Causative factors in the degradation of vegetation and soils on Santa Barbara Island, California
Halvorson WL and Fenn DB. 1985. Causative factors in the degradation of vegetation and soils on Santa Barbara Island, California. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 66(2; Program Issue):185-186
The many-faceted development of an erosion surface on Santa Barbara Island has been studied. A dry Mediterranean climate and a combination of attempts at farming and introductions of exotic species including aggressive annual plants and herbivores, has led to a particularly serious case of vegetative degradation accompanied by both gully and surface erosion. Vegetation and soil analyses show this erosion to be in a location of transition. The soils are Typic Chromoxererts (Vertisol group) and the vegetation is ecotonal in nature, grading from a principally exotic annual grassland with the introduced Atriplex semibaccata and a shrub community dominated by the native Suaeda californica. Domestic and feral animals have had a two-fold influence by increasing tunnel erosion in these high clay soils and by reducing vegetation cover, exposing the soil surface. Management toward revegetation and stabilization of this island ecosystem will need an understanding of the ecological principles involved in the degradation.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Halvorson, William; Fenn, Dennis
- Units
- CHIS
- Keywords
- CA, Channel Islands National Park, Erosion, Plant Studies, Santa Barbara Island, Soils, Vegetation