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The California coastal sage and chaparral (Spanish: Salvia y chaparral costero de California) is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion, defined by the World Wildlife Fund, located in southwestern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California . It is part of the larger California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.
Chaparral in the Santa Ynez Mountains, near Santa Barbara, California. Chaparral (/ ˌ ʃ æ p ə ˈ r æ l, ˌ tʃ æ p-/ SHAP-ə-RAL, CHAP-) [1] is a shrubland plant community found primarily in California, in southern Oregon and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico.
Chaparral and oak woodlands are the most widespread plant communities in this ecoregion. The chaparral is composed of diverse shrubs and herbs. These include chamise and several species of manzanita and ceanothus. Gray pine often emerges from the shrubs.
The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California , located on the west coast of North America.
Coastal sage scrub in the Santa Monica Mountains.Note slope effect. Coastal sage scrub on the Santa Rosa Plateau, with oak woodland in background.. 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.
The lowest-elevation biotic zone in the Sierra Nevada is found along the boundary with the Central Valley. [5] This zone, stretching in elevation from 500 to 3,500 feet (150 to 1,070 m), is the foothill woodland zone, an area that is hot and dry in the summer with very little or no snow in the winter. [5]
The montane chaparral consists of a mosaic of sage scrub, chaparral, and montane species, depending on altitude. [9] The California interior chaparral and woodlands form a ring around the Central Valley , covering the hills around the Bay Area as well as the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. [ 10 ]
Montane chaparral is threatened chiefly by development, grazing, logging, conversion to vineyards, and too-frequent wildfire. [ 5 ] This is an ongoing threat notably in Southern California , but also in its northernmost reaches in Monterey County , where population pressure is most intense.