Soils, litter, and plant communities were sampled at 11 locations along an elevation gradient from subalpine woodland to saline semidesert. All soils were derived from granite, and the transect represents decreasing intensity of leaching and increasing nutrient accumulation toward more arid climates. Concentrations of Na, K, Ca, and Mg in water-soluble, exchangeable, and acid-soluble surface and subsurface soil fractions increased toward lower elevations in the residual soils of mountain slopes, but not all concentrations were significantly correlated with elevation. Soil K concentrations were higher in communities with a tree stratum, presumably because tree uptake and foliage leaching keep a larger pool of K in circulation. The four elements, but especially Na, increased rapidly toward lower elevations in the bajada soils below the mountains. Nutrient concentrations tended to increase toward lower elevations in surface litter and in native plant foliage. Litter nutrient pools were maximal at upper-middle elevations in pine forest to pine-oak woodland, and decreased toward highest and toward lower elevations (but showed a secondary maximum in the saline semidesert of lowest elevations). Foliage nutrient concentrations were more strongly correlated with the acid-soluble than with the water-soluble or exchangeable soil fractions, and the acid-soluble fraction may better represent long-term availability in steady-state flow to the plant community than the other fractions. Tissue nutrient concentrations ofAvena fatuagrown in pots in surface and subsurface soils from the different sites were more consistent than the different nutrient concentrations of native species in the same soils. Most relationships observed were curvilinear; the measurements taken reflect complexly interrelated aspects of the nutrient designs of ecosystems as these change in response to difference in climate and soil-forming processes.