’s Diverse Part 1

GEO 351 Dr.Garver CA Flora and Fauna Diversity • Topography • Climates • Latitudinal range • Coastline • Human interaction - modified landscape in past few centuries Topography

Topography & Climate Principal Principal Biomes

Biome - a regional characterized by distinct types of vegetation, animals, and microbes that have developed under specific soil and climatic conditions. Principal Biomes • Biomes - biogeographical units containing – Physical environments • climate • soils • landforms • water – 5 biomes in CA • Flora and fauna 5 Biomes

• Coniferous Forests

• Woodlands

• Grasslands & Marshlands

• Scrublands

• and Coastal

Floristic Provinces

Floristic Provinces

Floristic Provinces

• geographic area with uniform

composition of plant species.

 boundaries with adjacent provinces are

soft, transitional areas where many

species from both regions overlap.

N. America – 13 floristic provinces – 4 in California: Californian, Vancouverian, Sonoran and Great Basin.

CALIFORNIAN- Defined by its . Smallest in N. America, but greatest diversity of plants north of . Characteristic vegetation as chaparral/, oak woodland and grassland. These plants exhibit classic adaptations to California's hot dry summers and cool wet winters.

VANCOUVERIAN - encompasses state's major forests and includes mixed evergreen and coniferous forests of pines and coast and sierran redwoods - transitional between Mediterranean climate vegetation and the temperate coniferous rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.

SONORAN - characterized by giant cacti and desert scrubFloristic of the American Provinces Southwest continuedand Mexico. At the edge of this province, California's desert vegetation is defined by joshua tree woodland, fan palm oasis and creosote bush scrub. GREAT BASIN - dominated by sagebrush scrub vegetation - the "sagebrush ocean." The majority of this high-elevation semi-desert lies to the east of California in the of the Cascade and mountain ranges. Climate & Precipitation Maps Principal Biomes

Coniferous Forest

• Areas nearly or completely covered with needle leaved, cone bearing trees

• 1/5 of CA

• Found where orographic P is heaviest

• ~2,000 ft and above Coniferous Forest

• West flanks of N Coast Ranges

• Klamaths

• Cascades

• Sierras

• Redwoods, firs, pines Coniferous Forest Coniferous Forest Photos Coniferous Forest Photos Coast redwoods - tallest living things - found in the fog belt of coastal California, from to southern .

Coast Redwood Coast Redwood Map Bristlecone Pine Bristlecone Pine - White Mts. East of Owens Valley. World’s longest living trees, up to 4,600 years. Douglas Fir - most heavily used for timber

Douglas Fir Sequoias

Giant Sequoia Alpine Lakes Hike - Sequoia Eastern Sierras Canadian Geese Snake Bear More Eastern Sierra photos More eastern Sierra photos Summer snowpack in the Sierras

Flowering plants (10,000’)

More flowers

Summer snowpack in the Sierras

Summer snowpack - Sierras

Snowmelt

Snowmelt into a stream

Sierra Nevada • Vertical zonation:

– Precipitation

– Vegetation

• Result of orographic precip.

• Mean annual precip. increases with elevation through yellow pine and red fir belts

Vertical Zonation Principal Biomes

Biome & Climate Maps Oak Woodlands • and grasses most common

• Also, Pines

• Transistion zone between well watered forests of higher elevation and drier grasslands/shrublands of lower lying areas Oak Woodlands

• Foothills of Cascades and Sierras

• Stream courses of Central Valley

• Central and Southern Coast Ranges

• Inner coastal valleys of S. California

Oak Savanna

Oak Savanna Valley Oaks Canyon Live Oak Coast Live Oak Blue Oak Grasslands and Marshlands

• Central Valley • Natural landscape is gone - Ranching/farming • Perennial bunchgrasses - Tree lined waterways • Marshy river deltas

Photos of central valley agriculture Sac. R.

Vernal pool

Photos of central valley

Tule Elk State Reserve Vernal Pools

• Seasonally flooded depressions

• Found on soils with an impermeable layer

– hardpan, claypan, or volcanic basalt.

• Impermeable layer allows pools to retain water longer then surrounding areas

• Pools are shallow enough to dry up each season. Vernal Pools

• Only plants and animals adapted to this cycle of wet/dry can survive.

– Specialized plants and animals

– winter rains - plants sprout underwater

– special floating leaves and air-filled stems to stay afloat.

• Flowering plants produce brightly-colored concentric rings of flowers Vernal pool photos Sauntering in any direction, my feet would brush about a hundred flowers with every step... as if I were wading in liquid gold. -- John Muir describing the Central Valley of California in the spring of 1868

John Muir quote