Ecology of The Sierra Nevada

The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U.S. state of California, is diverse and complex: the plants and animals are a significant part of the scenic beauty of the mountain range. The combination of climate, topography, moisture, and soils influences the distribution of ecological communities across an elevation gradient from 1,000 feet (300 m) to over 14,000 feet (4,300 m). Biotic zones range from scrub and chaparral communities at lower elevations, to subalpine forests and alpine meadows at the higher elevations. Elevational contours characterized by a particular biome and ecosystem are often described as a series of belts that follow the length of the Sierra Nevada. There are many hiking trails, paved and unpaved roads, and vast public lands in the Sierra Nevada for exploring the many different biomes and ecosystems.

The western and eastern Sierra Nevada have substantially different species of plants and animals, because the east lies in the rain shadow of the crest. The plants and animals in the east are thus adapted to much drier conditions.

The altitudes listed for the biotic zones are for the central Sierra Nevada. The climate across the north-south axis of the range varies somewhat: the boundary elevations of the biotic zones move by as much as 1,000 feet (300 m) from the north end to the south end of the range.