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 Height
28
m
Shrub Height
5
m
Field Height
5
m
Tree Cover
90
%
Shrub Cover
30
%
Field Cover
15
%
Nonvascular Cover
1
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Plot captures a dry oak-hickory-beech forest on a convex, upper ravine slope. Quartz fragments are common on the soil surface here. Quercus coccinea, Quercus alba, Carya alba, and Carya glabra constitute most of the overstory. Acer rubrum dominates the understory with Fagus grandifolia, which has also reached the overstory. The lack of oak and hickory recruitment and the abundance of Acer rubrum and Fagus in the understory suggest a response to fire exclusion and a successional shift to more mesophytic forest.