Abstract
Despite the widespread perception of dominance of evergreen sclerophylls, some Mediterranean climate regions have significant representation of winter-deciduous species. In California, deciduous oaks dominate extensive regions. In central California, the blue oak, Quercus douglasii, dominates interior foothills that have wet winters and long dry summers; valley oak, Q. lobata, and garry oak, Q. garryana also are found in interior, hot summer locations. In southern California, the Englemann oak, Q. englemannii is found in interior, hot summer regions while the evergreen Q. agrifolia dominates nearer the coast where summers are less severe. Deciduous species can occur alone, or mixed with broadleaved evergreen trees or shrubs, and/or conifers. As severity of summer drought increases, whether due to climate or soil conditions, deciduousness becomes increasingly favored.
Oak woodlands scattered over grass-covered hills represent the characteristic landscape of California.
– Mensing (2005, p. 1)
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Acknowledgements
I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Elgene Box, for inviting me to a most stimulating set of sessions on Warm Temperate Deciduous Forests, and also for not having allowed fashion to dictate what he has studied, but instead for having continued to pursue vegetation-environment research and modeling. I also thank my dissertation advisor, Roger Byrne, who has always understood what biogeography is all about, and who ran a pollen lab in which the topics of discussion ranged far beyond palynology. Kevin Heard, of Binghamton University’s GIS Core facility, drew the distribution maps.
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Blumler, M.A. (2015). Deciduous Woodlands in Mediterranean California. In: Box, E., Fujiwara, K. (eds) Warm-Temperate Deciduous Forests around the Northern Hemisphere. Geobotany Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01261-2_14
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