Mediterranean 4/25/06 Life Ecology & Fire Lecture 22 Ways of Life o Island in the Land Isolation = unique species 6000 endemics (natives) o 5000 plants o 1000 animals California as many distinctive species o Mediterranean Heartland Adaptation o dry summers Drought & Fire Common Strategies o Deep Roots o Oily Leaves & stems Very small stomata o Low Stature o Winter growth Grow when there is rain o Fire-response Mediterranean Communities o Coastal Scrub (sage) Mostly in Bay Area and LA Basin o Chaparral Heavy brush Covers most of the coast range o Monkey Flower a typical orange flower o Manzanitas Oily and tough Southern Chaparrals and Sierra Chaparrals o Grasslands Grasslands ring the central valley Valley Oak-grass savanna Grassland now has been altered by invasive species Replace beautiful annual wildflowers o California Poppy and Lupine Poppies are poisonous to Cattle o Oak Woodlands Oak grows in a little wetter landscape than the chapparral Oak is really tough Sierra foothill oak Mixes with pine Surroundings o Forest Redwood-Douglas Fir North Coast Redwoods and Douglas Fir grows really fast Redwoods creates a very sterile ground Coastal Pine Monterey pine forest (Del Monte woods) Mountain Pine-Fir Klamath mountains Cascades Sierra Pine Ponderosa Jeffrey o Basically Ponderosa on the east side of the Sierras Sugar Pine Lodgepole Pine
Sierra Fir Douglas Fir o Lower elevations o Not a real fir White Fir Red Fir o High elevations
Alpine Subalpine Trees Yosemite Very Slow Growing But very tough Alpine Meadows o Desert Desert Scrub Intermittent Grass and shrubs Desert Woodland Pinon and Junipers Alkali Lakebed Very harsh landscape o A lot of mineral and salt deposits Desert Canyons Joshua trees & cactus Yucca, classic Sonoran Desert Plant o Aquatic Tidepools Coastal & Bay Marshes Bay Area Estuaries and wetlands Clapper rail, pickleweed, harvest mouse Have to deal with salt water Riverine (riparian) Cottonwood, willows, water-loving trees Sierra meadows Forests tend to conquer these meadows really fast Desert Lakes and Pools Alkali Lakes o Mono Lake Brine Shrimp o North vs. South Northern coast Wet forests Up to 100 inches of rain a year Southern Coast Dry Forests Rockier Northern Chaparral Lusher and thicker Southern Chaparral Drier and browner Sacramento Valley Much wetter, wetlands San Joaquin Valleys Dry shrubbery Great Basin Cooler high elevation Mojave Desert Cactus and Hot Northern Mountains Wetter, denser Southern Mountains Going higher is like going north Spottier and Drier Changes the in Land o Remnants
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Stranded Ecologies Climate Change Uplift Specialized niches Poor Reproduction o Redwoods and giant sequoias High San Bernardino Mountains has a lot of endemic plants Uplift brings desert plants up in elevation and causes adaptive changes\ Bristlecone Not many left Vernal Pools UC Merced was going to be built over a number of them o Invasives Introduced by intention Humans bring over Introduced by accident Seeds on the hoofs of cattle Bay Area is tremendously altered o Brought in by the ballasts of ships Often very prolific, no natural enemies Native grasslands in California is mostly gone Eucalyptus UC Berkeley grove is the oldest and tallest in North America o Grown in the 1800s Grown because it was thought it would produce good wood o Very Fast growing Pampas Grass from Argentina French Broom Oxalis Snails for gourmet Phytophthora Ramorum Sudden Oak Death o Brought in by Chinese Rhododendrons Affects Redwoods too o Kills sprouts o Urbanites Gardens Canary Palm Deer loves rose gardens Urban Forests Prone to fires When the Sky Burns o Normal Fire Fire is a natural event Around the world Especially in Mediterranean Climates Especially in the Fall Earth is full of oxygen and carbon, the two elements for fire Chaparral Fire Oily Shrubs burn really fast o Regenerate really fast First comes in the wild flowers and grasses Then comes in the shrubs again Forest Fires Don't burn that often Sequoias need fire frequently to kill off little shrubbery that if gets to big can make fires to hot for the sequoias to handle o Some pine cones only open after a fire The fire makes the ground very fertile Grass Fires Desert Fires Wet years produce a lot of combustibles for the dry summer
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Santa Ana Winds (Diablo Winds) Pacific High parks itself onshore so the winds come out of the desert from east to west Warm winds Can drop humidity significantly o Fire Danger Sky Rockets Unnatural Fire When is fire unnatural? When it threatens cities and homes When we create an urban forest 1923, North Berkeley 800 homes destroyed o Santa Ana Winds 1991, North Oakland 2200 homes destroyed East to West Winds o Ashes fell on San Francisco Cyclonic winds generated by the fire itself blew the fire over the 10 lane highway 24 Stopped by the shift in wind direction 2003, So Cal Chaparral Oils saturate into the ground and make it impervious to waters o Resulting in Landslides Fire Suppression Is costly Creates Bigger Fires o Fuel Build-up Encourages Development Aircraft Suppression The case for letting Malibu Burn Let It Burn