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
31
m
Shrub Height
2
m
Field Height
3
m
Tree Cover
70
%
Shrub Cover
30
%
Field Cover
7
%
Nonvascular Cover
3
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
This plot is located in the same extensive, poorly drained flatwoods as SPOT003, sampled in 2008. This areas supports mature, post-Civil War forests of large (50 - 95 cm DBH) hydrophytic oaks, sweetgum, and red maple. Two additional plots were sampled in 2009 to capture the range of compositional variation in the forest. This plot represents an area that is co-dominated by mixed oaks - Quercus palustris, Q. phellos, Q. michauxii, and Q. alba - along with Nyssa sylvatica and Liquidambar styraciflua. The shrub layer is quite open, with Vaccinium fuscatum, V. formosum, and Viburnum nudum contributing most of the patchy cover. Herbs are fairly sparse, except for a discrete, 2 sq.m. clone of Carex emoryi, a very unusual sedge for the Coastal Plain. Shallow surface water, representing a slow sheet flow, was present over 25% of the plot at the time of the survey. Bryophyte cover is a combination of Sphagnum spp. on the ground and other mosses at the base of trees, on lateral (above-ground) roots.
