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
Plot Quality Fields:
Plot Validation Level
(2) classification plot: sufficient for inclusion in a classification revision
Overall Plot Vegetation Fields:
Field Cover
90
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
The plot is located on exposed, late season drawdown shores that cover hundreds of acres at the upper end of the Kerr Reservoir. Here, the natural river hydrology meets the impounded waters of the reservoir, creating an unusual situation in which shorelines are subject to an annual flooding and drawdown cycle imposed by the reservoir while also being subject to occasional powerful floods and alluvial deposition. This plot is representative of average habitat conditions intermediate between the mud flat variant of the outermost shore zones (the last to draw down) and the sandy gravelly upper shore variant (the first to draw down). It has much higher species richness than either variant (see plots KERR003 and 004 from this site). Although not strictly natural, this community has consistent composition and structure over a large area and may replicate drawdown communities present in the pre-impoundment basin.
