Grasslands cover approximately 15% of land
area in North America and prairies are the grasslands found
in the central part of the continent. Prairies are very
important ecosystems that are home to many endangered and
threatened plants and animals.
There are a few different types of prairies,
and various words are used to describe prairies including
savannas, grasslands, pampas, plains, rangelands... There
is a huge body of literature written about prairies, so
narrowing your search to a particular type of prairie or
geographical region is more likely to help you find useful
information.
There are many Library of Congress subject
headings which you may want to use to look for books and
journals in Illinet Online (the online catalog for UIUC
and 56 other libraries in Illinois). You can divide many
of these subject headings further by geography (e.g. prairie
conservation--Illinois)
The type of paper you are writing will help
you determine what type of database you'll use to find articles
about prairies. Does your instructor require scholarly journals
or magazine articles as sources? Many magazines have articles
about prairies that may serve as valuable resources. However,
if your instructor prefers that you use scholarly, research-oriented
journals, you may need to search specialized databases.
SPECIALIZED DATABASES
After searching general databases, you may want to try
a specialized database for the biological sciences or
sciences for more research-oriented articles on prairies.
Here are some specialized databases to try:
|
Major database of the life sciences
indexing over 6000 journals. This database will
provide many citations for prairie articles. Click
here
for suggested tips and searching strategies from
the Biology Library.
Sample Searches:
- do a subject search for Henslow's
sparrow or Ammodramus-henslowii
to find articles about this grassland bird.
- do a subject search for prairies
and restoration to find articles
about prairie restoration
- do a subject search for prairie animals
and Illinois to find articles
about prairie animals of Illinois
|
Current
Contents (1993 - present)
Indexes tables of contents and bibliographic
data from 7500 scholarly research journals and books.
Very good coverage of major journals in the life
sciences. Current Contents will be most useful to
you for finding citations to scholarly and/or technical
articles.
Sample Searches:
- search savannas and
Africa to find articles on African
savannas
- search rangeland and
Kansas to find articles about
rangelands in Kansas
- search grasslands and
birds to find articles about
marsh birds
|
MAPS/DIRECTIONS
PRAIRIE DIRECTORIES
WEB RESOURCES
Web Sites | Databases
| Educational Sites for Teachers
Web
Sites:
Chicago Wilderness
Coalition
Alliance of more than 160 public and private organizations who
work together to protect, restore, study, and manage
the precious natural ecosystems of the Chicago region
for the benefit of the public.
Grasslands
- Missouri Botanical Garden
Information about different biomes of the world,
including grasslands. Learn about types of grasslands,
grassland plants, grassland animals, and more grassland
links.
Illinois Prairies
Provides historical information on Illinois prairies
as well as location lists.
Iowa Prairie
Network
An all volunteer network
of people dedicated to the preservation of the prairie
heritage in the state of Iowa.
Links
to Prairie Web Sites
This page includes a list of prairie web sites compiled
by Dr. Ken Robertson of the INHS. The compilation includes
over 60 web sites.
Northern
Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC)
This site is operated by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Excellent searchable database of publications written
by NPWRC personnel, including plant and wildlife topics
and a resource
finder.
Prairie
Establishment and Landscaping
A prairie resource by William E. McClain of the Division
of Natural Heritage, Illinois Department of Natural Resources,
Springfield, IL (Natural Heritage Technical Publication
#2 1997)
Prairie Frontier:
Wildflower & Prairie Grass Seed
Wildflowers and prairie grasses possess a stature and
strength that provide a glimpse of the past and open a
door to our future. The tallest of plants may be seen
waving boldly as gentle breezes stir their tops while
the shorter species provide even more cover and beauty
in a natural setting. It is both simple and rewarding
to create an environment that is colorful, multi-dimensional
and beneficial to the world around us. By planting wildflowers
and/or prairie grasses you will be preserving our natural
heritage and will bring the best of nature into your lifestyle.
Prairie
in Illinois
Created by the Illinois State Museum and
is part of an online education resource called MuseumLink
Illinois. Prairie in Illinois provides information about
prairie ecosystems, prairie restoration, and planting
a prairie garden. Resources and activities are available
for educators.
Prairies
in the Prairie State - Midewin National Tallgrass
Prairie
An online guide to learning about prairies' physical
environment, plants and animals, and human interactions.
Also provides activities and resources.
Prairie Nursery -
How to establish a prairie
This 'How To' guide (under the 'How To' tab on this site)
provides detailed instructions for successful prairie
plantings and wildflower gardening.
Prairies Forever
Nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting
the ecological and cultural significance of the American
prairie througn education, outreach, and public engagement.
Public
Prairies of Missouri
Third edition of Public Prairies of Missouri;
provides maps and describes the tracts that comprise
Missouri's more than 22,000 acres of public prairies.
Booklet offers information on the natural
history, plant communities, and wildlife of Missouri's
tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Also provides information
on the growing interest in prairie restoration, reconstruction
and landscaping.
The
Tallgrass Prairie Challenge
This Fish and Wildlife Service site highlights the critical
elements for protecting what remains of the tallgrass
prairie.
The
Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois
Produced by Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) prairie
expert Dr. Ken Robertson, this web site is an excellent
starting point for prairie research, with information
on prairie history, restoration, landscaping, and biodiversity.
Includes color photographs of most prairie plants and
is especially rich in information on Illinois prairies.
Includes excellent bibliographic sources as well as an
annotated list of links to other prairie sites.
Databases:
Illinois
Plant Information Network (ILPIN)
Provides information about all vascular
plant taxa found in Illinois. Can search
on a plant species (by scientific or common name), and
retrieve information compiled on the species, as well
as a map of its known distribution among the counties
in Illinois.
Native
Plant Database
Includes several databases of interest:
the Native Plants Database contains more than 1,800 native
plant species; Image Gallery contains over 15,500
plant images representing 176 plant families and 4,443
individual species; Clearinghouse Publications contains
articles, Propagation Datasheets, and Regional Factpacks
tailored to geographic areas; and Nurseries &
Seed Suppliers contains more than 700 nurseries and seed
suppliers.
North
American Pollen Database
Research program of the Illinois State
Museum. Surface sample raw counts, organized by state/province,
are available. Use WebMapper or their search engine to
locate files to transfer. More than 2,000 sites have been
studied and are potentially available for inclusion in
the NAPD. The Unacquired Sites Inventory contains about
half of the 2,000 sites. MapPad is the program used for
the inventory.
PrairieMap
This GIS Database for Prairie Grassland Habitats and
associated Native Wildlife in the North American Mid-West
helps users identify and collect spatial data layers needed
for research and management of prairie grassland ecosystems.
USDA Plants Database
Maintained by The National Plant Data
Center (NPDC) whose responsibility is to acquire, develop,
improve, and disseminate plant information to support
the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service and
other efforts to improve the ecological health of the
land. NPDC works with partners to incorporate plant data
into the agency's automated tools.
Educational
sites for teachers:
Bell
Museum of Natural History's "On the Prairie"
project
Grade school students can discover the plants and animals
that compose the prairie ecosystem through online activities and resources (University
of Minnesota).
National
Geographic's Xpeditions Prairie Lesson Plan
Students can use
their prior and newly found knowledge to create their
own vision of the prairie by creating a prairie ecosystem
mural.
Prairie
Restoration and Prairie Ecology Lesson Plan
Supported
by the National Health Museum Activities Exchange high school students will be exposed to various sampling
techniques, population density and statistics, library
research of local land history, various plant propagation
methods and outside field work.
42explore:
Prairies
Provides basics about prairies, other
online resources to explore, and projects to complete.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON PRAIRIES
Books | Historical
Web Resources
Books
- Commerce of the Prairies: Life on the Great Plains in
the 1830's and 1840's
Location: Stacks, Undergrad--Call
Number: 917.89 G86 1966
- Critical Trends Assessment Program: Regional Assessments
of Illinois River Areas
Volume 5 of this publication includes early accounts of
the ecology of 16 regions in Illinois. Eg. Title: Early
Accounts of the Ecology of the Kankakee River Area
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 333.91 K132x
- The Flora of the Prairies - Thesis (1901) / Glasson,
Henry
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 581.9773 G473F
- Forest Resources of Illinois: An Atlas and Analysis of
Spatial and Temporal Trends / Iverson, Louis R.
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 333.75 Iv3x
- Letters to a friend, written to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr, 1866-1879 / Muir, John
Location: Undergrad--Call Number: B.M953 MIL
- A Natural History of the Chicago Region / Greenberg,
Joel
Location: Biology, Natural History, Map
& Geography--Call Number: 508.77311
G829N
- Pioneer Women and the prairies: impressions of a new
land - Thesis (1994) / Loechl, Suzanne F. Keith
Location: City Planning--Call
Number: Q.977L822P
- Stories from where we live: The Great North American
Prairie
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 978 St745
Historical Web
Resources
BOOKS AND OTHER PRINT RESOURCES
Prairie
references - Dr. Ken Robertson, INHS botanist, maintains
this extensive list of references on the general topic
of prairies.
- Elemental Prairie: sixty tallgrass plants / watercolors by George Olson; essay by John Madson.
Location: ACES -- Call Number: 581.7440978 OI85e
- Field guide to Indiana wildflowers
/ Kay Yatskievych.
Location: Natural History -- Call
Number: 582.1309772 Y455f
- Field Guide to the North American Prairie / Stephen R. Jones and Ruth Carol Cushman.
Location: Natural History -- Call Number: 578.744097 J71f
- Gardening with prairie plants :
how to create beautiful native landscapes / Sally
Wasowski ; photography by Andy Wasowski.
Location: City Planning -- Call
Number: Q. 635.95177 W282g
- Illinois Prairie Wildflowers / Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Education.
Location: Main Stacks -- Call Number: 582.13 IL6
- Life and Lore of Illinois wildflowers / by William E. Werner, Jr. ; photographs by William E.
Werner, Jr. ; drawings by Sharron Davis Schumann.
Location: Biology, Natural History; Law
-- Call Number: 582.13 W495X; DOC. ILLRE4.2:W64
- Managing Changing Prairie Landscapes / editors, Todd A. Radenbaugh and Glenn C. Sutter.
Location: City Planning -- Call Number: 333.7309712 M3117
- National Grasslands: a guide to American's undiscovered treasures / Francis Moul; photgraphy by Georg Joutras.
Location: Natural History -- Call Number: 333.74160973 M86n
- Prairie establishment and landscaping / by William E. McClaine; illustrations by Arloa Wheeler
and Ann Mankowski.
Location: Natural History -- Call
Number: 577.440977 M221p
- Prairie garden : 70 native plants
you can grow in town or country / J. Robert Smith,
with Beatrice S. Smith.
Location: City Planning -- Call
Number: 635.95 SM61P
- Prairie plants of the Midwest :
identification and ecology / by Russell R. Kirt
; illustrations by Henrietta H. Tweedie and Roberta L.
Simonds.
Location: ACES, Natural History -- Call
Number: Reference 581.91530977 K639P
- Prairie plants of northern Illinois
: identification and ecology / by Russell R.
Kirt ; illustrations by Henrietta H. Tweedie and Roberta
L. Simonds.
Location: City Planning, Natural History
-- Call Number: 583.09773 K639P
- Restoring the tallgrass prairie
: an illustrated manual for Iowa and the upper Midwest / by Shirley Shirley.
Location: Natural History -- Call
Number: 635.95 SH66R
- Roadside plants and flowers : a
traveler's guide to the Midwest and Great Lakes area:
with a few familiar off-road wildflowers / Marian
S. Edsall.
Location: ACES, Main, Natural History
-- Call Number: 582.0977 ED75R
- Spring woodland wildflowers of Illinois / by Robert H. Mohlenbrock.
Location: ACES, Natural History; Law
-- Call Number: 582.1309773 M725s; DOC.
ILLCN3.2:W65
- Tallgrass prairie wildflowers :
a Falcon field guide / text by Doug Ladd ; photos
by Frank Oberle and others.
Location: Natural History -- Call
Number: 582.130977 L121T
- Tallgrass Restoration Handbook: for prairies, savannas, and woodlands / editors, Stephen Packard and Cornelia F. Mutel; foreword by William R. Jordan III; with a new preface by the editors.
Location: Natural History -- Call Number: 639.99 T1452005
- Wildflowers of fields, roadsides,
and open habitats of Illinois / by Robert H.
Mohlenbrock.
Location: Reference -- Call Number: 582.1309773 M725WX
- Wildflowers of Illinois woodlands / by Sylvan T. Runkel and Alvin F. Bull.
Location: Natural History -- Call
Number: 582.1309773 R874W1994
- Wildflowers of the tallgrass prairie
: the upper Midwest / by Sylvan T. Runkel and
Dean M. Roosa ; with a foreword by John Madson.
Location: ACES, City Planning -- Call
Number: 582.130977 R874W
JOURNALS
American
Midland Naturalist
Location: Biology, Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 505 AME
One of the most frequently cited journals in publications
on ecology, mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology, ichthyology,
parasitology, aquatic and invertebrate biology and other
biological disciplines.
Biological
Conservation
Location: Biology, Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 33.905 BI
Provides a wide dissemination of original papers dealing
with the preservation of wildlife and the conservation
biological and allied natural resources. Focuses on plants,
animals and their habitats in a changing and increasingly
man-dominated biosphere.
Conservation
Biology
Location: Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 639.05 CONB
This journal includes groundbreaking papers instrumental
in defining the key issues contributing to the study and
preservation of species and habitats.
Ecological
Restoration
Location: City Planning, Natural History,
Online--Call Number: 333.7305 RE1
Owned by the University of Wisconsin Arboretum and edited
by personnel of the Arboretum who are also members of
SER. Made available to SER members by special arrangement
with the Arboretum. P ublished quarterly -- subscription
now includes both print and online versions -- and covers
a broad range of topics, including progress reports on
current restoration projects, topical and regional reviews
of restoration activities, philosophical discourses on
environmental ethics, descriptions of new restoration
techniques, reviews of conferences and books, op-ed pieces,
and letters from readers. A few of the more technical
articles are peer-reviewed. Otherwise, manuscripts are
meticulously reviewed by Ecological Restoration's editor
Dave Egan, for a crisp and literate journalistic style.
[includes many links for invasive species]
Ecology
Location: Biology, Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 570.5 EC
Publishes research and synthesis papers on all
aspects of ecology, with particular emphasis on papers
that develop new concepts in ecology, that test ecological
theory, or that lead to an increased appreciation for
the diversity of ecological phenomena.
Erigenia: Journal of the Illinois Native Plant Society
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 581.05 ER
Dedicated
to the preservation, conservation, and study of the native
plants and vegetation of Illinois.
Illinois Nature Preserves System
Location: Law--Call Number:
DOC. ILLNP1.1:
Authored by the Illinois Nature Preserves
Commission. Includes information about prairies, natural
areas, and parks in Illinois.
Journal
of Applied Ecology
Location: Biology, Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 574.505 JO
Official journal of the British Ecological Society
provides articles on ecology with management relevance.
Journal
of Range Management
Location: ACES, Online--Call
Number: 630.5 JOUR
Serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion
of facts, ideas, and philosophies pertaining to the study,
management, and use of rangelands and their several resources.
Landscape
Ecology
Location: City Planning, Online--Call
Number: 333.7205LA
Includes new and innovative papers that improve our understanding
of the relationship between patterns and processes, explaining
the spatial variation in landscapes at multiple scales
as affected by natural causes and human society.
Native
Plants Journal
Location: Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 635.9517305 NA
A cooperative effort of the USDA Forest Service and the
University of Idaho, with assistance from the USDA Agricultural
Research Service and the Natural Resources Conservation
Service. Goal is to provide technical and practical information
on the growing and planting of North American (Canada,
US, and Mexico) native plants for restoration, conservation,
reforestation, landscaping, roadsides, and so on.
Natural Areas Journal
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 333.731605 Na1
Provides a forum for communication involving the identification,
preservation, protection and management of natural areas
and elements of natural diversity.
Plant
Ecology (formerly Vegetatio)
Location: Biology, Online--Call
Number: 581.1505 VE1
Publishes original scientific papers dealing with the
ecology of vascular plants and bryophytes in terrestrial,
aquatic and wetland ecosystems. Papers reporting on descriptive,
historical, and experimental studies of any aspect of
plant population, physiological, community, ecosystem
and landscape ecology as well as on theoretical ecology.
Prairie Naturalist
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 574.52643 P884
Quarterly Journal of Research on the Natural History
of the North American Great Plains.
A
Prairie Rendezvous
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 977.305 PR
Bimonthly journal published by the Grand Prairie
Friends of Illinois and Prairie Grove Volunteers.
Proceedings of the Central Illinois Prairie Conference
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: Q.574.52643 C333P
Presentations include an array of
topics covering tallgrass prairie ecology, flora, fauna,
restoration, stewardship, and education.
Proceedings of the Midwest Prairie Conference
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 574.52 M58P
Presentations include an array of
topics covering ecological studies, restoration management
and history, politics and education as it relates to prairies.
Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conference
Location: Natural History--Call
Number: 574.52 M58p1
Presentations are geared
toward those interested in native gardening, prairie restoration,
and prairie management.
Restoration
Ecology
Location: Natural History, Online--Call
Number: 333.715305 RE
Fosters the exchange of ideas among the many disciplines
involved in the process of ecological restoration. Addresses
global concerns and communicates them to the international
scientific community. At the forefront
of a vital new direction in science and ecology. Original
papers describe experimental, observational, and theoretical
studies on terrestrial, marine, and freshwater systems,
and are considered without taxonomic bias. Primary emphasis is on ecological and
biological restoration, and also publishes papers on
soils, water, air, and hydrologic functions. Edited by
a distinguished panel, the journal continues to be a major
conduit for research scientists to publish their findings
in the fight to not only halt ecological damage, but also
to ultimately reverse it.
Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science
Location: ACES, Biology, Geology, Natural
History, Stacks--Call Number: 506 IL
Includes publications on anthropology, archaeology, botany,
cellular, molecular and developmental science, environmental
science, and zoology.
Last
Updated: 08/13/07 kam
