California Floristic Province

Conservation International proposed a strategy in 1998, to focus more specifically on areas of the California Floristic Province that contained the most human impact in order to lower the threat to the region.

The issues that are causing the most threats to this province include but are not limited to population pressures, loss of habitat, unsustainable resource use, and introduced non-native species.

[4] The California Floristic Province is one of the five biodiversity hotspots with Mediterranean climates, and it is characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters.

In Nevada, the CFP includes the region of the Sierra in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe, with the eastern border with the Great Basin corresponding roughly to the location of Reno-Carson City.

The six largest plant families in California by number of species (40% of all species of vascular plants) are:[citation needed] The province notably has giant sequoia forests, California oak woodlands (all native oaks in this ecosystem are endemic, with the exception of Quercus garryana which ranges into southwestern British Columbia) and redwood forests.

Other threats include invasive species colonisation, strip mining, oil extraction, air pollution, soil contamination, livestock grazing, wildfires (excessive heat or frequency types), and construction of building developments and roads.

Research done by United States Ecologist, Dr. Erik Beever, suggests that global warming may have had a hand in the local extinction of the pika populations in the Great Basin area east of the Sierra Nevada.

More research proposes that as the temperature keeps rising, alpine species will begin to migrate north looking for cooler climates that can support more of a sustainable habitat.

[4] Biodiversity hotspots face the highest threats due to the fact that their resources and animal or plant species cannot be replicated or found in any other regions on the planet.

The California Floristic Province contained more than 1,500 endemic species of vascular plants and had lost at least 70% of its original natural habitat, and so it became the eighth ranked hotspot in the world.