Maritime Chaparral
Maritime Chaparral is the penultimate community. Ceanothus, chamise and manzanita have crowded out the sages and grasses. Ceanothus and manzanita are the indicator species, and they have dense woody branches, so this is often called the hard chaparral. They compete for space and spread into a thicket. When this community burns, the damage tends to be thorough and widespread. Fast recovery is an important aspect of their evolution. Scientific thoughts about their development involve two contradictory premises. Maritime air restricts uplift and thunderstorm growth, so coastal lightning is rare, and thickets evolve with hundreds of years between fires. Or cultural burning for 10,000 years by indigenous Californians produces an ecosystem that regenerates every twenty years.
We find this type of chaparral in the coastal fog zone, from Mendocino County south to San Diego, at elevations below 1000 ft. (300 m). Cooler temperatures and extra moisture from the marine influence reduce evaporation, so their thicker leaves remain evergreen. I have noticed that this chaparral appears on mostly level ground. You rarely find these shrubs where the elevation changes by 4 ft. per 100, 4% grade (my bicycle always slows down on hills, so I recognize slopes). These gentler slopes decrease runoff and increase soil moisture. The ceanothus and manzanita comprising BMER's chaparral don't tolerate heat. Inland summer temperatures here exceed 90–100 F, which limits the Maritime Chaparral range, about fifteen miles from the shore.
But acorns make taller trees. As oaks spread their shade virtually smothers the chaparral shrubs beneath their branches by reducing photosynthesis.
