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
1
m
Field Cover
80
%
Misc Fields:
Observation Narrative
Rectangular plots seem to be the rule in these Taskinas Creek marshes where pronounced zonation reflects apparently steep gradients of halinity and hydroperiod. A zone of Spartina alterniflora and S. patens occupies a narrow (generally only 10-12 m wide) zone between the creek and interior salt meadow dominated by S. patens and Distichlis spicata. In this stand S. alterniflora is the clear dominant, but S. patens is an important associate, particularly toward the interior (toward the salt meadow). The absence of any surface water and the height of the marsh surface relative to the creek surface at the time of sampling suggest that this zone -- and indeed the entire marsh perhaps -- may not flood with every tidal cycle. Substrate is less firm and more uneven than in two previous plots along Taskinas Creek. The creek, a zone of S. cynosuroides, and the Distichlis-S. patens vegetation occupy from left to right, respectively, the background of the photo.
At least two additional patchy vegetation types are present more or less upstream in this marsh. A zone of Spartina alterniflora and Schoenoplectus americanus extends over an undetermined area, and one discrete patch of Juncus roemerianus occupies ca. 500 sq. m.
Light to dark gray, organic-rich, mucky clay; more shoot than root material in upper 10 cm; evidently higher clay content than in plots YRSP002 and YRSP003, but fine fibric organic matter still abounds
