Alternative site for the Global ecosystem typology with additional information for ecosystem profiles and indicative maps.
This site is maintained by jrfep
The Shrublands and shrub-dominated woodlands biome includes oligotrophic systems occurring on acidic, sandy soils that are often shallow or skeletal. Classically regarded as ‘azonal’ biomes or pedobiomes. They are scattered across all landmasses outside the polar regions, generally (but not always) closer to continental margins than to interior regions and absent from central Asia. Productivity and biomass are low to moderate and limited by soil fertility. The effect of nutrient poverty on productivity is exacerbated in tropical to mid-latitudes by water deficits occurring in either winter (tropics) or summer (temperate humid and Mediterranean climates), and by low insolation and cold temperatures at higher latitudes. Trophic networks are relatively simple, but the major functional components (photoautotrophic plants, decomposers, detritivores, herbivores and predators) are all represented and fuelled by autochthonous energy sources. Shrubs are the dominant primary producers and possess a diversity of leaf and root traits, as well as mutualistic relationships with soil microbes that promote capture and conservation of nutrients. Recurrent disturbance events exert top down regulation by consuming biomass, liberating resources and triggering life history processes in a range of organisms, including recruitment and dsipersal. Fire is the most widespread mechanism, with storms or mass movement of substrate less frequently implicated. Storage effects related to resprouting organs and seed banks appear to be important for maintaining plant diversity, and hence structure and function, in shrublands exposed to recurring fires and water deficits.