1. Introduction about chaparral (brief introduction)
a. atmosphere of the chaparral
b. maps of the chaparral area
c. distinguishing features of the community
2. Abiotic and biotic factors
a. elevation and latitude precipitation
3. Location (worldwide and california)
a. type of weather (throughout the year)
i.
typical temperature throughout the 4 major seasons ii. rainfall iii. how the current drought is affecting the chaparral
4. California chaparral
a. what makes california chaparral different than the rest in the world
b. Different types of Chaparrals in California:
i.
Red Shanks ii. Ceanothus iii. Chamise iv. Manzanita
v. Scrub Oak vi. Montane
5. Vegetation
a. animals found in the chaparral area …show more content…
i.
Most chaparral animals are nocturnal escape the heat during the day and come out at night to feed ii. squirrels, jack rabbits, gophers, skunks, toads, lizards, snakes, and mice iii. Yearround Residents (Birds):
1. Wrentit
2. WesternScrub Jay
3. California Towhee
b. typical plants found worldwide and california
c. describe the growth forms of the dominant plants in the community, and specific adaptations, if appropriate to the community.
i.
Hot and dry during the summer and rainy during the winter (30100 F) ii. chaparral plants have hard, thin, needlelike leaves to reduce water loss iii. plants then grow in the ashes after the area has been burned
6. Conservation Biology
a. Biodiversity
b. Environmental issues
i.
Effects of Fire on the Soil Resource ii. Climate Change
c. Human interaction with chaparral
i.
Humans are building more industries and factories in Chaparral Biome ii. Fuel Treatments iii. Misunderstandings about the shrublands due to flammability
d. Are there problems with nonnative “weeds” or other exotics?
e. Is this plant community protected?
i.
California Chaparral Institute promoting science in wildland fire policy, and help public and government agencies understand the Chaparrals
f. How? Does it need protection? Sources:
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/chaparral.htm
http://www.californiachaparral.com/chaparralfacts.html
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_rm/rm_gtr191/rm_gtr191_065_077.pdf
http://www.biosbcc.net/b100plant/
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/california_chaparral_woodlands.cfm
http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/Biology/eco/fire99/chaparralecologyweb.html
Chaparral Area in California by County (in acres)*
San Diego
Los Angeles
Riverside
Santa Barbara
San Luis Obispo
Monterey
Ventura
San Bernardino
San Benito
Santa Clara
Orange
Marin
San Mateo
Santa Cruz
1,003,441
553,789
499,160
440,645
417,718
369,345
326,447
276,010
246,623
188,427
111,550
37,566
36,152
32,328
*From Fried, J.S., C.L. Bosinger, and D. Beardsley. 2004. Chaparral in Southern and Central Coastal
California in the Mid-1990's: Area, Ownership, Condition, and Change. USFS Resource Bulletin
PNW-RB-240.
Map from Keeley, J.E. and F.W. Davis. 2007. Chaparral. In M.G. Barbour
(ed), Terrestrial vegetation of California. University of California Press,
Los Angeles. Addendum: there's a small patch of chaparral in the southwest corner of Imperial County missing from the map.
6502192871 Jose
I like turtles
Jose
me too! lol
Amanda
young nigga came thru on his wutang
miguel
amanda.cabaluna@gmail.com if you guys have any questions or anything, just text me :)
(650)2196129
Include information about the present status of your plant community. The Chaparral, or Mediterranean climate type, is presently one of Northern America’s most critical and endangered plant communities. In the world, there exists only five
Mediterranean shrublands with the California coastal sage being one of them. The chaparral of
Northern America covers approximately 47,000 square miles and the chaparral biome, as a whole, constitutes for about 20% of the world’s plant species. Is it threatened due to human impact? Human impact is probably the foremost cause for the degradation of the California coastal sage. The chaparral biome is distinctive for its mediterranean climates. This climate has become a highly desirable habitat for humans due to its paradiselike weather, which in turn has perpetrated a massive amount of urban development. Because stigma is generally associated with the flammability of chaparral, gaps for the chaparral’s natural fire regime have been drastically shortened to an excruciatingly irreparable point. This in turn causes a domino effect that allows other invasive weeds or grasses to take dominion over the chaparral’s natural habitat. Are there problems with nonnative “weeds” or other exotics? The chaparral biome suffers from a number of threats that affect the communities’ proliferation. These threats include the intrusion of exotic species novel to the biome, cattle overgrazing the land, and artificially induced imbalances to the chaparral’s natural fire frequency. In particular, the imbalance of fire frequency has been due primarily from human involvement. Explain the human impacts and name the weeds (or mention the lack of weeds). Frustratingly, scientists and environmentalists who understand the impact of the healthy biodiversity the chaparral provides to the land have had little success in transferring their message to others. As a result of the ubiquitous stigma surrounding the chaparral’s “threatening” flammability, humans have caused irrevocable damage to one of California’s most symbolic biomes. Fires have been set ablaze to chaparrals at a severely detrimental rate, causing the invasive proliferation of the unnatural habitation of certain weeds, or grasses, such as the Bromus tectorum. This annual alien grass has become so widespread, the native shrub species are unable to return. Is this plant community protected? How? There are efforts being put forth to try and protect chaparral by the four Southern
California National Forests which propose a “California Chaparral Preservation Plan” which, essentially, will aim to employ various policies that enact a more feasible and sustainable means to managing resources and fires.
Does it need protection? Yes, very much so, yes.
Adaptations: (Amanda’s Part)
The chaparral community has been shaped by and adapted to summer droughts, mildly wet winters and fires. In order to survive these types of environments, chaparral plants have specific adaptations: ● Thick, leathery leaves with a waxy coating which prevent evaporation of water
● Some plants cannot grow from a seed without fire breaking the thick outer coat layer such as the plant, Ceanothus
● Chaparral plants spread and grow rapidly which contributes to the quick recovery of the plants after a fire
● Some plants like the Chamise, have their leaves in the vertical position in order to avoid direct sunlight
● Some bark on the chaparral plants are flame resistant which protect them from fires
● Some chaparral plants produce chemicals that void off other plants from invading their soil. This process is called allelopathy in which the chemical from the dropped leaves seep through the soil to prevent other plants from taking the moisture in the soil. This is common in the bush poppy plant. Miguel Emailed me his part:
Plants Native To The Chaparral of California
● Arctostaphylos .sp Manzanita
Small, shrubby trees that are endemic to the California
chaparral.
Some species have become endangered due to expanding cities in the area
● Ceanothus .sp California Lilac
Small trees that grow in the higher elevations of the chaparral
Their roots contain nitrogen fixing bacteria that help maintain the chaparral fertile
●
Quercus berberidifolia -Scrub Oak
A small species of oak tree that covers 15% of the entire
California chaparral. The scrub oak is called chaparro in spanish which is where the name chaparral originates from.
● Adenostoma fasciculatum Chamise
A thick bush that covers most of the chaparral and is also the most vulnerable to wildfires due to the plant’s high oil content.
● Toxicodendron Diversilobum Western Poison Oak
A woody plant that is notorious for causing skin rashes due to an oil it secretes to ward off herbivores.
● Artemisia californica California Sagebrush
A large bushy plant commonly found in the coastal chaparral regions.
It is commonly used as shelter by many small animals in the chaparral.
● Yucca whipplei Chaparral Yucca
Commonly found in the coastal chaparral and is adapted to heavy droughts due to its thick stem. It is also one of the few monocots that are found in the chaparral
wuddup dudes i was thinking that for the speech outline, we should just focus on our respective sections and create enough material to talk for about 2 minutes… then just combine it all once were done. so for all my stuff, i’ll put my text in a nice sky blue. (:7 yo nigz, i was thinking we should take a look at this link *http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150857/ they have a decent amount of information regarding the biodiversity and conservation plans
damn, AMANDA! you have to fix the poster or somethin cus on it, under my first paragraph i say the chaparral is also known as the california coastal sage, which isnt true lol the CA coastal sage is a smaller ecoregion that is in the chaparral biome…..i failed! lol okay i fixed it i fixed it on the poster! :)
Chaparral Speech Outline ● Chaparral comes from the spanish word “chaparro,” which means low growing vegetation.
● Chaparral (located in Chile, South Africa, Western Australia and Coastal Side of California through the northern portion of the Baja California of Mexico.
● Chaparral is a mediterranean climate type (wet winter and dry summers)
● Winter months; temperature gets low as 30*F.
● Summers months gets up to 100*F.
● The average temperature throughout the year is 64*F.
● Average rainfall is about 10 to 17 inches per year
● Some of the abiotic factors are:
● Mountains
● Elevation: 500 to 4,500 ft
● Periodic Fires: 30 to 100 years.
● Little or no rainfall
● Rocks
● Poor Soils (Nutrient)
● Cloudy (maritime)
● Hot to dry summers
● Coolmoist winters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Joseph’s Material~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ➔ Presently, chaparral is critically endangered.
◆ especially so for California coastal sage
◆ due to value of real estate within mediterranean climate
◆ with urban development, chaparral is being eradicated ➔ Human impact is the foremost reason for the mastication of chaparral.
◆ stigma has been associated with the flammability of the shrubland
◆ unnatural fires occurring cause irreparable damage to chaparral
◆ because the fires are happening too frequently, invasive weeds take place
◆ these weeds are even more flammable than the native chaparral. ➔ There are various policies and organisations that aim to help preserve the biodiversity of the chaparral biome.
◆ The California Department of Fish and Game along with other organisations are working to restore regions of the Carrizo Plains
◆ Four Southern California National Forests aim to implement a “California Chaparral
Preservation Plan”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
➔ Because of droughts, mildly wet winters and fires, chaparral plants have specific adaptations: ◆ thick, leathery leaves: prevents evaporation of water
◆ some seeds are so thick, heat needs to break the seed open
◆ they grow and spread rapidly: contributes to quick recovery after a fire or a plant dies
◆ Leaves a positioned vertically: avoid direct sunlight
◆ Some barks are flame resistant
◆ produce chemicals in the soil from fallen leaves: prevents other plants from taking the moisture in the soil
➔ There are many different growth forms in the chaparral community:
◆ The most dominant growth forms are shrubs such as the chamise which is one of the most dominant species in the chaparral community
◆ talk about the different plant types in chaparral ____________________________________________________________________
➔ Montane Chaparral Native Species ◆ Chamise is a bushy and dense evergreen plant that has a high flammable oil content in its leaves.
◆ due to the dense population of Chamise plants, which are also known as
Greaseweed, the montane chaparral of California is the most vulnerable to wildfires. ◆ The Scrub Oak is the most common tree found in the chaparral and was named chaparro by spanish explorers in california which is where the name chaparral comes from.
◆ The Manzanita shrubs provide food for the small animals of the chaparrals ecosystem and provide a means for the plant to disperse its seeds.
◆ Some species of Manzanita have become endangered in the chaparrals near the bay area due to human construction projects.
◆ Ceanothus is a large shrub that grow in the higher elevations of the montane chaparral. Their roots contain nitrogen fixing bacteria which help maintain fertile levels of nitrogen in the soil.
◆ Western Poison Oak is a woody shrub that is known for casusing irritating skin rashes due to a toxic oil it secretes. However, the oil only causes allergic reactions for humans as the plant is commonly foraged by deer and other herbivores of the montane chaparral.
➔ Coastal Chaparral Native Species
◆ The coastal chaparral has almost no trees and most of the plants are bushlike or herbaceous. ◆ The most common species is the California Sagebrush which is commonly used for nesting by most bird species found in the coastal chaparral regions.
◆ The Chaparral Yucca is found only in the southernmost areas of the coastal chaparral near the border of mexico.
◆ The Chaparral Yucca is one of the very few monocots that grow in the chaparral region. It is also one of the most drought tolerant plants found in the
region.