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65-430: Many chaparral shrubs have hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as contrasted with the associated soft-leaved, drought-deciduous , scrub community of coastal sage scrub , found often on drier, southern facing slopes. Three other closely related chaparral shrubland systems occur in southern Arizona , western Texas , and along the eastern side of central Mexico's mountain chains, all having summer rains in contrast to

130-553: A biological community with a large number of different species – that is under threat by human activity. The California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion , of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome , has three sub-ecoregions with ecosystem – plant community subdivisions: For the numerous individual plant and animal species found within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, see: Some of

195-520: A chaparral fire becomes. Sclerophyllous Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves , short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) 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 (translated in 1903), originally as

260-433: A fire. Plants that are long-lived in the seed bank or serotinous with induced germination after fire include chamise , Ceanothus, and fiddleneck . Some chaparral plant communities may grow so dense and tall that it becomes difficult for large animals and humans to penetrate, but may be teeming with smaller fauna in the understory. The seeds of many chaparral plant species are stimulated to germinate by some fire cue (heat or

325-546: A high carbon : nitrogen ratio make the leaves and branches of scleromorphic species long-lived in the litter, and can lead to a large build-up of litter in woodlands. The toxic compounds of many species, notably Eucalyptus species, are volatile and flammable and the presence of large amounts of flammable litter, coupled with an herbaceous understorey, encourages fire. All the Australian sclerophyllous communities are liable to be burnt with varying frequencies and many of

390-467: A high ratio of magnesium and iron to calcium and potassium, that are also generally low in essential nutrients such as nitrogen. Another phytogeography system uses two California chaparral and woodlands subdivisions: the cismontane chaparral and the transmontane (desert) chaparral. Cismontane chaparral ("this side of the mountain") refers to the chaparral ecosystem in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome in California, growing on

455-403: A high-intensity crown-fire regime, meaning that fires consume nearly all the above ground growth whenever they burn, with a historical frequency of 30 to 150 years or more. A detailed analysis of historical fire data concluded that fire suppression activities have been ineffective at excluding fire from southern California chaparral, unlike in ponderosa pine forests. In addition, the number of fires

520-471: A lower CO 2 uptake than malacophyllous or laurophyllous leaves. These lower transpiration rates may reduce the uptake of toxic ions and better provide for C-carboxylation under nutrient-poor conditions, particularly low availability of mineral nitrogen and phosphate. Sclerophyllous plants are found in tropical heath forests, which grown on nutrient-poor sandy soils in humid regions in the Rio Orinoco and

585-721: A more summer-dominant rainfall, whereby falling under the humid subtropical climate zone ( Cfa / Cwa ). Furthermore, other areas with sclerophyll flora would grade to the oceanic climate ( Cfb ); particularly the eastern parts of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa, and Tasmania , Victoria and southern New South Wales in Australia. Sclerophyll plants are also found in areas with nutrient-poor and acidic soils, and soils with heavy concentrations of aluminum and other metals. Sclerophyll leaves transpire less and have

650-555: A much smaller area of the continent, being restricted to relatively high rainfall locations. They have a eucalyptus overstory (10 to 30 metres) with the understory also being hard-leaved. Dry sclerophyll forests are the most common forest type on the continent, and although it may seem barren dry sclerophyll forest is highly diverse. For example, a study of sclerophyll vegetation in Seal Creek, Victoria , found 138 species. Even less extensive are wet sclerophyll forests. They have

715-437: A native shrubland to non-native annual grassland and drastically reduce species diversity, especially under drought brought about by climate change. There are two older hypotheses relating to California chaparral fire regimes that caused considerable debate in the past within the fields of wildfire ecology and land management. Research over the past two decades have rejected these hypotheses: The perspective that older chaparral

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780-645: A native shrubland to nonnative annual grassland and drastically reduce species diversity, especially under global-change-type drought. The historical fire return interval for chaparral communities used to be 30–50 years, but has now decreased to 5–10 years due to human interference. The region has been heavily affected by grazing, logging, dams, and water diversions, intensive agriculture and urbanization, as well as competition by numerous introduced or exotic plant and animal species. Some unique plant communities, like southern California's Coastal Sage Scrub , have been nearly eradicated by agriculture and urbanization. As

845-747: A single California Floristic Province , excluding the deserts of eastern California , which belong to other floristic provinces. Many Bioregionalists , including poet Gary Snyder , identify the central and northern Coast Ranges, Klamath-Siskiyou, the Central Valley, and Sierra Nevada as the Shasta Bioregion or the Alta California Bioregion . The ecoregion includes a great variety of plant communities, including grasslands , oak savannas and woodlands , chaparral , and coniferous forests , including southern stands of

910-464: A synonym of xeromorph , but the two words were later differentiated. Sclerophyllous plants occur in many parts of the world, but are most typical of areas with low rainfall or seasonal droughts, such as Australia, Africa, and western North and South America. They are prominent throughout Australia , parts of Argentina , the Cerrado biogeographic region of Bolivia , Paraguay and Brazil , and in

975-428: A taller eucalyptus overstory than dry sclerophyll forests, 30 metres (98 ft) or more (typically mountain ash , alpine ash , rose gum , karri , messmate stringybark , or manna gum , and a soft-leaved, fairly dense understory ( tree ferns are common). They require ample rainfall—at least 1000 mm (40 inches). Sclerophyllous plants are all part of a specific environment and are anything but newcomers. By

1040-499: A very high biodiversity , are under great pressure from the population. This is especially true for the Mediterranean region since ancient times. Through overexploitation (logging, grazing, agricultural use) and frequent fires caused by people, the original forest vegetation is converted. In extreme cases, the hard-leaf vegetation disappears completely and is replaced by open rock heaths . Some sclerophyll areas are closer to

1105-520: A year. This makes the chaparral most vulnerable to fire in the late summer and fall. The chaparral ecosystem as a whole is adapted to be able to recover from naturally infrequent, high-intensity fire (fires occurring between 30 and 150 years or more apart); indeed, chaparral regions are known culturally and historically for their impressive fires. (This does create a conflict with human development adjacent to and expanding into chaparral systems.) Additionally, Native Americans burned chaparral near villages on

1170-406: Is characterized by nearly impenetrable, dense thickets (except the more open desert chaparral). These plants are flammable during the late summer and autumn months when conditions are characteristically hot and dry. They grow as woody shrubs with thick, leathery, and often small leaves, contain green leaves all year (are evergreen ), and are typically drought resistant (with some exceptions). After

1235-425: Is increasing in step with population growth and exacerbated by climate change. Chaparral stand age does not have a significant correlation to its tendency to burn. Large, infrequent, high-intensity wildfires are part of the natural fire regime for California chaparral. Extreme weather conditions (low humidity, high temperature, high winds), drought, and low fuel moisture are the primary factors in determining how large

1300-453: Is limited to the coastal western sides of the continents, but nonetheless can typical in any regions of a continent with scarce annual precipitation or frequent seasonal droughts and poor soils that are heavily leached. The sclerophyll zone often merges into temperate deciduous forests towards the poles, on the coasts also into temperate rainforests and towards the equator in hot semi-deserts or deserts. The Mediterranean areas, which have

1365-448: Is not enough phosphorus for substantial new cell growth. These are the biomes or ecoregions in the world that feature an abundance of, or are known for having, sclerophyll vegetation: California chaparral and woodlands The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California ( United States ) and northwestern Baja California ( Mexico ), located on

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1430-477: Is often open, with only about 50 percent of the ground covered. Individual shrubs can reach up to 10 feet (3.0 m) in height. Transmontane chaparral or desert chaparral is found on the eastern slopes of major mountain range systems on the western sides of the deserts of California . The mountain systems include the southeastern Transverse Ranges (the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains ) in

1495-499: Is particularly noticeable in the eucalypt and Melaleuca species which possess oil glands within their leaves that produce a pungent volatile oil that makes them unpalatable to most browsers. These traits make the majority of woody plants in these woodlands largely unpalatable to domestic livestock. It is therefore important from a grazing perspective that these woodlands support a more or less continuous layer of herbaceous ground cover dominated by grasses. Sclerophyll forests cover

1560-631: Is the rain beetle ( Pleocoma sp.) It spends up to several years living underground in a larval stage and emerges only during wet-season rains to mate. Chaparral, like most Mediterranean shrublands, is highly fire resilient and historically burned with high-severity, stand replacing events every 30 to 100 years. Historically, Native Americans burned chaparral to promote grasslands for textiles and food. Though adapted to infrequent fires, chaparral plant communities can be exterminated by frequent fires especially with climate change induced drought. Today, frequent accidental ignitions can convert chaparral from

1625-742: Is unhealthy or unproductive may have originated during the 1940s when studies were conducted measuring the amount of forage available to deer populations in chaparral stands. However, according to recent studies, California chaparral is extraordinarily resilient to very long periods without fire and continues to maintain productive growth throughout pre-fire conditions. Seeds of many chaparral plants actually require 30 years or more worth of accumulated leaf litter before they will successfully germinate (e.g., scrub oak, Quercus berberidifolia ; toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia ; and holly-leafed cherry, Prunus ilicifolia ). When intervals between fires drop below 10 to 15 years, many chaparral species are eliminated and

1690-558: The California gnatcatcher ( Polioptila californica ), Costa's hummingbird ( Calypte costae ), coast horned lizard ( Phrynosoma coronatum ), and rosy boa ( Lichanura trivirgata ). Other animals found here are the Heermann kangaroo rat ( Dipodomys heermanni ), Santa Cruz kangaroo rat ( Dipodomys venustus ), and the endangered white-eared pocket mouse ( Perognathus alticolus ). Another notable insect resident of this ecoregion

1755-544: The Mediterranean biomes that cover the Mediterranean Basin , California , Chile , and the Cape Province of South Africa . In the Mediterranean basin , holm oak , cork oak and olives are typical hardwood trees. In addition, there are several species of pine under the trees in the vegetation zone. The shrub layer contains numerous herbs such as rosemary , thyme and lavender . In relation to

1820-891: The Mojave Desert north and northeast of the Los Angeles basin and Inland Empire; and the northern Peninsular Ranges (San Jacinto, Santa Rosa , and Laguna Mountains ), which separate the Colorado Desert (western Sonoran Desert ) from lower coastal Southern California . It is distinguished from the cismontane chaparral found on the coastal side of the mountains, which experiences higher winter rainfall. Naturally, desert chaparral experiences less winter rainfall than cismontane chaparral. Plants in this community are characterized by small, hard ( sclerophyllic ) evergreen (non- deciduous ) leaves. Desert chaparral grows above California's desert cactus scrub plant community and below

1885-548: The Palearctic flora region include the holm oak ( Quercus ilex ), myrtle ( Myrtus communis ), strawberry tree ( Arbutus unedo ), wild olive ( Olea europaea ), laurel ( Laurus nobilis ), mock privet ( Phillyrea latifolia ), the Italian buckthorn ( Rhamnus alaternus ), etc. The sclerophyll regions are located in the outer subtropics bordering the temperate zone (also known as the warm-temperate zone). Accordingly,

1950-528: The desert shrubland habitat and chaparral plant community growing in the rainshadow of these ranges. Transmontane chaparral features xeric desert climate, not Mediterranean climate habitats, and is also referred to as desert chaparral . Desert chaparral is a regional ecosystem subset of the deserts and xeric shrublands biome , with some plant species from the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion . Unlike cismontane chaparral, which forms dense, impenetrable stands of plants, desert chaparral

2015-557: The pinyon-juniper woodland . It is further distinguished from the deciduous sub-alpine scrub above the pinyon-juniper woodlands on the same side of the Peninsular ranges. Due to the lower annual rainfall (resulting in slower plant growth rates) when compared to cismontane chaparral, desert chaparral is more vulnerable to biodiversity loss and the invasion of non-native weeds and grasses if disturbed by human activity and frequent fire. Transmontane (desert) chaparral typically grows on

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2080-494: The California Academy of Sciences, Mediterranean shrubland contains more than 20 percent of the world's plant diversity. The word chaparral is a loanword from Spanish chaparro , meaning place of the scrub oak , which itself comes from a Basque word, txapar , that has the same meaning. Conservation International and other conservation organizations consider chaparral to be a biodiversity hotspot –

2145-455: The Mediterranean area since the Neolithic , which permanently changed the face of the landscape. In the sclerophyll regions near the coast, permanent crops such as olive and wine cultivation established themselves; However, the landscape forms that characterize the degenerate shrubbery and shrub heaths Macchie and Garigue are predominantly a result of grazing (especially with goats). In

2210-600: The Mediterranean climate of other chaparral formations. Chaparral comprises 9% of California's wildland vegetation and contains 20% of its plant species. See US Forest Service map and details of distribution and occurrence The name comes from the Spanish word chaparro , which translates to "place of the scrub oak ". In its natural state, chaparral is characterized by infrequent fires, with natural fire return intervals ranging between 30 years and over 150 years. Mature chaparral (at least 60 years since time of last fire)

2275-673: The Rio Negro basins of northern South America on quartz sand, in the kerangas forests of Borneo and on the Malay Peninsula, in coastal sandy areas along the Gulf of Guinea in Gabon, Cameroon, and Côte d'Ivoire, and in eastern Australia. Since water drains rapidly through these soils, sclerophylly also protects plants against drought stress during dry periods. Sclerophylly's advantages in nutrient-poor conditions may be another factor in

2340-425: The annual average temperatures are relatively high at 12–24 °C (54–75 °F); An average of over 18 °C (64 °F) is reached for at least four months, eight to twelve months it is over 10 °C (50 °F) and no month is below 5 °C (41 °F) on average. Frost and snow occur only occasionally and the growing season lasts longer than 150 days and is in the winter half-year. The lower limit of

2405-418: The chaparral biota native to California, all of which tend to regrow quickly after fires, include: The complex ecology of chaparral habitats supports a very large number of animal species. The following is a short list of birds which are an integral part of the cismontane chaparral ecosystems. Transmontane chaparral or desert chaparral — transmontane ("the other side of the mountain") chaparral —refers to

2470-399: The chemicals from smoke or charred wood). During the time shortly after a fire, chaparral communities may contain soft-leaved herbaceous, fire following annual wildflowers and short-lived perennials that dominate the community for the first few years – until the burl resprouts and seedlings of chaparral shrub species create a mature, dense overstory. Seeds of annuals and shrubs lie dormant until

2535-424: The coastal plain to promote plant species for textiles and food. Before a major fire, typical chaparral plant communities are dominated by manzanita , chamise Adenostoma fasciculatum and Ceanothus species, toyon (which can sometimes be interspersed with scrub oaks ), and other drought-resistant shrubs with hard ( sclerophyllous ) leaves; these plants resprout (see resprouter ) from underground burls after

2600-400: The coniferous Sierra Nevada forests , Northern California coastal forests , and Klamath-Siskiyou forests of northern California and southwestern Oregon , share many plant and animal affinities with the California chaparral and woodlands. Many botanists consider the California chaparral and woodlands, Sierra Nevada forests, Klamath-Siskiyou forests, and Northern California coastal forests as

2665-492: The course of the last millennia, the original vegetation in almost all areas of this vegetation zone has been greatly changed by the influence of humans. Where the plants have not been replaced by vineyards and olive groves , the maquis was the predominant form of vegetation on the Mediterranean. The maquis has been degraded in many places to the low shrub heather, the garigue . Many plant species that are rich in aromatic oils belong to both vegetation societies. The diversity of

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2730-425: The dominant overstorey acacia species and a majority of the understorey acacias have a scleromorphic adaptation in which the leaves have been reduced to phyllodes consisting entirely of the petiole . Many plants of the sclerophyllous woodlands and shrublands also produce leaves unpalatable to herbivores by the inclusion of toxic and indigestible compounds which assure survival of these long-lived leaves. This trait

2795-815: The equator than the Mediterranean zone—for example, the interior of Madagascar , the dry half of New Caledonia , the lower edge areas of the Madrean pine-oak woodlands of the Mexican highlands between 800 and 1800/2000 m or around 2000 m high plateaus of the Asir Mountains on the western edge of the Arabian Peninsula . While the winter rain areas of America, South Africa and Australia , with an unusually large variety of food crops , were ideal gathering areas for hunter gatherers until European colonization , agriculture and cattle breeding spread in

2860-670: The first rains following a fire, the landscape is dominated by small flowering herbaceous plants, known as fire followers, which die back with the summer dry period. Similar plant communities are found in the four other Mediterranean climate regions around the world, including the Mediterranean Basin (where it is known as maquis ), central Chile (where it is called matorral ), the South African Cape Region (known there as fynbos ), and in Western and Southern Australia (as kwongan ). According to

2925-480: The highly developed sclerenchyma from the plant, which is responsible for the hardness or stiffness of the leaves. This structure of the leaves inhibits transpiration and thus prevents major water losses during the dry season. Most of the plant species in the sclerophyll zone are not only insensitive to summer drought, they have also used various strategies to adapt to frequent wildfires , heavy rainfall and nutrient deficiencies. The type of sclerophyllic trees in

2990-446: The indicator plants of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion include: Chaparral soils and nutrient composition Chaparral characteristically is found in areas with steep topography and shallow stony soils, while adjacent areas with clay soils, even where steep, tend to be colonized by annual plants and grasses. Some chaparral species are adapted to nutrient-poor soils developed over serpentine and other ultramafic rock, with

3055-628: The interior of the deserts, such as in the upper New York Mountains within the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert. The California transmontane (desert) chaparral is found in the rain shadow deserts of the following: There is overlap of animals with those of the adjacent desert and pinyon-juniper communities. Chaparral is a coastal biome with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The chaparral area receives about 38–100 cm (15–39 in) of precipitation

3120-431: The loss of obligate seeding shrub species such as Manzanita spp. This high frequency disallows seeder plants to reach their reproductive size before the next fire and the community shifts to a sprouter-dominance. If high frequency fires continue over time, obligate resprouting shrub species can also be eliminated by exhausting their energy reserves below-ground. Today, frequent accidental ignitions can convert chaparral from

3185-585: The lower (3,500–4,500 feet (1,100–1,400 m) elevation) northern slopes of the southern Transverse Ranges (running east to west in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties) and on the lower (2,500–3,500 feet (760–1,070 m)) eastern slopes of the Peninsular Ranges (running south to north from lower Baja California to Riverside and Orange counties and the Transverse Ranges). It can also be found in higher-elevation sky islands in

3250-536: The moderate annual precipitation is 300 mm (12 in) ( semi-arid climate ) and the upper limit 900–1,000 mm (35–39 in). Generally, the summers are dry and hot with a dry season of a maximum of seven months, but at least two to three months. The winters are rainy and cool. However, not all regions with sclerophyll vegetation feature the classic Mediterranean climate ; parts of eastern Italy, eastern Australia and eastern South Africa, which feature sclerophyll woodlands, tend to have uniform rainfall or even

3315-548: The next fire creates the conditions needed for germination. Several shrub species such as Ceanothus fix nitrogen, increasing the availability of nitrogen compounds in the soil. Because of the hot, dry conditions that exist in the California summer and fall, chaparral is one of the most fire-prone plant communities in North America. Some fires are caused by lightning, but these are usually during periods of high humidity and low winds and are easily controlled. Nearly all of

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3380-532: The observation that fire suppression and other human-caused disturbances in dry, ponderosa pine forests in the Southwest of the United States has unnaturally increased forest density. Historically, mixed-severity fires likely burned through these forests every decade or so, burning understory plants, small trees, and downed logs at low-severity, and patches of trees at high-severity. However, chaparral has

3445-718: The original sclerophyll vegetation in the world is high to extremely high (3000–5000 species per ha). Most areas of the Australian continent able to support woody plants are occupied by sclerophyll communities as forests , savannas , or heathlands . Common plants include the Proteaceae ( grevilleas , banksias and hakeas ), tea-trees , acacias , boronias , and eucalypts . The most common sclerophyll communities in Australia are savannas dominated by grasses with an overstorey of eucalypts and acacias. Acacia (particularly mulga ) shrublands also cover extensive areas. All

3510-603: The potential natural vegetation, around 2% of the Earth's land surface is covered by sclerophyll woodlands, and a total of 10% of all plant species on Earth live there. Sclerophyll woody plants are characterized by their relatively small, stiff, leathery and long-lasting leaves. The sclerophyll vegetation is the result of an adaptation of the flora to the summer dry period of a Mediterranean-type climate . Plant species with this type of adaptation tend to be evergreen with great longevity, slow growth and with no loss of leaves during

3575-402: The prevalence of sclerophyllous plants in nutrient-poor areas in drier-climate regions, like much of Australia and the Cerrado of Brazil. The zone of the sclerophyll vegetation lies in the border area between the subtropics and the temperate zone , approximately between the 30th and 40th degree of latitude (in the northern hemisphere also up to the 45th degree of latitude). Their presence

3640-475: The system is typically replaced by non-native, invasive, weedy grassland. The idea that older chaparral is responsible for causing large fires was originally proposed in the 1980s by comparing wildfires in Baja California and southern California. It was suggested that fire suppression activities in southern California allowed more fuel to accumulate, which in turn led to larger fires. This is similar to

3705-520: The tall coast redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens ). The flora of this ecoregion also includes tree species such as gray or foothill pine ( Pinus sabiniana ), scrub oak ( Quercus dumosa ), California buckeye ( Aesculus californica ), the rare Gowen cypress ( Cupressus goveniana) , the rare Monterey cypress ( Cupressus macrocarpa ), and a wealth of endemic plant species, including the extremely rare San Gabriel Mountain liveforever ( Dudleya densiflora ), Catalina mahogany ( Cercocarpus traskiae ), and

3770-516: The threatened most beautiful jewel-flower ( Streptanthus albidus ssp. Peramoenus ). Hesperoyucca whipplei , colloquially known as Chaparral Yucca, is commonplace throughout the lower elevations of the climate zone. There are two types of chaparral: soft and hard chaparral. Hard chaparral is usually evergreen , located at higher elevation and is harder to walk through. Soft chaparral tends to be drought deciduous , live at lower elevations and tends to be easier to walk through. Species include

3835-531: The time of European settlement, sclerophyll forest accounted for the vast bulk of the forested areas. Most of the wooded parts of present-day Australia have become sclerophyll dominated as a result of the extreme age of the continent combined with Aboriginal fire use. Deep weathering of the crust over many millions of years leached chemicals out of the rock, leaving Australian soils deficient in nutrients, particularly phosphorus . Such nutrient deficient soils support non-sclerophyllous plant communities elsewhere in

3900-488: The unfavorable season. As a result, the thickets that make up these ecosystems are of the persistent evergreen type, in addition to the predominance of plants, even herbaceous ones, with "hard" leaves, which are covered by a thick leathery layer called the cuticle , that prevents water loss during the dry season. The aerial and underground structures of these plants are modified to make up for water shortages that may affect their survival. The name sclerophyll derives from

3965-425: The very large wildfires are caused by human activity during periods of hot, dry easterly Santa Ana winds . These human-caused fires are commonly ignited by power line failures, vehicle fires and collisions, sparks from machinery, arson, or campfires. Though adapted to infrequent fires, chaparral plant communities can be eliminated by frequent fires. A high frequency of fire (less than 10-15 years apart) will result in

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4030-763: The west coast of North America . It is an ecoregion of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome , and part of the Nearctic realm . The California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion is subdivided into three smaller ecoregions. Most of the population of California and Baja California lives in these ecoregions, which includes the San Francisco Bay Area , Ventura County , the Greater Los Angeles Area , San Diego County , Tijuana , and Ensenada, Baja California . The California Central Valley grasslands ecoregion, as well as

4095-747: The western (and coastal) sides of large mountain range systems, such as the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in the San Joaquin Valley foothills, western slopes of the Peninsular Ranges and California Coast Ranges , and south-southwest slopes of the Transverse Ranges in the Central Coast and Southern California regions. In Central and Southern California chaparral forms a dominant habitat. Members of

4160-553: The woody plants of these woodlands have developed adaptations to survive and minimise the effects of fire. Sclerophyllous plants generally resist dry conditions well, making them successful in areas of seasonally variable rainfall. In Australia, however, they evolved in response to the low level of phosphorus in the soil—indeed, many native Australian plants cannot tolerate higher levels of phosphorus and will die if fertilised incorrectly. The leaves are hard due to lignin , which prevents wilting and allows plants to grow, even when there

4225-449: The world and did so over most of Australia prior to European arrival. However such deficient soils cannot support the nutrient losses associated with frequent fires and are rapidly replaced with sclerophyllous species under traditional Aboriginal burning regimens. With the cessation of traditional burning non-sclerophyllous species have re-colonized sclerophyll habitat in many parts of Australia. The presence of toxic compounds combined with

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