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 Height
5
m
Field Cover
70
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot was placed on the upstream side of transect #4 (and of tidal channel which drains marsh) to avoid data logger and to preclude inclusion of Alnus serrulata cover on downstream side. This sedge-dominated vegetation, however, extends upstream and downstream for several hundred meters in a 5-10 m band on the riverward side of Spartina cynosuroides, which dominates much of this portion of Gleason Marsh. Immediately adjacent to the Spartina, most of the stems of Eleocharis quadrangulata and Schoenoplectus pungens are senescent and heavily matted down. One hypothetical explanation is the recent increase in river discharge and storm surge following Hurricane Dennis. The much taller and more robust Spartina may have acted as a partial barrier to increased wave energy, which may have been reflexed outward onto the less robust sedges. Surface substrate is completely exposed at low tide. Very little Nuphar advena occurs adjacent to the plot, although it is much more abundant in the subtidal zone both upstream and downstream. Estimating cover is difficult because of widespread senescence; much of the Peltandra virginica and Pontederia cordata biomass is already beginning to decompose.
