Sanders BIO 1302 DB 1

Part 1

Think about the ecological biome that you currently live in or grew up in and share your thoughts with the class. How would you classify your biome – temperate forest, temperate grassland, etc.? What are the dominant types of vegetation and animal species that live there? How have human activities changed your biome over time? 

Part 2

Reply DB Respond

Part II: Growing up I spent most of my Summers on our family farm, which Biomeviewer list as a Temperate Deciduous Forest area. As a working farm, the vegetation differs from the Oak, Beach, Birch, and Maple trees listed by the website, consisting of mostly Cedar and Mesquite trees with Oak mixed in. The cleared pastures also have been seeded with native Bermuda grass for the cattle to graze. There is some native Goat Weed in and around the stands of trees, but the pastures have been burned and reseeded. Most of the (52) listed mammal species such as raccoons and rabbits are present, but their populations are down from previous years due to a multi-year drought. There does not seem to be any conflict between the cattle and native mammals, other than when coyotes attempt to cull out new calves at night, a group of full-grown cows can incircle and stomp a coyote to death. We also try and keep the native large predator population culled down. The website also list (38) species of amphibians such as frogs and salamanders, but I have only ever seen frogs. We have (1) pond we dug out as a reservoir that is filled by runoff from our fields, with the landscape graded for drainage. Other than this area, there is very little standing water, and birds keep any small wildlife thinned out by it as there is very little tree cover.