Ecology 6th Edition by Charles Krebs

Exercise 6

North American grasslands are similar in structure to South African grasslands but the grass species differ because of their divergent evolutionary history. Both areas have dominant C 4 grasses with less abundant C 3 forbs and woody plants. But South Africa has greater climatic variability and poorer soils than North America. Would you expect the two areas to show the same relationships between rainfall and net primary production? Knapp et al. (2006) present an analysis of these questions.