Florida Scrub Habitat Information
The ecoregions known as Florida scrub, or Florida sand pine scrub, develop on isolated ridges of sand at relatively high elevations in comparison to most of the state--sometimes as high as 200 feet. In fact, scrubs were islands in recent ice ages, when water levels were higher. Scrubs are characterized by a dominance of shrub plants, versus trees or grasses.
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General Habitat Facts
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Scrubs are the oldest plant communities in Florida, some more than one million years old. They exist along the northern Gulf Coast, the lower Atlantic Coast and in isolated patches of land within the peninsula. Scrubs receive around 40 inches of rain per year, three-fourths of which descends in the summer months. Winters are dry, and temperatures are high. Rain drains through the sandy soils almost as quickly as it comes, winds shift the sands enough to bury some of the smaller plants and unpredictable fires periodically burn scrub regions to the ground.
Scrub Plants
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Approximately 40 species of plants are unique to Florida scrubs, 20 of which are on the Lake Wales Ridge, the oldest scrub region located in central Florida. Scrub plants are adapted to hot, dry, sandy and windy conditions; the trees are only 15 to 40 feet tall, and most of the plants experience root rot or various fungi if transplanted to moist of clay-heavy soils. Woody scrubs and herbaceous perennials dominate; annuals and trees are rare and turf grasses are nonexistent. Only a few hundred plant species survive Florida scrubs and, unlike in the rest of the state, introduced species have failed to survive here.
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Scrub Animals
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Half of all plants and animals endemic to Florida scrubs exist nowhere else. Only a few vertebrate are endemic-- the scrub-jay bird perhaps the most famous of them. Approximately 40 unique spiders and insects have been counted, with more probable, according to Floridata. Several lizard and snake species live almost entirely in the scrub--such as the sand-swimming sand skink--and many more animals come in and out from surrounding ecosystems, such as black bears, bobcats, raccoons and various birds.
Fire-Dependent Ecoregion
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Florida scrubs are dependent on periodic fires for survival, which occur between every 35 and 75 years, according to Floridata. If these fires do not happen, the scrubs grow to become trees. This, in turn provides so much shade it changes the ecosystem. Many of the plants and animals adapted to the harsh, hot and dry conditions cannot survive such a shift. When fires do occur, the scrubs regenerate via root structures still in place or seeds buried under the sand.
Conservation
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Only 10 to 15 percent of original Florida scrub remains, due largely to human activity. Many of the ecoregion's plant and animal species are listed by the U.S. Department of Interior and the State of Florida as either endangered or threatened. Several conservation organizations have begun purchasing sections of the remaining scrubs, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which plans to create the first national wildlife refuge dedicated primarily to the preservation of plants.
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References
- Photo Credit sandstone cliff 1 image by michael luckett from Fotolia.com
