Habitats and Community Types of Great Sand Dunes

You can think of habitat as where an animal's habits are at:

Habit + at = Habitat

An animal's habitat includes the places where it gets food and water, finds shelter, and searches for a mate. Sometimes an animal can find all of these things in one small area, but other animals travel between different life zones to find all the things they need.

Scientists divide ecosystems into smaller units of plant communities. We have divided the Great Sand Dunes ecosystem into six general community types: alpine, subalpine, montane, pinyon-juniper woodlands, sand sheet grasslands, and dunefield. Scientists define many more. A community is usually defined by temperature, precipitation, and soil types that exist in an area. It is also important to understand that community types do not always have set borders. Boundaries between communities are often blurred.

General Community Types (or Life Zones)
• Alpine - The winters are very long in the alpine. Deep snow makes it nearly impossible for trees to grow. You will find mainly rock and ice in this zone. Grasses, forbs, and small shrubs are the plants most often seen growing in the alpine. Very stunted trees, or krummholtz trees, sometimes live in the lower alpine.
• Subalpine - Lower down where trees are able to grow, the subalpine begins. This is a park-like area with clumps of trees, shrubs, rocky fields, and meadows.
• Montane - The temperate forests of fir, spruce, and aspen make up the closed-canopy forest of the montane.
• Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands - Lower down on the slopes, there is much less yearly precipitation. An open-canopy forest of short pinyon pines and junipers dominates the landscape.
• Sand Sheet Grasslands - The sand sheet is the sandy grassland that surrounds the dunefield.
• Dunefield - The dunefield is made up of sand dunes, with small grass and scurfpea 'vegetation islands'.

(print)

(Close Window)