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4 - Infertile and stable habitats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2009

Roger del Moral
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Lawrence R. Walker
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Summary

STABLE HABITATS DEVELOP SLOWLY

Hard rock surfaces abound in nature, but they eventually develop a cover of vegetation. External forces soon begin to alter them by increasing their permeability to water and susceptibility to erosion. Even the slightest roughness or a small crack will allow plants to colonize such hard surfaces. Surface heterogeneity is caused by rapid temperature changes or by differential erosion of rock minerals. Most of these surfaces are created by lava (from Italian, labes, a falling, coined by Francesco Serao upon observing Vesuvius erupting in 1737), but steady erosion can also expose other types of rocks over time. Abrupt exposure of rock surfaces comes from sudden events such as landslides. Although hard surfaces are infertile, their stability allows slow-growing lichens to establish in dry habitats and mosses in wetter habitats. Cracks allow long-rooted woody plants, like trees, to gain a foothold. If successful, these large plants soon dominate exposed rocky surfaces, covering them with their dead leaves and accelerating the process of soil development and successional change in plant composition. On gentle terrain, succession may be slow, but it is inexorable. On steep slopes, gravity chronically removes nascent plant life, exposing new, abiotic surfaces. How plants cope with such stresses in natural habitats provides unique lessons for rehabilitation of analogous habitats caused by humans such as abandoned roads, parking lots and industrial rubble, quarries and walls. In this chapter, we will discuss two very different kinds of hard surfaces: lava and cliffs.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

Francis, P. (1995). Volcanoes, a Planetary Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krafft, M. (1991). Volcanoes: Fire from the Earth. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.Google Scholar
Scarth, A. (1999). Vulcan's Fury: Man Against the Volcano. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Thornton, I. (1996). Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Winchester, S. (2003). Krakatoa, the Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.Google Scholar
Larson, D. W., Matthes, U. & Kelly, P. E. (2000). Cliff Ecology: Pattern and Process in Cliff Ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, P. (1995). Volcanoes, a Planetary Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krafft, M. (1991). Volcanoes: Fire from the Earth. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.Google Scholar
Scarth, A. (1999). Vulcan's Fury: Man Against the Volcano. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Thornton, I. (1996). Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Winchester, S. (2003). Krakatoa, the Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.Google Scholar
Larson, D. W., Matthes, U. & Kelly, P. E. (2000). Cliff Ecology: Pattern and Process in Cliff Ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, P. (1995). Volcanoes, a Planetary Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krafft, M. (1991). Volcanoes: Fire from the Earth. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.Google Scholar
Scarth, A. (1999). Vulcan's Fury: Man Against the Volcano. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Thornton, I. (1996). Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Winchester, S. (2003). Krakatoa, the Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.Google Scholar
Larson, D. W., Matthes, U. & Kelly, P. E. (2000). Cliff Ecology: Pattern and Process in Cliff Ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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