/pss/2441620