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 Cover
30
%
Shrub Cover
50
%
Field Cover
70
%
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. The plot is representative of open, seasonally flooded woodlands occurring in the uppermost drawdown zones, between the open shoreline and the upland edge. Soils are typically very gravelly and cobbley, with a few wet sloughs. 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.
