Question 10-19
1 Q/ X; [% P3 Q& h Geographers say that what defines a place are four properties: soil, climate, altitude, 8 `8 h2 z( _% ^, K3 t
and aspect, or attitude to the Sun. Florida’s ancient scrub demonstrates this principle. Its & _( ` k* b2 l2 `! C. D
soil is pure silica, so barren it supports only lichens as ground cover.( It does, however, 3 V! T& g+ i8 t4 w% G- K
sustain a sand-swimming lizard that cannot live where there is moisture or plant matter
% y9 N( P2 r7 w& z2 @ O7 x(5) the soil.) Its climate, despite more than 50 inches of annual rainfall, is blistering desert- ~. x* W3 _* [8 ?% B
plant life it can sustain is only the xerophytic, the quintessentially dry. Its altitude is a : @! o( ~# H) E6 r0 `
mere couple of hundred feet, but it is high ground on a peninsula elsewhere close to sea * y4 l# P# m& t6 s1 C) p
level, and its drainage is so critical that a difference of inches in elevation can bring major & }) O1 j8 u/ `- M& z5 x
changes in its plant communities. Its aspect is flat, direct, brutal—and subtropical.
. ]/ B$ }& \4 l) l' A) RFlorida’s surrounding lushness cannot impinge on its desert scrubbiness.
) f: l# v' J# m& @: J/ h% m This does not sound like an attractive place. It does not look much like one either;
4 ~/ c) x# w6 X0 g2 a# o4 wShrubby little oaks, clumps of scraggly bushes, prickly pear, thorns, and tangles. “It appear
' y/ Q6 b7 l1 ?. s/ A1 ASaid one early naturalist,” to desire to display the result of the misery through which it has* k* d) F* I& v! |" d
Passed and is passing.” By our narrow standards, scrub is not beautiful; neither does it meet9 _# G& a- s. I
our selfish utilitarian needs. Even the name is an epithet, a synonym for the stunted, the, s' B6 V1 ?) a/ y5 t8 ]/ r7 k
scruffy, the insignificant, what is beautiful about such a place?7 ] S+ y7 R3 J4 i z
The most important remaining patches of scrub lie along the Lake Wales Ridge, a chain of paleoislands running for a hundred miles down the center of Florida, in most places less than ten miles wide. It is relict seashore, tossed up millions of years ago when ocean levels
$ \$ N6 T, |5 t5 a- B( b# K(20) were higher and the rest of the peninsula was submerged. That ancient emergence is / s/ c; t6 {, c
precisely what makes Lake Wales Ridge so precious: it has remained unsubmerged, its 2 C h% v$ E' n+ N% k0 t( d6 g
ecosystems essentially undisturbed, since the Miocene era. As a result, it has gathered to
0 O3 Q% ?9 m" I* }; C h. Sitself one of the largest collections of rare organisms in the world. Only about 75 plant& \+ N. E3 L- I$ H2 n
species survive there, but at least 30 of these are found nowhere else on Earth. |
发表于 2012-8-14 22:34:35
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