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Joshua Tree National Park Ecosystem
Joshua Tree encompasses three of California's ecoregions. Its geology shows the effects of plate tectonics, volcanism, mountain-building, and stark erosion. With elevations ranging from 536 feet to over 5000 feet above sea level, the park is home to a diversity of biological communities found nowhere else in such proximity. Sand dunes, dry lakes, oases, extraordinarily rugged mountains, granitic monoliths,and earthquake faults are all found within its nearly 800,000 acres. Each feature makes its contribution to the natural tapestry of the southwest.
Maine ocean islands provide the only nesting sites for Atlantic puffins in the United States. Eastern Egg Rock in the midcoast region, Seal Island and Matinicus Rock at the mouth of Penobscot Bay, and Machias Seal Island and Petit Manan Island off the downeast coast provide habitat for more than 4,000 puffins each summer.