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 Tuliptree Small-Stream Floodplain Forest include

In the Broader Landscape

Some natural processes—such as groundwater processes—act on large scales and affect more than one natural community at a time. For example, in Rock Creek Park, the movement of groundwater and changes in the height of the water table affect not only the Tuliptree Small-Stream Floodplain Forest, but also the Red Maple Seepage Swamp.

In fact, these two natural communities can be grouped into a larger landscape unit that ecologists refer to as the Stream and Riparian Ecological System. An ecological system is a group of several natural communities in the same vicinity 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.