Life Sciences Commons^™

Soil Moisture On Soledad Ridge In Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, Carrie Fong, Kathryn Mceachern, Ken Niessen

STAR Program Research Presentations

Santa Rosa Island is one of the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. Before the island was heavily grazed, Santa Rosa Island is thought to have had large stands of island oak trees, Quercus tomentella, that provided a critical source of water for the ecosystem by creating a “cloud forest”. Wind-borne fog collects on the leaves, branches, and twigs of the island oaks and other native shrubs. Once the water condenses it drips, falls, and soaks into the soil. Introducing cattle and especially sheep to the island has damaged the ecosystem and nearly decimated Santa Rosa Island …

Mimicking Fire For Post-Mining Restoration Success, Katherine M. Wilkin

Master's Theses

This study is based at Rocky Canyon Quarry (RCQ), a 200-acre granite aggregate open-pit quarry with chaparral-dominated plant communities located in San Luis Obispo County, CA. At RCQ, the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) of 1975 was interpreted as restoring the landscape to native plant communities. Native plant community restoration projects have occurred there since 1993 through cooperation with California Polytechnic State University Biology Department in San Luis Obispo, CA. I evaluated past restoration at RCQ and researched new techniques to improve chaparral restoration based on the natural processes of fire.

Chaparral is an important fire-dominated plant community within …