Biome

Chaparral

shap-uh-RAL

Also Known As Mediterranean Shrubland The general ecological name for this biome type worldwide; chaparral itself is the California-specific regional name most often used as the biome's own entry point.

Grassland, Savanna and Shrubland Biomes

Chaparral

A biome of evergreen, hard-leaved (sclerophyllous) shrubs and small trees, usually under three meters tall, shaped by a Mediterranean-type climate of hot dry summers and mild wet winters. It occurs in five widely separated regions of the world, all roughly between 30 and 40 degrees latitude: coastal and inland California, the Mediterranean Basin (where the same vegetation type is called maquis or garrigue), central Chile (matorral), southwestern Australia (mallee and kwongan) and South Africa's Cape region (fynbos). Fire is a recurring, formative part of this biome rather than an outside disaster: many chaparral shrubs resprout from a fire-surviving root crown, and some, echoing the giant sequoia's own cones in the Temperate Forest biome, carry seeds that need fire's heat to release or germinate. Despite covering only a small share of the Earth's land surface, the five chaparral regions collectively rank among the richest concentrations of plant diversity found in any biome.

Facts

Climate

Annual Precipitation (mm)

350 1

USDA Forest Service gives a wider range of roughly 260 to 1,280 millimeters for the California coastal chaparral province specifically; 350mm sits within the commonly cited narrower core of that range, and varies further by region.

Typical Low Temperature (C)

10 1

The cited USDA figure is the ANNUAL MEAN (10 to 18C); 10C here is a representative mild-winter figure at the low end of that mean band.

Typical High Temperature (C)

40 1

The cited USDA figure is the ANNUAL MEAN (10 to 18C), not a summer peak; 40C represents a representative hot summer day figure, consistent with the region's documented summer temperatures often exceeding 38C (100F).

Chaparral

86 entries

Common Group

Taxonomy

Conservation Status

Ecosystem

Everyday Group

Diet

System (Realm)

Threats

Relationship to People

Living or Extinct

Where It Lives

African Wild Dog

American Hog-nosed Skunk

American Robin

American Toad

Apis mellifera cecropia

Argiope Aurantia

Baja California pronghorn

Barn Swallow

Black Rat

Blackbuck

Black-tailed deer

Boa Constrictor

Boa constrictor occidentalis

Bold Jumper

Bristletail

Brown Recluse Spider

California Condor

California Nutmeg

California Quail

Cascade red fox

Century Plant

Common Juniper

Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Common Milkweed

Common Pill Woodlouse

Coral Snake

Corn Snake

Crotalus Atrox

Danaus Plexippus

Dipylidium caninum

Domestic Pigeon

Drosophila melanogaster

Eastern Chipmunk

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

Ensatina

Erect-crested Penguin

European dark bee

European mouflon

European nightjar

European Rabbit

Fancy rat

Feral Goat

Fruit Fly

German Cockroach

Golden Eagle

Great Horned Owl

Greater Roadrunner

Hawaii Silversword

Hemaris thysbe

Indian Peafowl

Latrodectus mactans

Little Brown Bat

Little Penguin

Long-eared owl

Mexican Beaded Lizard

Nilgai

North American Porcupine

Painted Lady

Peregrine Falcon

Plains Spadefoot

Red Admiral

Red Widow Spider

Redback Spider

Red-vented Bulbul

Ring-tailed Cat

Robber Fly

Rock Pigeon

Rosa californica

Scabies Mite

Silverfish

Silversword

Southern Black Widow

Striped Skunk

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Timber Rattlesnake

Tobacco Hornworm

Torrey Pine

Toxocara canis

Trichinella Spiralis

Tuatara