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Northern coastal scrub is a diverse scrubland plant community found along the Pacific Coast from Northern California to Southern Oregon, as well as some offshore islands. It frequently forms a landscape mosaic with coastal prairie. [1]
Northern coastal scrub is found on various rocky coastal land forms along the Pacific Coast. It is observed as either patchy ocean-side cover near coastal prairie or a dense and continuous shrub cover over perennial herbaceous plants. [2] Northern coastal scrub will form a landscape mosaic with coastal prairie on sites with thicker, more moist soil. [1]
The conditions are harsh, with high exposure to wind and salt deposition and generally low-quality soil. The vegetation of coastal scrub communities is mostly composed of resilient short shrubs with flexible branches growing from a rigid, woody base. [3]
Northern coastal scrub and coastal prairie generally occur where the Pacific Ocean moderates summer drought. As a result, northern coastal scrub not only traces the Pacific Coastline from central California to Southern Oregon, but extends inland, following the distribution of marine climate influence, appearing where the winds press coastal fog inland. [4]
Both coastal prairies and scrubs have high species diversity. [4] The northern coastal scrub is specifically associated with 106 rare/endangered plant taxa, with 79 of those species being endemic to California. [1] It is noted that the closer a community is to the coast, the more diverse it is. This diversity is likely owed in a large part to the harsh conditions of the environment as they force plants to make adaptations in order to retain a viable population. The conditions also keep the species diversity high, preventing any one species from overly proliferating. Notably, salt deposition also has a significant correlation to the kind of vegetation present, as in communities with high salt deposition, such as those located on cliff bluffs, herbaceous plants tend be more prevalent than woody ones, which were only present in more dwarfed form. [1]
Coastal scrub is a common plant community along the hills of the California coast. [3] The northern coastal scrub's predominant plants are low evergreen shrubs and herbs. [2] Particularly Characteristic shrubs include coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis), California yerba santa (Eriodictyon californicum), coast silk-tassel (Garrya elliptica), salal (Gaultheria shallon), and yellow bush lupine (Lupinus arboreus). [3] Herbaceous Northern coastal scrub species include western blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum), Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana), and native grasses. [2] However, no single species is typical of all coastal Scrub communities, as the compositions varies greatly along the coastline. [1] As the conditions become progressively drier moving north to south, the species composition shifts from being dominated by evergreen species to drought-deciduous species. [5] Within the northern coastal scrub communities, there are two main types: the more uncommon type occurs on exposed ocean-side areas as short patches of bush lupine and many-colored lupine. The more common type occurs in less exposed areas and is dominated by coyote bush. [2]
Fire was a common feature of many California landscapes prior to Western settlement, whether as a result of Indigenous land management practice or natural causes such as lightning. [6] It is difficult to determine how common fire was in northern coastal scrub as most techniques used to determine historic frequency of fire cannot be applied to scrub vegetation. [4] While northern coastal scrub communities are able to easily establish themselves after a fire, especially after low intensity fires, it undeniably has a significant impact on the composition of these plant communities. [5] There are certain species which sprout and spread more quickly after low intensity fires which will then dominate the landscape until other plants are able to establish themselves. In general, the resilience of Coastal scrub may cause plants to occupy areas that have been stripped by fire or landslides. [5] Most times the original plants will eventually reoccupy the area, but this tendency has become problematic for coastal prairie. While both northern coastal scrub and coastal prairie have increasingly become more rare due to human development in past years, coastal prairie has seen a more significant decline. This decline is largely owed to a combination of fire, lack of grazing, and coastal scrub, as the former two create allow the more resilient coastal scrub to invade the grasslands without moderation. [1]
Chaparral is a shrubland plant community found primarily in California, in southern Oregon and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate and infrequent, high-intensity crown fires.
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct sunlight. The word comes from the Greek sklēros (hard) and phyllon (leaf). The term was coined by A.F.W. Schimper in 1898, originally as a synonym of xeromorph, but the two words were later differentiated.
In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants. More in general, the word can be used for any low-lying and seasonally waterlogged terrain. In Europe and in agricultural literature low-lying meadows that require draining and embanked polderlands are also referred to as marshes or marshland.
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on Earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area.
The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The desert spans large portions of Nevada and Utah, and extends into eastern California. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts.
The ecology of California can be understood by dividing the state into a number of ecoregions, which contain distinct ecological communities of plants and animals in a contiguous region. The ecoregions of California can be grouped into four major groups: desert ecoregions, Mediterranean ecoregions, forested mountains, and coastal forests.
Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras. Rangelands do not include forests lacking grazable understory vegetation, barren desert, farmland, or land covered by solid rock, concrete, or glaciers.
The Northern California coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of coastal Northern California and southwestern Oregon.
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It may be the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or a transitional community that occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as fire. A stable state may be maintained by regular natural disturbance such as fire or browsing. Shrubland may be unsuitable for human habitation because of the danger of fire. The term was coined in 1903.
The Western Gulf coastal grasslands are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is known in Louisiana as the "Cajun Prairie", Texas as "Coastal Prairie," and as the Tamaulipan pastizal in Mexico.
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.
California coastal prairie, also known as northern coastal grassland, is a grassland plant community of California and Oregon in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. This ecosystem is found along the Pacific Coast, from as far south as Los Angeles in Southern California to southern Oregon. It typically stretches as far inland as 100 km, and occurs at altitudes of 350 m or lower.
California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in coastal California; in interior valleys of the Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges; and in a ring around the California Central Valley grasslands. The dominant trees are oaks, interspersed with other broadleaf and coniferous trees, with an understory of grasses, herbs, geophytes, and California native plants.
Florida scrub is a forest ecoregion found throughout Florida in the United States. It is found on coastal and inland sand ridges and is characterized by an evergreen xeromorphic plant community dominated by shrubs and dwarf oaks. Because the low-nutrient sandy soils do not retain moisture, the ecosystem is effectively an arid one. Wildfires infrequently occur in the Florida scrub. Most of the annual rainfall falls in summer.
Barren vegetation describes an area of land where plant growth may be sparse, stunted, and/or contain limited biodiversity. Environmental conditions such as toxic or infertile soil, high winds, coastal salt-spray, and climatic conditions are often key factors in poor plant growth and development. Barren vegetation can be categorized depending on the climate, geology, and geographic location of a specific area.
The Chilean Matorral (NT1201) is a terrestrial ecoregion of central Chile, located on the west coast of South America. It is in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, part of the Neotropical realm.
Lupinus albifrons, silver lupine, white-leaf bush lupine, or evergreen lupine, is a species of lupine (lupin). It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows along the coast and in dry and open meadows, prairies and forest clearings. It is a member of several plant communities, including coastal sage scrub, chaparral, northern coastal scrub, foothill woodland, and yellow pine forest.
The California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion covers 24,900 square miles (64,000 km2) in an elliptical ring around the California Central Valley. It occurs on hills and mountains ranging from 300 feet (91 m) to 3,000 feet (910 m). It is part of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures within the coast can range from 53° to 65 °F and 32° to 60 °F within the mountains. Many plant and animal species in this ecoregion are adapted to periodic fire.
Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub is a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is generally characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, although in some areas rainfall may be uniform. Summers are typically hot in low-lying inland locations but can be cool near colder seas. Winters are typically mild to cool in low-lying locations but can be cold in inland and higher locations. All these ecoregions are highly distinctive, collectively harboring 10% of the Earth's plant species.
Mediterranean California is a Level I ecoregion of North America designated by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in its North American Environmental Atlas. The region is present only in California and Baja California.
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