What is a dry Sclerophyll forest?
Dry sclerophyll forests are open forests that include a wide range of structural and floristic types. In general they occur on poorer substrates and relatively drier situations than the wet sclerophyll forests.
What is the definition of sclerophyll?
sclerophyll. / (ˈsklɛrəʊˌfɪl) / noun. a woody plant with small leathery evergreen leaves that is the dominant plant form in certain hot dry areas, esp the Mediterranean region.
What is a wet Sclerophyll forest?
Wet sclerophyll forest is characterised by very tall eucalypt trees (and their close relatives) which form the upper canopy layer. The trunks of these trees tend to be straighter than those of other eucalypts, and their leafy parts are often concentrated in the top third of the tree.
What are the features of a Sclerophyll forest?
Sclerophyll forests are a typically Australian vegetation type having plants (typically eucalypts, wattles and banksias) with hard, short and often spiky leaves, which is a condition closely associated with low soil fertility (rather than rainfall/soil moisture).
Why are dry Sclerophyll forests important?
These adaptations make this genus extremely valuable in a world that appears to be drying out: they protect the trees from death caused by loss of leaf cover — their source of cell energy — but they also protect the tree from animals, mainly insects, that defoliate trees.
Why are Sclerophyll forests important?
An ecotonal habitat Wet sclerophyll forests are particularly important as an ecotonal community between the rainforests and savanna ecosystems. As well as being home to a unique suite of species, the wet sclerophyll forests are often used by rainforest and woodland species at different times of the year.
Where is sclerophyll found?
They are prominent throughout Australia, parts of Argentina, the Cerrado biogeographic region of Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil, and in the Mediterranean biomes that cover the Mediterranean Basin, California, Chile, and the Cape Province of South Africa.
Why are sclerophyll forests important?
Why are dry sclerophyll forests important?
Where is Sclerophyll found?
What animals are in a dry sclerophyll forest?
Dry sclerophyll forest animals And of course the animal in these forests also differ from area to area, around Sydney you will commonly find the Spotted-tailed quoll, Wallabies, Wombats, Long-nosed potoroo, Powerful Owl, Yellow-bellied Glider, Sugar Glider and Grey-headed Flying Fox.