Relationship of Tecate Cypress Distribution to Soil Types

<p>The Tecate Cypress (Cupressus forbesii Jeps.) is a gymnosperm tree of limited distribution. To determine if soil is an influencing factor in its distribution, the soil characteristics of a Tecate Cypress grove in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, California, were compared with soils from neighboring communities and other Tecate Cypress groves. Soil samples were analyzed for texture, saturation percent, pH, and electrical conductivity. Tests were also run for nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc.</p> <p>Results seem to indicate that the Tecate Cypress soils are: 1) significantly more acidic than the soils of surrounding chaparral communities, and 2) significantly lower in nutrients than the soils of big-cone Douglas fir, mixed conifer, knob cone pine and oak woodlands.</p> <p>Thus it appears that the Tecate Cypress may be limited to acidic soils that are nutrient poor and thereby lacking the competition found on typical chaparral soils. This may be a factor in their limited distribution in the Santa Ana Mountains and other southern California sites.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Year

1980

Author dc:creator

• Stottlemyer, David E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Earl W. Lathrop
• Norman L. Mitchell
• Kenneth A. Arendt

• Biology
• Soil Science
• Cypress -- Soils

Statement dc:rights

• This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/926

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsrepository.llu.edu:etd-1898