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[Biomes - Living Worlds] :: Chaparral :: Soil
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The soil in the chaparral biome is very nutrient poor. This is mainly a factor of humans changing other biomes to custom fit the world to their needs. After a biome, like the forest, is destroyed, usually clear cut and then overgrazed, plants that used to hold the ground together die. This leaves the soil nutrient poor and vulnerable to erosion. Once the soil is eroded away, either by wind or rain, the ground under the soil is usually bare rock, very thin, or clay. It takes a long time for fertile soil to form, and even longer for forests to grow back. Chaparral, however, can grow in this desert-like soil when most plants cannot. Chaparral plants take over and dominate these spaces before anything else can grow. |