GRASSLAND

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does grassland mean? 

• GRASSLAND (noun)
  The noun GRASSLAND has 1 sense:

1. land where grass or grasslike vegetation grows and is the dominant form of plant life

  Familiarity information: GRASSLAND used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRASSLAND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Land where grass or grasslike vegetation grows and is the dominant form of plant life

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("grassland" is a kind of...):

biome (a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate)

parcel; parcel of land; piece of ground; piece of land; tract (an extended area of land)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "grassland"):

bent (an area of grassland unbounded by fences or hedges)

hayfield; meadow (a field where grass or alfalfa are grown to be made into hay)

grazing land; lea; ley; pasture; pastureland (a field covered with grass or herbage and suitable for grazing by livestock)

prairie (a treeless grassy plain)

savanna; savannah (a flat grassland in tropical or subtropical regions)

veld; veldt (elevated open grassland in southern Africa)

 Context examples 

Researchers examined 37 years of data tied to plant biodiversity (number of different species) and plant productivity (amount of plants) in 21 grassland and savanna areas in Minnesota.

(Plant biodiversity struggles to return in wake of agricultural abandonment, National Science Foundation)

However, changes in grassland plants could put those benefits at risk.

(Environmental change is triggering an identity switch in grasslands, National Science Foundation)

In the parched grasslands and savannas, or drylands, of Africa, South America and Asia, termite mounds store nutrients and moisture and via internal tunnels, allow water to better penetrate the soil.

(Dirt mounds made by termites in Africa, South America, Asia could prevent spread of deserts, NSF)

Rock-derived nitrogen may fuel the growth of forests and grasslands, and allow them to sequester more carbon dioxide than previously thought.

(New source of global nitrogen discovered: Earth’s bedrock, National Science Foundation)

Grasslands also varied considerably over the study period.

(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)

Cattle-grazing has led to the takeover of grasslands by shrubs and other woody vegetation.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

South America's climate became drier, subtropical grasslands expanded and the number of mammal species that depended on grasses increased.

(Six million years ago, atmospheric shifts led to increased diversity of grassland mammals, National Science Foundation)

The grasslands the animals depend on for food dried up and watering holes disappeared, leaving many animals starving or weak from hunger.

(Born during a drought: Bad news for baboons, NSF)

To more accurately predict the capacity of trees and plants to sequester carbon dioxide in the future, the researchers synthesized data from all elevated carbon dioxide experiments conducted so far—in grassland, shrubland, cropland and forest systems—including ones the researchers directed.

(Study Suggests Trees' Potential to Slow Global Warming in Next 100 Years, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The study was conducted at the NSF Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research site, one of 28 NSF LTER sites around the world in ecosystems from grasslands to forests, coral reefs to the open sea.

(Scientists discover new mechanism for how soils store carbon, National Science Foundation)