Free Flash Slideshow by cu3ox.com v1.1

Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  Redwood Ecosystem


California's boundaries cover almost 156,000 square miles. It includes many diverse ecosystems including redwood forests, kelp forests and Death Valley's deserts. According to the California Chaparral Institute, the shrubland ecosystem is the most prevalent ecosystem in California with over 4 million acres.

An ecosystem encompasses all the living organisms and the physical features of an area. It also includes the interactions between them. An ecosystem stands apart from others because of its dominant feature, for example ocean, desert, forest or estuarine ecosystems. A habitat refers to a single population of organisms within the ecosystem.

It is important to remember that redwoods are not just trees,  they are part of complex ecosystems that depend on and support them. About 82 percent of the remaining ancient coast redwood forests is protected in parks and reserves; more than 90 percent of giant sequoia acreage is in public ownership. Much work remains to ensure that future generations can enjoy these magnificent forests.
redwood ecosystem in California is dwindling and needs full protection Three species of trees are commonly referred to as redwoods: California's coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), and China's dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). Redwoods get their common name from their bark and heartwood, the reddish-brown color of which stems from high tannin levels. Other chemicals found in the leaves, branches and bark give these trees a remarkable resistance to fungal disease and insect infestation.

Their thick bark holds large quantities of water, which protects them from periodic, naturally occurring fires. All three redwoods are descendents of a group of conifers (cone-bearing trees) that flourished more than 144 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. At that time, the Earth’s climate was warmer and more humid than it is today, so redwood species grew throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Over time and in response to an ever-changing environment, they retreated from most of their former range, and many once-abundant redwood species became extinct. Successive ice ages, including the last one that ended about 10,000 years ago, have restricted the remaining redwood species to three small, distinct regions, each supporting one of the species. Each region is the only place in the world where you will find native populations of that species.
In California, thousands of acres of ancient coast redwood forest are on private land and could still be logged for lumber or to make room for development. While mature giant sequoia trees themselves are too brittle to produce useful lumber, real-estate development near the groves threatens the ecosystem on which they depend.

The Northern California Coastal Forests are largely defined by two features, the largely persistent moist environments provided by Pacific storms in the winter and coastal fogs in the summer, and the distribution of the redwood tree.

Redwoods range from central California to the Oregon border, and are typically found within 40 miles of the coast. Redwood groves are patchily distributed among a variety of natural communities found within this coastal belt, including Douglas-fir-tanoak forests, oak woodlands, closed-cone pine forests, bogs, and coastal grasslands.
redwood forest can only be found in california nature In California, redwoods and Douglas-fir dominate many lowland areas. These ancient and spectacular conifers are among the biggest, tallest, and oldest trees in the world, often exceeding 200 feet in height, they are sometimes more than 369 feet tall in some individuals. Redwoods average 15 feet in diameter, and can be 2,200 years old. Redwood groves have the greatest biomass accumulation known for any terrestrial ecosystem. They are globally unique forests, and only a few other forests in the world have a similar assemblage and structure of ancient, giant conifers.

Redwood distribution is patchy, but they generally occur in the fog belt ranging from five to thirty-five miles wide along the coast and from 100 to 2,000 feet in elevation. Redwood dominated forests tend to occur in valley bottoms, where there is abundant fog drip, alluvial soils, and periodic floods about every thirty to sixty years. On the uplands where fire was a reoccurring disturbance, a more diverse assemblage of trees occur with redwoods, including Douglas-fir, grand fir, western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western red cedar, tanoak, bigleaf maple, California bay, and Port Orford cedar. Without periodic disturbances, some ecologists suspect that redwood groves may be eventually be replaced by western hemlock.
Redwood forests harbor a diversity of animal life including bears, fishers, pine martens, numerous warblers, and the endangered marbled murrelet which nests in mature forest canopies. A number of amphibians live here including the Pacific giant salamanders, red-bellied newts, and tailed frogs. Old-growth redwood forests contain a unique ecosystem, home to rare animals such as coho salmon, spotted owls, and marbled murrelets.

Silver salmon and steelhead trout breed in coastal rivers and streams. Also found in the redwood ecosystem  is the extraordinary bright yellow-orange banana slug, a mature forest specialist and a candidate for California’s state invertebrate. A number of other invertebrate species, including beetles, harvestman, spiders, millipedes, and freshwater mussels are specialists on habitats modified by old Redwood and other conifer forests and maintain very local distributions. Given the propensity of species in these invertebrate groups for very restricted ranges and the virtual elimination of mature forests in the redwood ecosystem, the probability that numerous species extinctions have already occurred is high.
 
 
Website Created by Website Creations

About us      Privacy Disclaimer      Advertisers     Contact Us     Bookstore    Sitemap     Search    Floridian Nature