NJ Natural Heritage Program, NJDEP Division of Parks and Forestry, Office of Natural Lands Management, 22 S. Clinton Ave, Plaza Bldg 4, Fl. 4, PO Box 404 Trenton, NJ, 08625-0404
N. of intersection of Duck Pond Road and Dove Island Road, off of Duck Pond Rd. (now a handicap path for Swartswood SP). Transect located between large Sycamore hollow at base on W shore to double ash on E shore.
GPS readings for other 3 plot corners: 1-NW) 41.06738, -74.82004; 2-SW) 41.06737, -74.82002; 3-SE) 41.06741, -74.82
Shape
Rectangular
Area
10
m²
Permanence
permanent plot
Layout Narrative
Plot is 2 x 5 m, 61-63 m along the W side of the transect.
Environment Fields:
Elevation
149.7
m
Slope Aspect
135
º
Slope Gradient
14
º
Topographic Position
Lowslope
Landscape Narrative
General Landscape Description: The area is best characterized as a karst terrain with ridges and valleys that are forested and scattered sinkhole depressions amongst the ridges. Some of the sinkholes are large enough to have several topographic levels - terraced, the lowest in the ponds, middle terrrace supporting floodplain forest, and the upper slopes with calcareous forest (mature and successional).
Known Land Use History: farming (stone wall across pond).
Average pH of Mineral Soil: 7.6 (blue and red)
Environmental Comments: Scattered plants amongst bedrock and downed logs.
Overall Taxon Cover Values are Automatically Calculated?
no
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(1) occurrence plot: sufficient for determining type occurrence
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Dominant Stratum
Herb
Growthform1 Type
Herbs
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Community Type: calcareous sinkhole pond
General Description: This community occurs in solution sinkholes on Allentown Dolomite with surficial deposits of glacial till/bedrock complex. Very rarely it will also occur on glacial outwash (kettles). Soils are shallow silt loam, silty clay loam, silty clay, or rarely silt marl, overlaying clay or bedrock. It may also occur, very rarely, on marly muck over peat. Small dolomite rocks are often present on the soil surface. The soils are periodically inundated and are categorized as somewhat poorly drained, poorly drained or very poorly drained. This pondshore community is seasonally flooded. The hydroperiod ranges from 4-14 weeks, averaging 8-10 weeks, with seasonal water level fluctuations as great as eighteen (18) feet in elevation. Slope is flat, gentle or moderate. Aspect is flat, north, northwest, northeast, south or southeast. A vegetation gradient often exists within this community type. The upper shore or narrow terrace of a pond may be dominated by Panicum longifolium, Carex pellita and Panicum lanuginosum var. tennesseense with scattered Aster racemosus and Boltonia asteroides var. asteroides. This graminoid and forb mix grades into a wide zone of the typical Boltonia-Aster-Mentha forb-dominated type mid-slope. Downslope it grades into the Panicum capillare - Cyperus strigosus graminoid zone with scattered Boltonia, Aster or Mentha. The zonation and species dominance vary temporally and spatially with changes in groundwater hydrology. This community is most often associated with the Platanus occidentalis – Fraxinus pennsylvanica – Ulmus americana / Cornus sericea floodplain terrace forest community, the Panicum capillare - Cyperus strigosus community and the Chara non-vascular aquatic community.
