Ecology is all about how all things around us interact and affect each other, from rocks to plants to animals. Here is a place rich with different ecological interactions. How many can you see?
Millions of years ago, most of California was under the ocean. Then the Pacific plate collided with the North American plate and was forced beneath it...
Rock from the bottom of the sea was scraped up into a jumbled pile: from shale and sandstone that had formed from layers of sediments settling slowly over time, to deep oceanic crust which became serpentine.
Pressure along the San Andreas fault slowly pushed the chaotic mix of rocks above the ocean surface, creating the Coast Range we see today...
rocks that weathered to different soils where different plants can grow...
on mountains high and dry, and in valleys where rivers flow.
Soils formed from serpentine are challenging to plant life: low in nutrients and high in metals. Few plants are able to grow there. You can see serpentine barrens from here as gray, treeless patches on the mountains. But all around them, sedimentary soils support dense stands of pine, oak woodland and chaparral.
Water plays another vital role in the ecosystem, with a dramatic effect on both plants and animals. Willows and cottonwoods grow close to the river bank. Grassy oak woodland thrives in the moist valley bottoms, giving way to chaparral on dry, well-drained hillsides.
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