Everything about Heath Habitat totally explained
Heaths are
shrubland habitats characterised by open, low growing woody
vegetation, found on mainly infertile
acidic soils. They are similar to
moorland, but they differ in terms of climate and vegetation.
Heathland is generally warmer and drier than moorland.
Heaths are widespread worldwide. Heaths form extensive and highly diverse communities across
Australia in humid and sub-humid areas. Fire regimes with recurring burning are required for the maintenance of the heathlands. Even more diverse though less widespread heath communities occur in Southern Africa. Extensive heath communities can also be found in
California,
New Caledonia, central
Chile and along the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. In addition to these extensive heath areas the vegetation type is also found in more scattered locations across all continents, except Antarctica.
Characteristics
Heathland is favoured where climatic conditions are typically warm and dry, particularly in summer, and soils acidic, of low fertility, and often
sandy and very free-draining;
bogs do occur where drainage is poor, but are usually only small in extent. Heaths are dominated by low
shrubs, 0.2–2 m tall.
Heath vegetation is extremely plant species rich, and heathlands of Australia are home to some 3,700 endemic or typical species in addition to numerous less restricted species. The
fynbos heathlands of South Africa are second only to tropical rainforests in plant biodiversity with over 7,000 species . In marked contrast the tiny pockets of heathland in Europe are extremley depauperate with a flora comprised primarily of
heather (
Calluna vulgaris),
heath (
Erica species) and
gorse (
Ulex species).
The bird
fauna of heathlands are usually cosmopolitan species of the region . In the depauperate heathlands of Europe bird species tend to be more characteristic of the community and include
Montagu's Harrier, and the
Tree Pipit. In Australia the heathland avian fauna is dominated by nectar feeding birds such as
Honey-eaters and
Lories and lorikeets although numerous other birds from
emus to
eagles are also common Australian heathlands. Australian heathlands are also home to the world's only nectar feeding terrestrial mammal: the
Honey Possum. The bird fauna of the South African fynbos includes
sunbirds warblers and siskins. Heathlands are also an excellent habitat for insects including
ants, moths, butterflies and wasps with many species being restricted entirely to it.
Anthropogenic heaths
Anthropogenic heaths habitats are a
cultural landscape that can be found worldwide in locations as diverse as northern and western Europe (
De Zoom - Kalmthoutse Heide), the
Americas, Australia,
New Zealand,
Madagascar and
New Guinea where they've been created or expanded by centuries of human clearance of natural
forest and
woodland vegetation by grazing and
burning. In some cases this clearance could go as far that parts of the heathland gave way to open spots of pure sand and sanddunes with a very local desert climate that, even in Europe can run up to local temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in summer, drying the sand spot bordering heathland and further rising its vulnerability for wildfires. In recent years the conservation value of even these man-made heaths has become much more appreciated and consequently, most Heathlands are protected. However they're also threatened by tree incursion as a result of the discontinuation of traditional management techniques such as grazing and burning that mediated the landscapes. Some are also threatened by
urban sprawl. Anthropogenic heathlands are maintained artificially by a combination of grazing and periodic burning (known as Swailing
(External Link
)), or (rarely) mowing; if not so maintained, it's rapidly re-colonised by forest or woodland. Any re-colonising tree species will depend on the local seed source, and may not reflect the natural vegetation before the Heathland became established.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Heath Habitat'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://heath__habitat.totallyexplained.com">Heath (habitat) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
