releve 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
400
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
26
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
75
m
Tree Cover
80
%
Shrub Cover
70
%
Field Cover
20
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot located at mid-slope of a low ridge sideslope underlain, at least partly, by carbonate rocks. Forest vegetation here is a dry-mesic, oak-hickory-sugar maple stand with Ostrya virginiana and Cercis canadensis forming a fairly dense understory. Many low-cover shrubs and herbs contribute to high species-richness. Like many similar stands in the Ridge and Valley, oaks are recruiting poorly and abundant sugar maple in the understory suggests that overstory composition is changing from an oak-hickory association to one dominated by sugar maple. Herbaceous cover seems abnormally low; deer herbivory impacts are suspected of being the likely cause.