Question

What would happen if the grasses and reels dry due to drought definition

Answer 1

The land become unfertile

Answer 2

To understand the depth of this problem, though, you have to step back to the research of John Weaver, a professor from the University of Nebraska whom some consider the father of grassland ecology in North America. Weaver’s careful observation of the grasslands of Nebraska and Kansas before, during, and after the Great Drought of the 1930s taught us an immense amount about how grasslands respond and recover to drought — and teach us important lessons for managing our grasslands in the 21st century.

During the Great Drought, the shortgrass of Nebraska and Kansas spread hundreds of miles to the east into the mixed grass region, while the mixed grass spread hundreds of miles into the tallgrass. But these expansions didn’t happen because individual species were migrating, Weaver discovered — rather, local populations were expanding and contributing to the diversity of individual communities.

Eventually, when the drought broke, the reverse occurred: the humid grasslands appeared to march back westward. Again, Weaver reported, this “march” occurred through the expansion of local populations or the resurgence of dormant seeds and roots. In many cases, species like big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) recovered from roots that remained viable for almost a decade.

Weaver’s findings raise an interesting set of questions about how grasslands in different parts of the world respond to drought. When drought hits, how much of a grassland’s function can continue by relying on the local diversity of drought-tolerant species,