the.com/grassland
the planet's modest middleman between desert and forest, secretly running on fire and hooves
means An open expanse of land dominated by grasses rather than trees or shrubs, the kind of terrain we call prairie, steppe, savanna, or pampas.
from A plain compound of "grass" and "land," both rock-solid Old English words. "Grass" (Old English græs) traces back through Germanic roots possibly tied to the same ancient source as "grow" and "green" — the idea of springing up. "Land" is likewise old Germanic stock for ground or country. Bolted together, the word does exactly what it says: land that is grass.
- land share
- Covers roughly 40 percent of Earth's land surface
- hidden depth
- Most grass biomass lives underground as roots
- fire dependent
- Many grasslands need burning to stop becoming forest
- carbon vault
- Stores vast carbon below ground, safer than trees
- breadbasket
- Plowed grasslands feed most of humanity today
serengeti — 3 million wildebeest migrate across tanzania and kenya annually
pampas — 830,000 square miles of temperate grassland in argentina and uruguay
great plains — stretches from canada to texas, historically supported 60 million bison
steppe — covers 5 million square miles across russia, kazakhstan, and central asia