Baldocchi, D. D., Chen, Q., Chen, X., Ma, S., Miller, G., Ryu, Y., & Battles, J. (2010). The dynamics of energy, water and carbon fluxes in a blue oak (Quercus douglasii) savanna in California, USA. Ecosystem Function in Global Savannas: Measurement and Modeling at Landscape to Global Scales. CRC/Taylor and Francis, New York, 135-151. https://nature.berkeley.edu/biometlab/pdf/Flux%20dynamics%20in%20a%20blue%20oak%20savanna%20in%20California%20revised.pdf
Oak trees and their savanna woodlands have played many important roles in the history, development and ecology of California, and the American West (Pavlik et al. 1991; Tyler, Kuhn,
and Davis 2006). Starting with the Spanish Mission period through today, cattle have grazed the oak savanna, producing beef for our dinner, leather for our shoes and tallow for our soap. In the mid 19th century, 49’ers mined the oak savanna for gold and used its wood for cooking, heating and building mine shafts. Today, the oak savanna provides many ecological services and benefits to the region. Oak savannas vegetate the watersheds of the many rivers stemming from the Sierra Nevada and Coastal mountain ranges. By doing so, they protect the soils of this hilly terrain, they provide habitat for wildlife and acorns that have sustained the Native American population and wildlife for millennia. From a hydrologic perspective, runoff from these watersheds provides water for a large fraction of California’s multi-billion dollar agricultural economy and its population of 35 million, plus, inhabitants.