The Biological World of Marin

Elna Bakker in her ecological introduction to California and its natural communities (Univ. of Calif. Press, 1972, "An Island Called California") chose to contrast the biological uniformity of central Iowa's corn fields to the dramatic biological variations in Marin County, writing: "In contrast, anyone driving the fifteen miles from Mill Valley to Bolinas Lagoon (via Panoramic Highway) in Marin County.....will pass through or alongside seven of the natural communities found in California: chaparral, coastal scrub, grassland, coniferous forest, broadleaf evergreen forest, beach strand, and salt marsh. This mosaic of plant associations is quite bewildering to the casual observer.... Common sense would suggest a reasonable uniformity of natural vegetation in the five crow miles between these two points. Marin County, however, is only a segment of many square miles of similar coastal landscape."

While climatic and landscape features contribute to this wonderful variety, one of the most interesting biological features of Marin relates to the nature of soils that are formed on relatively exotic rocks in the crust of "normal" continents. One of these rocks, serpentine, which is unique and abundant enough in California to be officially designated by politicians as the state's "state rock", creates soil conditions that have created islands of endemic plants found nowhere else. These are the conditions that have created the unique plants of Ring Mountain.

Emeritus College of Marin professor Don Martin and his wife, Katy, have produced a valuable series of natural history hikes in Marin, of which a sampling are available online c/o The Top Seven Hiking Trails in Marin.

General Descriptions of the Coastal Biology found in Marin (CERES)

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