Natural History Journal

It doesn't take a PhD in Environmental Science to recognize that the loss of old-growth forests, such as California's iconic Coast Redwoods, is a tragedy with far-reaching consequences.  Many and varied are the champions of Spotted Owls and Marbled Murrelets.   But what about California's old-growth grasslands, and the wildlife that depend on them? Western Meadowlark: posterchild of the grasslands No, "old-growth grassland" is not a term I just made up.  Scientists the world over are beginning to discover that the idea of old-growth grasslands is indeed a real concept, with very important implications for conservation.   Rather than thinking of grasslands as just one successional community, a stage in the process of becoming a climax community, grasslands should instead be considered climax communities in themselves, rich in species diversity and endemism.   In discussing succession, I am referring to something like the classic Ecology 101 example...

This series on what makes California such a unique and special place began with an overview of the state's incredible biodiversity .  Then, a few days ago, we talked about California's climate.   (Actually, we did much more than that: we went through an entire crash course on atmospheric conditions and threw in a few laws of physics just for fun.  If you missed it, catch up here .) Today's post is broken into four sections that each realistically deserve not only their own article, but their own text book(s)!  Those sections are: California's Geomorphic Provinces Plate Tectonics and Geologic Processes Soils The Rain Shadow Effect Much like we trekked all the way to the source and recognized the sun, along with Earth's tilt and rotation, as the ultimate driving forces of California's climate, today we'll peel back several more layers of science to take a look not only at California's diverse topography, but the tectonic forces and geologic proc...

California is certainly a special place.  A treasure trove of natural wonders and beauty, the state encompasses one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity .  But what makes California so remarkable, so rich in endemic plants and animals found nowhere else in the world? There have been a couple of key factors at work in this mountainous West Coast state through the ages, shaping it into what it is today: one of those factors is its unique climate, and the other is its diverse topography and underlying geology. Today, we'll take a look at California's very special climate. A quintessential Californian landscape - golden, oak-dotted hills - inside the now-imperiled Del Puerto Canyon, a hotspot for biodiversity, endemism and really neat geology in the central Coast Range. The mild, Mediterranean climate of California is shared by only four other regions in the world: central Chile, the southwestern tip of South Africa, southwestern Australia, and the Mediterra...

There are a lot of reasons to love California, particularly as a naturalist. The world's six major biomes, represented in California: Top row: Forest (Redwood State Park); Freshwater (Sword Lake); Desert (Joshua Tree National Park) Bottom row: Marine (Monterey Bay); Grassland (Stanislaus County prairie); Alpine tundra (Yosemite high country) California is a land of extremes, from submarine canyons to alpine peaks, from high heat and aridity to remarkable snow pack.  It boasts the tallest trees, the most massive trees, and the oldest [non-clonal] trees.  Within its borders, one can stand on the tallest point in the conterminous United States (Mount Whitney, 14,500 feet above sea level) as well as the lowest (Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level). In addition to the greatest difference in elevation, California also has the greatest range of latitude, the highest soil diversity, the largest range of average annual rainfall and the greatest range of average annua...