ENCS406 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Tilth, Water Scarcity, Soil Type
16 Feb 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Encs 406 lec 4: managing communities requires understanding how they form: Formula to figure out what regulates vegetation, identity of any plant communities: Vegetation = climate + parent material/soil + topography +disturbance (fire, drought, flood, defoliation) Climate: precipitation and temperature, including: climatogram measures precipitation and temperature (evapo-transpiration): p:e ratio (& associated water deficits): amount of water available compared to amount of water you need. <0. 2 = desert (more limiting, less than 20% of water that you need). 1 means you have all the water you need: timing of precipitation: summer rainfall favours shallow-rooted grassland species. Local topography modifies climate by altering the effective growing conditions (across the landscape catena topo-sequence). Catena is a soil term, soil patter across the landscape but veg changes along with it too: aspect (north vs south facing, slope (steeper slopes reduce effective moisture, drainage and depth to water table (lowland vs upland). Disturbances: fire: all plant communities are adapted to fire!
