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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I disagree.

    Floods and fire can impact ecosystem composition at a local or regional scale, but these components are entirely necessary for ecosystem renewal and diversity. As parts of an ecosystem are disturbed, it opens niche space for early seral plants. Fire cycles can vary substantially even grasslands.

    The reason these systems need human management now is because they have been highly disturbed, and the whole system is out of whack. Roughly 2-5% of the tall grass prairie remains. The overgrazing and invasive pests/plants issue you touch on is anthropogenic in origin, not so much in undisturbed systems.








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    1 day ago

    That’s an incorrect hypothesis. Tall grass prairie, while definitely manipulated by indigenous people, doesn’t really require management; it’s the climax community for the biome. Further, fringe areas, like parkland, actually encroach on grasslands, not the other way around.

    Grasses are disturbance specialists, and prairie has a natural and short fire cycle that maintains this disturbance. Take away the disturbance and you get woody species coming in on the fringe areas. In this regard, First Nations would burn parkland to create more area for grassland. If their population were declining, the lack of management would result in less bison habitat, not more.

    E: I’m hilariously lost with the original comment - everyone point and laugh please. Lmao.