Natural Processes

Natural processes shape the land, create soil and topsoil, influence the water supply, and help determine the plants and animals that live in each natural community. Some natural processes act on large scales and affect more than one natural community at a time.

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Rock Creek Park

In This Community

Important natural processes in the Coastal Plain Oak Forest include

In the Broader Landscape

Some natural processes act on large scales and affect more than one natural community at a time. For example, in Rock Creek Park three natural communities are found in similar positions in the landscape. The Coastal Plain Oak Forest, the Mesic Mixed Hardwood Forest and the Basic Mesic Hardwood Forest all occur on rolling uplands and lower slopes of ravines, where they are protected from extreme weather conditions—such as the exposure to sun and wind at higher elevations, and flooding at lower elevations. Because of their landscape position, these communities share a similar microclimate.

In fact, these three natural communities are all part of a larger unit that ecologists refer to as the Mesic Hardwood Forest Ecological System. An ecological system is a group of several natural communities that share many of the same natural processes and aspects of physical setting. By extension, they may also share many of the same plant and animal species.

Explore This Natural Community's Ecological System

Click the chart below to learn more about this ecological system and its natural processes.