UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

      Berkeley•Los Angeles•London

      University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

      University of California Press

      Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

      University of California Press, Ltd.

      London, England

      © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Harrison, Susan (Susan Patricia)

      Plant and animal endemism in California / Susan Harrison.

      pages cm

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-0-520-27554-6 (cloth : alkaline paper)

      eISBN 9780520954731

      1. Endemic plants—California. 2. Endemic animals—California. 3. Endemic plants—Ecology—California. 4. Endemic animals—Ecology—California. 5. Endemic plants—Conservation—California. 6. Endemic animals—Conservation—California. I. Title.

      QK149.H444 2013

      581.9794—dc23

      2012043370

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 2002) (Permanence of Paper).

      Cover image: Sickle-leaved onion (Allium falcifolium), Oregon stonecrop (Sedum oreganum), and Siskiyou bitterroot (Lewisia cotyledon), members of three genera rich in Californian endemics.

      Contents

      Preface and Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      1.Biotic Uniqueness: An Overview

       Problems in Defining Endemism

       Large-Scale Patterns in Species Richness and Endemism

       Origins of Endemic Species

       Traits of Endemic Species

      2.A Brief History of California

       Geologic History

       Climatic History

       Floristic History

      3.Plant Endemism in California: Patterns and Causes

       Estimating Plant Endemism

       Geography of Diversity and Endemism

       Edaphic Endemism

       New Evidence on the Evolution of Neoendemics

       New Evidence on Paleoendemism

       Californian Plant Endemism in a World Context

      4.Animal Endemism in California

       Cross-Taxonomic Comparisons

       Mammals

       Birds

       Reptiles

       Fish

       Amphibians

       Invertebrates

      5.Conservation Challenges in California’s Endemic-Rich Landscape

       Endangered Species Laws

       Natural Community Conservation Planning

       Conservation Easements

       Conservation Banking

       Advance Mitigation

       Biodiversity Information

       Systematic Conservation Planning

       Marine and Aquatic Conservation

       Climate Change Science and Policy

      6.Synthesis and Conclusions

      Appendix: Preliminary List of Plant Species Endemic to the California Floristic Province

      Literature Cited

      Index

      Preface and Acknowledgments

      Why write about endemism in California? Asked by a group of friendly but critical graduate students during a seminar visit, this question struck me as worth thinking about before beginning to write. Ecologists and evolutionists usually focus on broad, theory-driven questions. Isn’t it small-minded to focus on a place, let alone a place defined by human-drawn boundaries? And what about endemism, which the dictionary defines as “the condition of being native or restricted to a certain place”? Every species is endemic to somewhere, so what makes Californian endemism interesting?

      My answers will be familiar to many readers, but perhaps not to all, as my experience with the out-of-state graduate students suggests. California is not just a political unit; uniquely among U.S. states, it is also more or less its own biogeographic region. More precisely, the state largely coincides with the California Floristic Province, one of only five regions in the world where the mediterranean climate is found. (This book considers endemism in the California Floristic Province wherever possible but concentrates largely on endemism in the state of California simply because of the greater availability of data at the state level.) The mediterranean biome worldwide is outstanding for its botanical uniqueness; it holds an estimated 20 percent of the world’s vascular plants in only 2 percent of the world’s land area. Some of this biome’s most distinctive groups of plants are thought to be evolving rapidly, and many classic studies of plant evolution and speciation have emerged from California. Finally, California has been the site of scientific and policy experiments aimed at the conservation of biological diversity, in part because traditional approaches to conservation are challenged by the sheer abundance and diffuse distribution of rare species in the state.

      This book is motivated by the aim to learn new lessons at the interface of evolution, ecology, and conservation by examining California. Thus it focuses on analyzing patterns and addressing general questions, as outlined in the introduction. What this book does not do is explore the state’s rich natural history in any great depth; that has already been done well by many authors. Readers are directed, for example, to Elna Bakker’s An Island Called California, Allan Schoenherr’s Natural