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
5
m
Tree Cover
85
%
Shrub Cover
40
%
Field Cover
5
%
Nonvascular Cover
0.5
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot located in an extensive flatwoods, about 160 meters from the boundary of Sandy Bottom Nature Park and Interstate 64. Site supports mature forest with good-sized trees, mostly 40-60 cm DBH but occasionally ranging up to ca. 100 cm DBH. Overstory composed of mixed Fagus grandifolia, Quercus spp., and a little Pinus taeda. A 1000 square meter plot was sampled in order to capture the full canopy diversity, as a smaller plot would have excluded one or more of the oaks. Both compositionally (in its inclusion of such species as Quercus michauxii, Q. pagoda, Symplocos tinctoria, and Clethra alnifolia) and environmentally (in its occurrence of flat Coastal topography), this stand is reminiscent of mesic mixed hardwood forests of swamp "islands" in the Great Dismal Swamp and elsewhere in far southeastern Virginia.
