Soil Profile and Succession in Grasslands
Grasslands have deep soils that are very nutrient rich because of the large amount of plant tissue that dies off and is added to the soil through decomposition every year. This is why grasslands are often converted into farmland. The soil maintains dynamic equalibrium in grasslands because there are many animals that depend on it for their energy; like rabbits. The rabbits have to stay alive so that the foxes and other animals that eat rabbits can stay alive too. They depend on rabbits for their energy, and rabbits depend on the soil succession. (Hamiltion, 1) There are two main types of soil succession; primary and secondary. Primary succession is like the beginning of the process, and secondary succession is after a disaster has happened, like a fire or a hurricane. Grasslands do go through seconday ruccession. Fires happen very often in grasslands, here is an example of secondary succession: (Cowles,1)
