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The desert region of California is characterized by low rainfall, caused by the rain shadow of mountain ranges to the west of the desert region. The Mojave Desert receives from 3 to 10 inches (76 to 254 mm) of rain per year, while the Colorado Desert receives from 2 to 6 inches (51 to 152 mm). [ 10] The driest spot in California is Death Valley ...
Aridisols (or desert soils) are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy. [1] Aridisols (from the Latin aridus, for "dry", and solum) form in an arid or semi-arid climate. Aridisols dominate the deserts and xeric shrublands, which occupy about one third of the Earth's land surface. Aridisols have a very low concentration of organic matter, reflecting ...
The low desert of southeastern California is part of the Sonoran desert ecoregion, which extends into Arizona and parts of northern Mexico. [ 2] California has two high deserts: the Mojave desert and the Great Basin Desert. The Mojave desert ecoregion is marked by the presence of Joshua trees. [ 3] The dry cold Great Basin desert of California ...
Caliche fossil forest on San Miguel Island, California. Caliche (/ k ə ˈ l iː tʃ iː /) - (unrelated to the street-slang "Caliche" spoken in El Salvador) - is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt.
Coccidioidomycosis (/ k ɒ k ˌ s ɪ d i ɔɪ d oʊ m aɪ ˈ k oʊ s ɪ s /, kok-SID-ee-oy-doh-my-KOH-sis), is a mammalian fungal disease caused by Coccidioides immitis or Coccidioides posadasii. [3] It is commonly known as cocci, [4] Valley fever, [4] as well as California fever, [5] desert rheumatism, [5] or San Joaquin Valley fever. [5]
The most common engineering classification system for soils in North America is the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS). The USCS has three major classification groups: (1) coarse-grained soils (e.g. sands and gravels ); (2) fine-grained soils (e.g. silts and clays ); and (3) highly organic soils (referred to as "peat").
The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is diverse and complex. The combination of climate, topography, moisture, and soils influences the distribution of ecological communities across an elevation gradient from 500 to 14,500 feet (200 to 4,400 m). Biotic zones range from scrub and chaparral ...
Chaparral in the Santa Ynez Mountains, near Santa Barbara, California. Chaparral ( / ˌʃæpəˈræl, ˌtʃæp -/ 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. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet ...