Intensive Virginia Division of Natural Heritage, see http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/documents/nh_plotform_instructions.pdf
Overall Taxon Cover Values are Automatically Calculated?
no
Stem Observation Area
1000
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
13
m
Tree Cover
50
%
Shrub Cover
40
%
Field Cover
20
%
Nonvascular Cover
5
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The vegetation on this southwest-facing slope is considerably more open and appears surprisingly less xeric than on the north-trending ridges in other parts of Poor Mountain NAP. Cover of ground-layer vegetation is much lower here than in plot POOR004P, for example, with Vaccinium pallidum the only abundant and ubiquitous species. Buckleya distichophylla is present but is much less abundant than in south-central portion of the preserve. Mortality of Pinus pungens is conspicuous and widespread but not uniform. That scattered, seemingly healthy individuals remains suggests a cause other than stand-level outbreak of southern pine beetle, and degree of bark sloughing and crown decay suggests that mortality occurred more than a decade ago. To the east along the slope, as the aspect shifts to southern and southeastern, vegetation grades into somewhat more mesic forest dominated by Quercus montana and Carya glabra, with a very open understory.
Compositional data for modules 2 and 3 collected by Philip Coulling.
