Motte Rimrock Reserve

Motte Rimrock Reserve
Motte Rimrock Reserve
Location	Riverside County, California
Coordinates	33°48′45″N117°15′30″W / 33.81250°N 117.25833°W Coordinates: 33°48′45″N117°15′30″W / 33.81250°N 117.25833°W
Area	715 acres (1.117 sq mi)
Governing body	University of California, Riverside
Website	http://motte.ucr.edu/

Last updated April 25, 2019

The Motte Rimrock Reserve, a unit of the University of California Natural Reserve System affiliated with the University of California, Riverside, is an ecological reserve and biological field station located on a small plateau overlooking the Perris Valley in west-central Riverside County, California, United States.

The University of California, Riverside, is a public research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres (769 ha) in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres (8 ha) in Palm Desert. In 1907 the predecessor to UCR was founded as the UC Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside which pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators responsible for extending the citrus growing season in California from four to nine months. Some of the world's most important research collections on citrus diversity and entomology, as well as science fiction and photography, are located at Riverside.

In geology and physical geography, a plateau, also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain, that is raised significantly above the surrounding area, often with one or more sides with steep slopes. Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment as intermontane, piedmont, or continental.

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

Location

The reserve is located on 715 acres (2.89 km²) at an elevation of 1,580 feet (482 m) ASL, northwest of the city of Perris. Much of the land of the Motte Rimrock Reserve was donated to the University of California in 1976 by Charles and Ottie Motte. Numerous parcels have been added since.

Perris is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, located 71 miles (114 km) east-southeast of Los Angeles, California, and 80.9 miles (130.2 km) north of San Diego, California. It is known for Lake Perris, which houses many flora and fauna. The city is most widely recognized for having many choices involving aerial activities, such as skydiving and hot-air ballooning. Perris is within the Inland Empire metropolitan area of Southern California.

Ecology

The Motte Rimrock Reserve contains large areas of open grassland, coastal sage scrub, willow riparian woodland, and rocky outcrops that support a diversity of plant and animal species. The reserve harbors a mixture of both coastal and inland species and owes its diversity to its location equidistant between the Pacific Ocean and the Mojave Desert. The reserve also possesses a rich cultural history including some recognized archeological sites. Current on-going research projects include studies on the population dynamics of small mammals, ant behavior, plant-insect interactions, and habitat restoration.

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae); however, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) families can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica. Grasslands are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. For example, there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications (subdivisions) of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (ecosystem), which is one of eight terrestrial ecozones of the Earth's surface.

Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.

Wildlife

As the surrounding area experiences rapid urbanization, the reserve serves to protect a number of species threatened or endangered by development and habitat loss including Stephens' kangaroo rat, the California gnatcatcher, orange-throated whiptail, and Bell's Sparrow, as well as several diminishing plant communities such as riversidean sage scrub. The reserve is an active participant in the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency (RCHCA) a joint powers authority created to protect and preserve the Stephens' kangaroo rat.

Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural areas to urban areas, the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas, and the ways in which each society adapts to this change. It is predominantly the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas. Although the two concepts are sometimes used interchangeably, urbanization should be distinguished from urban growth: urbanization is "the proportion of the total national population living in areas classed as urban", while urban growth refers to "the absolute number of people living in areas classed as urban". The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008. It is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized. That is equivalent to approximately 3 billion urbanites by 2050, much of which will occur in Africa and Asia. Notably, the United Nations has also recently projected that nearly all global population growth from 2017 to 2030 will be by cities, about 1.1 billion new urbanites over the next 13 years.

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws. Normally it is more strictly protected than a nature park.

The California gnatcatcher is a small 10.8 cm (4.3 in) long insectivorous bird which frequents dense coastal sage scrub growth. This species was recently split from the similar black-tailed gnatcatcher of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. This bird is often solitary, but joins with other birds in winter flocks.

The director of the reserve is Kenneth J. Halama, PhD, an ecologist and conservation biologist.^[1]

Related Research Articles

Chaparral shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the US state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico.

Chaparral is a shrubland or heathland plant community found primarily in the US state of California and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate and wildfire, featuring summer-drought-tolerant plants with hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as contrasted with the associated soft-leaved, drought-deciduous, scrub community of coastal sage scrub, found below the chaparral biome. Chaparral covers 5% of the state of California and associated Mediterranean shrubland an additional 3.5%. The name comes from the Spanish word chaparro, for evergreen oak shrubland.

The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is a National Monument in southern California. It includes portions of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, the northernmost ones of the Peninsular Ranges system. The national monument covers portions of Riverside County, west of the Coachella Valley, approximately 100 miles (160 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

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<i>Baccharis pilularis</i> species of plant

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Stephens' kangaroo rat is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is endemic to the Southern California region of the United States, primarily in western Riverside County. The species is named after American zoologist Frank Stephens (1849–1937).

Quercus dumosa is a species of plant in the Fagaceae family, belonging to the white oak section of the oak genus (Quercus). This tree goes by the common names coastal sage scrub oak and Nuttall's scrub oak.

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References

↑ "Motte Rimrock Reserve". University of California, Natural Reserve System. 2002-10-15. Retrieved 2008-11-13.

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[1] "Motte Rimrock Reserve". University of California, Natural Reserve System. 2002-10-15. Retrieved 2008-11-13.