1	CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY: Forest, savanna & prairie There are still many places where communities of native plants and animals persist, if you know where to look.
2	READINGS There is no information about our local environment in the Freeman text. Web sources include county forest preserve districts, Chicago Wilderness and http://www.uic.edu/depts/bios/prairie/ A Natural History of Chicago by Joel Greenberg is an excellent source of information about our local environment.
3	Natural Area An area occupied by the species that lived there prior to intensive agriculture. Most natural areas have a high diversity of plant and animal species. Natural areas have been lost thru biological pollution (area we ‘taken over’ by non-native species).
4	Communities of Chicagoland Located in transition between temperate forest and grassland biomes: Forest with deciduous, hardwood species Savanna – both oak trees and grasses Prairie – grasses and herbaceous species Lake Michigan (previous lecture)
5	Communities of Chicagoland Special Types: Dunes – Indiana shore of Lake Michigan Rivers – Chicago, Des Plaines, Fox Glacial Lakes – Lake and McHenry Co. Grand marshes – Calumet, Kankakee Ephemeral Ponds – scattered throughout
6	Types of Growth Forms of Plants Herbaceous (beginning growth from below ground) Graminoid (grasses, sedges & rushes) Forb (broad leaves and typically colorful flowers) Woody (plants leaf out above the ground) Shrubs (multiple stems, less than 10 m tall) Trees (single trunk, forms canopy)
7	Deciduous Trees Deciduous trees have broad leaves that fall altogether as detritus seasonally Common local deciduous trees Oak, including white, bur, red and black Elm, including American and red Maple, including sugar, silver and box elder Walnut, including black and white Ash, including red, white, blue and black
8	Identification KEY A KEY asks questions (each with only two choices) about a specimen and by following the decisions, in order, leads to a name that can be attached to the object. Must start with first question and follow them in order. Order symbolized in various ways. Specimen must have the parts (e.g. flowers) needed to make decisions in key.
9	KEY to five local tree genera Leaves alternate go to A Leaves opposite go to a A. Leaves simple go to B Leaves compound Walnut, Juglans a. Leaves simple Maple, Acer Leaves compound Ash, Fraxinus B. Oak, Quercus & Elm, Ulmus
10	DECIDUOUS FOREST
11	The density of trees distinguishes Forest, Savanna & Prairie In a forest the trees form a full canopy (also called coverage as seen from the air) so that the sunlight rarely reaches the ground after trees have leaves. In a savanna the trees do not form a full canopy. The trees are far enough apart that light (and rain) frequently reach the ground even when trees are fully leaved out. In prairie trees are rare or absent. Grasses are the dominant type of vegetation.
12	SAVANNA
13	Wetlands, a community within Wetlands are very important biologically because all life is dependent on water. Local topography is close to flat and young, so drainage is not well developed. Water accumulates on the surface in many places. The Grand Kankakee Marsh and the Grand Calumet Marsh were huge marsh systems.
14	Ephemeral ponds In a young glacially formed landscape, depressions (room to block in size) are common. In older landscapes many depressions become ravines. These depressions hold water in the spring, but many dry out in the summer. Wetlands that dry part of the year are called ephemeral. Ephemeral ponds do not have fish. Frogs are most abundant in ephemeral ponds as they escape fish predation.
15	Prairie Prairie is the name for the Temperate grassland biome in North America. Between the Mississippi River and the rocky mountains the natural vegetation was grassland. The height of the grasses increases with increasing moisture (precipitation).
16	Illinois prairies are tallgrass prairies Categories of tallgrass prairies Topography flat or rolling versus hill Soil texture fine (clay) versus sand Moisture level xeric (=dry), mesic, wet Prairie Quality The simplest measure is the absence of woody and non-native species. More complicated quality evaluations assign different values to different species.
17	UIC’s Woodworth Prairie, in Glenview
18	Plant species of Woodworth Prairie Previously, we divided plants by their growth form. Another way to categorize species is by whether or not they were present in an area before agriculture. Categories of plants at Woodworth prairie Native (to Chicago region) prairie species Native (to Illinois) but not plants of prairies Non-native =exotic, =alien species
19	Words describing vegetation Autochthonous means native to the specific location. The Silver maple is native to Cook County, but it is not native to the Woodworth prairie. Preservation of autochthonous communities is more desirable than saving native species. Original is the word I prefer over ‘virgin’ to describe a prairie that has not been plowed.
20	Animals of Woodworth Prairie Insects Prairie cicada ants Butterflies – Peck’s skipper Spiders, Prairie crayfish Vertebrates birds killdeer, redwing, goldfinch mammals mice, voles, shrews, rabbits
21	The Prairie Crayfish Procambarus gracilis The mounds of the prairie crayfish are an easily seen feature of Woodworth Prairie. The crayfish lives in burrows that it digs and may be 2 m (6 feet) deep. The mounds can be 4-6 inches tall and the soil may be from very deep below surface.
22	Procambarus gracilis mounds
23	Procambarus gracilis
24	Management is necessary to perpetuate native species Preservation thru ownership is not sufficient to preserve native communities in natural areas. Actions taken by people to conserve native species are called management. Management Activities Burn (controls abundance of woody species) Remove non-native species Supplement populations of uncommon species
25	Burning at Woodworth Prairie
26	VOCABULARY Forest - Deciduous Savanna Prairie Wetland Canopy coverage key Forb Native Autochthonous Crayfish Natural area