Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California'
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VEGETATION OF THE SISKIYOU MOUNTAINS, OREGON AND CALIFORNIA' R. H. WHITTAKER Biology Department,Brooklyn College, Brooklyn10, N. Y. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ............................. 279 East-West Gradation and the Prevailing Nature of the Study .... ... ........ .... 279 Climax Type ....... ............. .. 308 Geology............... ..... .. ..... 279 V. PROBLEMS OF CLASSIFICATION ...... .... 311 The Central Relation of the Klamath Forests . 282 Formations . ...... ............. ..... .... 311 Climate .. ....................... .. 283 Dominance-Types and Sociations .. ......... 312 Culture and Disturbance ....... .......... 284 Associations . ............ .. ........ ..... 312 Literature .................................. 284 Quantitative Approaches to Continuity and Species Grouping . .. 313 285 II. PROCEDURE .................................. Distributional Groupings ... 314 Study Areas ................................. 285 Vegetation Samples and Soil Data ..... ..... 286 VI. FLORISTIC COMPARISONS ... 316 Arrangementof Samples in Transects .... 286 Life-Forms and Growth-Forms ........ .. .. 317 Evaluation of Transect Techniques . ..... 288 Species-Diversities ............ ..... ....... 319 Transect Tables ................... ....... 289 Sample Similarities and Coenocline Differentiation ................. .. .. 320 III. VEGETATION DESCRIPTION ...... ............. 291 Geographic Relations of Floras .... ....... 323 Low Elevations on Diorite . .... ......... .. 291 VII. RELATIONS OF SPECIES POPULATIONS TO THE Low Elevations on Gabbro..... ........ 297 THREE SOILS .325 on Serpentine and the Low Elevations Trees .325 Two-Phase Effect .......... .............. 299 Undergrowth Species .. 326 Forest Vegetation of Higher Elevations General Results ....... ...................... 327 on Diorite ......................... ....... 302 Rare Species and Serpentine Indicators .328 Vegetationof Higher Elevations on Serpentine . 305 VIII. CONCLUSION ..... ........................ 329 IV. CLIMAX INTERPRETATION .................. .. 306 SUMMARY .............. ............ ....... 330 Fire Effectsand Edaphic Climaxes.306 The Coenoclineand Climax Comparison.307 LITERATURE CITED . 332 I. INTRODUCTION ties to environmental gradients. Analysis and inter- pretation were based on the conception of the vege- NATURE OF THE STUDY tation as a multi-dimensionalpattern, and on study of The Klamath Region, betweenthe southernCas- the manner in which local patterns of vegetation in cade Range and the PacificOcean in southernOregon relation to topographic moisture gradients change and northernCalifornia, is an area of exceptional along climatic gradients and from one parent material ecologicalinterest. These old and geologicallycom- to another. The sections which follow include vege- plex mountainssupport an exceedinglycomplex pat- tation description, climax interpretation, community tern of natural communitiesin relationto steep cli- classification, floristic analysis, and consideration of matic gradients and diverse parent materials,and species distributions for the pattern of Siskiyou among these communitiesa prevailing climax, the forest vegetation in relation to four major environ- Mixed EvergreenForest, which has a centralrelation mental gradients-local topographic moisture, eleva- to otherwestern forest vegetation. One area of the tion, the diorite-gabbro-serpentineseries of parent region,the SiskiyouMountains along the California- materials, and the east-west climatic gradient from Oregon border,was selected for vegetationstudy. the Pacific Coast inland. Quantitativesamples were takenover a wide range of topographicsituations, climates, and parentmaterials GEOLOGY for gradientanalysis, seeking to relate distributions The dominatingtopographic features of the Pa- of plant populationsand characteristicsof communi- cific Coast states are the two chains of mountains 1 A contribution from the Department of Zoology, Washington which run parallel to the Coast from Canada to State University, and the Department of Biology, Brooklyn College. This study was supported in part by the funds for southernCalifornia, and the chain of valleysbetween biological and medical research of the State of Washington them. The higher,inner mountainchain is formed Initiative Measure No. 171. The author is indebted to M. Ownbey and A. Cronquist for determination of the plant by the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada; the collections, to D. I. Axelrod, R. W. Chaney, H. D. MacGinitie, and F. G. Wells for comments on the manuscript. lower,outer chain includesthe "Coast Ranges" in a 280 R. H. WHITTAKER Ecological Monographs Vol. 30, No. 3 1,0"EMT44,,,. IV R" 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0 A/ 1 LEGEN A AR B L o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~8l ? M~~~~~~~~~j~ ~ ~ ~ ~ iM FIG. 1. Map of Siskiyou Mountains of California and Oregoal in relatioa to other, adjaceat ranges. Major study areas on three parent materials within the Mixed Evergreen Forest Region are outlined and marked with circled letters: (D) the diorite area, (S) the serpentine area, (G) the area of gabbro and hornblende diorite. Study areas for the west-east climatic transect from the Coast ialaad are marked with circled numbers: (1) Mill Creek State Park (Sequoia forest), (2) South Fork, Smlith River (coastal Pseu- dotsuga forest), (3) Siskiyou Fork, Smith River (mixed evergreea forest, snore oslesic phase), (4) Sturgis Creek (mixed evergreen forest), (5) Beaver Creek (mlixed evergreea forest, more xeric phase), (6) Emi- grant Creek (oak woodland, with Pseudotsuga forest inl most mlesic and valley grassland in most xeric sites). broad sense. In northern California and southern major mountain groups of the central Klamath Re- Oregon a complex of mountains, the Klamath Ranges, gion; like other major ranges of the Region, they arc extends from the Coast inland to the southern Cas- a complex area of mountains rather than a well- cade Mountains and interrupts the chain of valleys defined ridge. The Siskiyous extend in an east-west between the two mountain chains. Geographically direction along and on each side of the California- the Klamath mountains are part of the coastal chain; Oregon border, north of the Klamath River and south but they differ from the Coast Ranges north and of the Rogue River. Froma the Pacific Coast they south of them in age and history, in geological char- extend inland from low mountains, with elevations acter and complexity, in height and east-west extent. less than 1000 m near the coast, through the main Their closest geological relations are not with the area of mountains of intermediate elevations, in- Coast Ranges, but with the Sierra Nevada. and the cluding some peaks above 2135 m, to the low moun- older core of the Blue Mountain complex of Oregon tains which connect with the southern Cascade Range. (Fennenian 1931). The older geological history of the Klamath The Klaniath Region, as it was outlined, described, Mountains is essentially the same as that of the Sierra and named by Diller (1894, 1902, 1903, 1906, 1914), Nevada (Diller 1894, 1903, 1906; Fenneman 1931). extends north and south for about 390 km, and west- Extensive masses of sedimentary rocks were deposited ward from the Cascade Mountains about 120 kil, to in an inland sea in Devonian and Carboniferous time; reach the Pacific Coast between 410 and 430 north and, at the close of the Paleozoic, these and other latitude, with a total area of about 34,000 km2. The rocks were folded and raised into mountains. These Siskiyou Mountains are the northernmost of the mountains were worn down, and much of the area July,1960 VEGETATION OF THE SISKIYOU MOUNTAINS, OREGON AND CALIFORNIA 281 submerged in Triassic and Jurassic time, while addi- (1949), Wells & Walker (1953), and Cater et al. tional sediments and volcanic materials were de- (1953). The Kerby and Grants Pass quadrangles posited. At the close of the Jurassic, extensive de- (Wells et al. 1949, Wells 1940) include the main formation and intr'usion occurred, accompanied by study areas in the central Siskiyous. In the Grants another uplift. A long cycle of erosion followed until, Pass quadrangle, the most extensive area is under- during the Cretaceous, the low mountains remaining lain by metavolcanic rocks of Paleozoic age; along subsided and were again largely submerged, with with these occur a number of larger and smaller out- deposit of extensive sedimentary rocks. crops of diorite, thought to represent a single great At the close of the Cretaceous the Klamath Moun- batholith of Jurassic or Cretaceous age. Of these, tains were again uplifted; and they have existed, as the larger outcrop of quartz diorite (about 120 kM2) at least low mountains, throughout the Cenozoic, with which includes Grayback Mountain served as one a complex history of uplift, subsidence, and erosion study area. Other rocks on which vegetation could (Diller 1902). Results of this history are to be seen be observed in the area included various metasedi- in wave-cut coastal terraces (Diller 1903, Fenneman mentary rocks-the marble in which the Oregon Caves 1931 :463, Dicken 1952) and peneplain remnants occur, slate, argillite, and quartzite-and serpentine. (Diller 1902) in the Siskiyou Mountains. One of In the Kerby quadrangle large areas of both serpen- these, the Klamath peneplain, is of major significance tines and gabbros occur, together with various meta- in the study area. Erosion during the early Cenozoic volcanic and metasedimentary rocks, granodiorite, reduced much