Maintaining the World as We Know It: Biodiversity for High-Functioning Landscapes

Abstract

Consider the once great prairie. Ranging from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the ragged edge of the eastern deciduous forest, the American prairie encompassed an array of different communities and ecosystems, including shortgrass prairie, sand prairie, pothole wetlands, and oak savanna. Each of these ecosystems was filled with a panoply of plant and animal life (fig. 5.1). A recent 24-hour bioblitz on the American Prairie Preserve in Montana turned up 480 species, including 26 fungi and 76 birds (Billings Gazette 2011). Diverse prairies are found mostly in preserves these days or between the headstones of settlers’ cemeteries. As the country pursued its manifest destiny, prairie gave way to farmlands, ranches, interstate highways, and sprawling subdivisions. Its interwoven plant communities became millions of acres of corn, wheat, sunflowers, and bluegrass lawns.