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Grasslands are the most threatened ecosystem on the planet,

which is a problem because they store a lot of carbon.

One third of all carbon on land is found in grasslands.

And Andy Boyce has spent a lot of time standing in them.

Sometimes the grass is knee-high.

Sometimes it's only stubble level.

The prairie looks a little bit different wherever you go and it changes hugely season to season.

Go to Montana in early June. And the prairie is loud and teeming with life.

There are several species of shorebirds flying around, singing, defending their territories.

There are innumerable, small, hidden species of songbirds.

Andy studies birds, in particular, the long-billed curlew.

A curlew is a shorebird about the size of a chicken, with a mottled brown coat and a long, thin beak that curves.

And curlews build nests in the prairie.

Now, Andy is an ecologist with the Great Plains Program at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

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