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
1000
m²
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Tree Height
36
m
Shrub Height
6
m
Field Height
75
m
Tree Cover
75
%
Shrub Cover
25
%
Field Cover
45
%
Nonvascular Cover
5
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
This moderate, lower slope along the New River supports an impressive, old-age, fairly rich mixed oak stand. A 1000 square meter quadrat was sampled in order to adequately represent the distribution of overstory trees ranging up to 90 cm DBH and 36 m tall. Soils here appear to be fairly deep but stony colluvium weathered from metasiltstone / phyllite of the Hampton Formation, which is well exposed upslope. The overstory is more or less co-dominated by Quercus alba and Q. montana, with Q. rubra, Carya glabra, Liriodendron tulipifera, Acer rubrum, and Tilia americana var. heterophylla also present in lower numbers. A large Quercus rubra was rooted just upslope but overhanging the plot, and a downfall gap was present in the central upslope part of the plot. Woody and overall species richness are quite impressive (38 taxa and 93 taxa per 1000 sq.m.). The herb layer is patchy but contains a diverse mixture of forbs, ferns, and graminoids, including a number of nutrient-demanding species. Developmentally, this stand is suffering from oak decline, with the little oak recruitment present greatly outnumbered by that of Acer rubrum and Betula lenta.
