As temperatures go up, bison get smaller. Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing animals such as bison and cattle in the Great Plains. "Bison are one of our most important conservation animals and hold a unique role in grasslands in North America," Craine said.  "In addition to their cultural and ecological significance, they're economically important.  There are about half a million bison in the world." Craine analyzed a data set of 290,000 weights, ages and sexes collected from 22 bison herds throughout the U. S. The organizations kept annual records of each animal in the herd and matched the data with the climates of the sites. Based on differences in sizes of bison across herds, Craine found that during the next 50 years, future generations of bison will be smaller in size and weigh less. Climate is likely to reduce the nutritional quality of grasses, causing the animals to grow more slowly. "We know that temperatures are going to go up," Craine said.  "We also know that warmer grasslands have grasses with less protein , and we now know that warmer grasslands have smaller _ . It all lines up to suggest that climate change will cause grasses to have less protein and cause grazers to gain less weight in the future." Craine said the results of climate change in coming decades can already be seen by comparing bison in cooler, wetter places with those in warmer, drier places. For example, the average 7-year-old male bison in South Dakota weighed 1, 900 pounds, while an average 7- year-old male bison in Oklahoma -- a warmer place -- weighed 1, 300 pounds. "The difference in temperature between those two states is around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about three times the projected increase in temperatures over the next 75 years," Craine said. "It is a clear indicator that long-term warming will affect bison and is something that will happen across the U.S. over the next 50-75 years." What is the main reason for the bison to become smaller?
The deceasing amount of grass. The rising temperature. The rising number of bison. The loss of weight.