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.
 | Open Park Map |
 | Compare Natural Communities |
In This Community
Important natural processes in the Chestnut Oak Forest include these:
- occasional fire
- canopy gap formation
- processes that create extreme dryness in the soils
- mycorrhiza (symbiotic relationships between fungi and plant roots that enable heaths to get by in these harsh soil conditions) Ecobit: Mycorrhiza—Behind the Scenes Help
- exposure to sun, wind, and storms
- erosion
In the Broader Landscape
The natural processes above are also important in some other natural communities. For example, in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, three natural communities (see chart below) have dry, acidic soil, occur on slopes facing south or west, and can survive (or even depend on) occasional fire.
These three natural communities can be grouped into a larger unit that ecologists refer to as the Dry Oak - Pine Forests Ecological System in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. An ecological system is a group of several natural communities that share some features of physical setting and many of the same natural processes.
By extension, they may also share many of the same plant and animal species.
For example, all of these natural communities contain oaks that thrive in dry soils and survive fires, such as chestnut oak.
Ecobit: Natural Processes Are Bigger Than Natural Communities