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[6] [7] 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 is often open, with only about 50 percent of the ground covered. [8]
Though adapted to infrequent fires, chaparral plant communities can be exterminated by frequent fires especially with climate change induced drought. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Today, frequent accidental ignitions can convert chaparral from a native shrubland to nonnative annual grassland and drastically reduce species diversity, especially under global ...
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.
The California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion covers 24,900 square miles (64,000 km 2) 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).
This ecoregion has two predominant ecosystems, with three primary plant communities: the California coastal sage and chaparral, with coastal sage scrub along the coast, the California montane chaparral and woodlands, with chaparral and California oak woodlands as the mountains rise and recede from the coast and descend into the interior valleys.
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.
Plants in these deserts are brush and scrub, adapted to the low rainfall. Common plant species include creosote bush, blackbrush, greasewood, saltbush, big sagebrush, low sagebrush, and shadscale. [6] Higher elevations have more precipitation, which allows drought-resistant trees to grow, such as western juniper and pinyon pine. [6]
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 ...