Even though I’ve never been, for me, it’s the Fynbos environment in South Africa. So much of the flora in this region, for example the Sugarbushes and Pincushion plants, look like flora out of a science fiction film. The use of fire in the Fynbos also greatly interests me, how it must be burned regularly to stimulate the growth of the flora. With nearly 6,000 endemic species, it truly seems like a unique and varied ecosystem.
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- Raised bog, cause who doesn’t like lots of sphagnum? Such place has all interesting species and it is wet and cool in hot sumer days. Somehow I have zero view photos (or they just didn’t survive the time), so this:
- Sand environments in colder climate, such spots have unique flora and fauna, but you don’t have to suffer under 40+C of South summer.
- Northern taiga and sea coast, it’s so different than mixed forest I have to deal with nowadays, lots of lichens, lots of berries, northern birds and seals.
- Somehow each year now I come back to steppe, biodiversity-wise it’s one of the coolest ecosystems, but I feel hot at 23C, so for me it’s a hard love.
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I feel cold at 17C ;-;
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Oh the Kalahari and Nama Karoo regions in South Africa. The open spaces and wide blue sky, the red sand and yellow grass and tough shrubs, and the amazing variety of well camouflaged insects and spiders that dwell there. The astounding speed at which the environment changes after a rare and welcome thunderstorm with enough rain. I love how the uninitiated see a barren empty veld, and when you show them what to look out for - the amazement at the teeming tough little creatures thriving in and on the hot sand.
My second favourite would be the Renosterveld here in the Western Cape in South Africa.
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On the spot I would say that the most fascinating ecosystems to me are the Mediterranean temporary ponds (Isoeto-Nanojuncetea).
They are uncommon, completely rely on water availability by fall and winter precipitations, exist only few months and usually host many rare species.
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Born in Cape Town, we have mountains (not snowcapped but high) and the Atlantic Ocean. When I lived in northern Switzerland I was disappointed by rolling hills (where are the famous Alps?)
I only discovered the Cape Floral Kingdom and fynbos as a botany student. Now school classes visit Kirstenbosch.
Every week when I hike among fynbos in our mountains I find NEW to me plants!
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My favorite type of ecosystem is a Hemlock Forest. They create unique environments in North America making cool forests and streams for fish and many other organisms. The way they grew is special to me since they always have a lot of acid loving plants and they themselves prefer more acidic soils. Many of the species of herbaceous plants I love grow along with hemlocks. There is an impressive number of organisms which depend on these forests too. Sadly they are under threat here in North America from the Hemlock Woolly Aledgid (Adelges tsugae). Seems like in the southern portion of Appalachia whole hemlock forests were dying in a matter of a year or two. Now its reached New England and has seemed to be moving slower due to colder winters but it still has not stopped moving northward. Even out in Seattle on the west coast of North America they are harming the Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). Here on the east coast though the Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) has lost an impressive amount of its range. Hopefully the problem is solved soon. It would be a shame to lose them.
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I’m a prairie guy. Not born here, but have lived most of my life here. It’s a place of both extremes and subtlety. The organisms that live here are either transitory or able to deal with the extremes. I’ve seen 40C in the summer, and -40C in winters. I prefer the winter, but the summers are short. Where I live - Winnipeg - is in an interesting place. The Canadian shield Boreal Forest ends about an hour and a half to the east, then runs diagonally up the province. We are on a large river, and to the south and west are flatlands. Since it’s a little wetter than the grasslands further west, it was tall grass prairie. A little to the north are some wetlands, remnants of Glacial Lake Agassiz (Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba). So ecologically, it’s quite a diverse place, but I’m not overly fond of water so stay mainly in the drylands. @fffffffff - do Russians still use the word ‘Rasputista’? Not only does it describe the melt and wet fall, but it also implies impassable roads. Having been stuck in Red River Gumbo more than once, I think it’s a term we should adopt!
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Welcome to the Forum! Trees in North America seem to be taking a beating. We’ve recently recorded the Emerald Ash Borer here, so that means two of our major tree species (the other is American Elm) may be extirpated.
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Yes, I’ll opt for seasonal pools, in permanently grazed areas such as the New Forest, southern England. You get three for the price of one - aquatics in the spring, bare ground invertebrates in the summer, and dung fauna as a bonus.
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I wouldn’t say it’s used very often, but yes, it’s still in use.
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I stand corrected!!
Flat and arid grasslands. Most people think “there’s nothing there”, drive on past, and I have the silence and the nature all to myself
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naturally, the places I’ve only seen through a computer screen. the woodland bogs and wetlands where I live in Massachusetts are my favourite place within reach. so many serene ecosystems in Iceland and the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest are so full of life.
though, in all seriousness, my favourite ecosystem is likely whatever place I’ve been last.
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Well, it is kind of hard to choose. I think it would be saltmarshes with loblolly pines on their sides, like those in the Chesapeake Bay
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Whereas I love the plains and prairies and want to move back to them (Technically Dallas has some remnants in the area but…it isn’t the same as the panhandle). I like living on the plains but near enough another ecosystem for an easy drive myself.
I’ll echo what another respondent said about extremes: I saw 10 below 0 and 110 degrees; you get hundreds of migratory bird species, a surprisingly robust group of herpetofauna, neat mammals…only thing you’re missing out on really is fish and crocodilians
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And trees. And all the forest fungus and insects that come with them. All my favorite mountain-dwelling cuddly animals like pika and bears. Many of my favorite foraging finds like thimbleberries and huckleberries. There really is a lot more missing than just fish and alligators.
One of the first things that struck me after I moved away from the prairies was how rich and vibrant other places seemed in comparison. The next was how much more protected wild space there was elsewhere. I lived in Kansas, and later in Texas. So much of it is commercial agricultural land. There’s certainly a need for that kind of land to provide food for the population, but it’s hard to say that it’s biodiverse. Monocultured crops and livestock that hoover up all the resources that native species need to flourish (that lack of genetic diversity is dangerous, too. Imagine if there were an agricultural pathogen that was as devastating to crops or livestock as COVID has been to us. But that’s a discussion for another time.). I really think as far as habitat goes, the Great Plains may be one of biomes most compromised by human activity. I would guess at some point in the past, there was a much higher degree of biodiversity. If I could time-travel, I would love to have seen what it was like back then (After all, who wouldn’t want to see mammoths in the Ice Age or the Devonian Sea or even the wild bison herds that existed before Europeans occupied the continent), but the present era Great Plains have considerably less to offer.
I don’t mean to be completely negative on the subject–everywhere has something that makes it unique. I think it just takes a certain kind of person to appreciate the Great Plains, and I am not that kind.
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At least people are not longer over tilling the land so that the topsoil erodes away…The last thing the U.S. needs is another Dustbowl…
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I hope the individual farmers know better and will act upon that, but the markets force small farmers to do anything and everything to maximize saleable product, or they risk losing everything. The managers of the largest farms probably don’t even think about the long-term effects of their actions. Or don’t care.
to be honest, I don’t think most major corporations or politicians in the US care in the least if they grind the environment and economy into the dust, so long as they personally don’t suffer…
I think you’re being a little too optimistic. Maybe I’m too pessimistic. I don’t know.
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I have lived in a desert all my life, so this might not be the most conventional answer, but my all-time favorite biome is Desert Canyons (Think Grand Canyon, Colorado Natl. Monument, Zion, that kind of stuff).
I’m kind of a bird nerd, and these canyons and cliffs offer some of the best birdwatching of anywhere I have traveled. The resiliency of so many of these plants and animals that grow on the sides of cliffs or in shade for 9/10 of the day never ceases to amaze me. Plus, who doesn’t like a river ecosystem?
See you out there!
-Accipitridae
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