SCRUBLAND

What makes a Scrubland a unique habitat?

Perhaps you may have heard to the Australian Outback. Well, scrubland makes up the majority of the expansive Outback of interior Australia. Scrubland is plant community characterized by scrub vegetation. "Scrub" consists of low shrubs, mixed with grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Scrublands are sometimes known as heathlands. Scrublands may be either naturally occurring or the result of human activity. They may be the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or a transitional community that occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as a major fire. Many people do not live in scrubland because of the fires that can easily occur.

Xeric Scrubland (Desert)

Deserts and xeric shrublands is a biome characterized by a dry climate. Deserts and xeric shrublands receive an annual average rainfall of ten inches or less, and have an arid or hyperarid climate, characterized by a strong moisture deficit, where annual potential loss of moisture from evapotranspiration well exceeds the moisture received as rainfall. Deserts and xeric shrublands occur in tropical, subtropical, and temperate climate regions.

Plants and animals in deserts and xeric shrublands are adapted to low moisture conditions. Hyperarid regions are mostly devoid of vegetation and animal life, and include rocky deserts and sand dunes. Desert soils tend to be sandy or rocky, and low in organic materials. Saline or alkaline soils are common.

Xeric scrublands occur in areas of fast-draining sandy soils in more humid regions. These scrublands are characterized by plants with adaptations to the dry climate, which include small leaves to limit water loss, thorns to protect them from grazing animals, succulent leaves or stems, storage organs to store water, and long taproots to reach groundwater.

Mediterranean Scrubland (Coastal)

Mediterranean Scrublands are most common near the seacoast, and are often adapted to wind and salt air off the ocean. Low, soft-leaved scrublands around the Mediterranean are known as garrigue in France, gariga in Italy, phrygana in Greece, tomillares in Spain, and batha in Israel. Northern coastal scrub and coastal sage scrub, also known as soft chaparral, occur near the California coast; strandveld in the Western Cape of South Africa; coastal matorral in the central Chile, and sand-heath and kwongan in Southwest Australia.

What kind of animals can be found there?

Because of its similarity to desert and savanna habitats, it is not an uncommon sight to see savanna and desert animals roaming the scrublands. Most scrubland animals frequent multiple habitats. Among them, Australia's own Kangaroo, Tasmanian Devil, and Wallaby can be found among the scrub.

Would you like to know more about the scrubland inhabitants?

African_Wild_Dog   Bald_Eagle   Bat   Bee   Beetle   Boa   Bobcat   Butterfly   Caracal   Clouded_Leopard   Cockatoo   Dhole   Echidna   Elephant   Frog   Guam_Rail   Hornbill   Hummingbird   Iguana   Jaguar   Kangaroo   Kingfisher   Kingsnake   Kiwi   Koala   Ladybug   Lion   Lizard   Lynx   Monkey   Mountain_Lion   Newt   Ocelot   Owl   Rattlesnake   Red-tailed_Hawk   Salamander   Small_Cat   Snake   Snow_Leopard   Spectacled_Bear   Spider   Stork   Striped_Hyena   Tamandua   Tarantula   Tasmanian_Devil   Toad   Tortoise   Tuatara   Turtle   Wallaby   Warthog   Wild_Cattle   Wild_Swine