ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the characteristics of both temperate and tropical grasslands and the various adaptability strategies found in both types of areas. The major management problem presented by semiarid grasslands is that moist cycles tend to create the illusion that those conditions will last and when drought comes, as it always does, the population is caught unprepared and far too numerous for the capacity of the now desiccated environment to feed. In contrast to humus formation in forests, which occurs primarily by leaf fall and soil surface decomposition of soil fauna, humus in grasslands is formed primarily by the decomposition of the root network of the plants. In some fascinating cases, resource partitioning between populations is a factor in the management of herd size and composition. The chapter discusses the historical development of subsistence strategies in the North American plains and then focus on a region of the Canadian plains that has been the subject of cultural ecological study.
