Natural Communities of New Hampshire
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Natural Communities of New Hampshire Second Edition Daniel D. Sperduto William F. Nichols New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau NEW HAMPSHIRE NATURAL HERITAGE BUREAU To administer the New Hampshire Native Plant Protection Act (RSA 217-A), the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau (NH Natural Heritage) collects and analyzes data on the status, location, and distribution of native plant species and natural communities in the state. In addition, the bureau develops and implements measures for the protection, conservation, enhancement, and management of native New Hampshire plants and natural communities, determines which plant species are threatened and endangered, and acts as an information resource program to assist and advise state and local agencies, and the public. NH Natural Heritage is located within the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development’s Division of Forests and Lands. It is not a regulatory agency; instead, the bureau works with landowners and land managers to help them protect New Hampshire’s natural heritage and meet their land-use needs. NH Natural Heritage is an excellent source of information on plants and natural communities in New Hampshire, including their ecology and distribution in the state. It maintains the state’s only comprehensive database of New Hampshire’s exemplary natural communities, exemplary natural community systems, rare plants, and rare animals, including their known locations. Rare wildlife locations are maintained in cooperation with the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, which has legal authority over all wildlife in the state. The bureau is also a member of the NatureServe network, which connects nearly 80 Natural Heritage Programs throughout the United States, Canada, and several Latin and South American countries. THE CONSERVATION LICENSE PLATE The NH Natural Heritage Bureau received significant funding for this project from New Hampshire’s Conservation License Plate program (the “Moose Plate”). Purchase of a Conservation License Plate promotes, protects, and invests in New Hampshire’s natural, cultural, and historic resources. You can purchase a Conservation License Plate at your municipal office, whether you are registering your car for the first time or renewing an existing registration. In addition, you can purchase a gift certificate for someone else to use when registering or renewing his or her car. For details about the Conservation License Plate Program, visit: www.mooseplate.com. Natural Communities of New Hampshire Second Edition Daniel D. Sperduto William F. Nichols Edited by Ben Kimball and Pete Bowman The New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau 2012 Sperduto, D.D. and William F. Nichols. 2011. Natural Communities of New Hampshire. 2 nd Ed. NH Natural Heritage Bureau, Concord, NH. Pub. UNH Cooperative Extension, Durham, NH. © 2011, 2005 , 2004 by the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau. All rights reserved. ISBN 0–9719675–3–9 (1 st Edition) Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 7 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ............................................................................................................................ 8 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 9 Why Classify Natural Communities? ...................................................................................................... 9 Classification Approach and Limits ...................................................................................................... 10 Natural Community Systems ................................................................................................................. 11 Field Identification of Natural Communities ......................................................................................... 11 Exemplary Natural Communities .......................................................................................................... 12 CLASSIFICATION FORMAT ................................................................................................................. 12 PATTERNS IN THE LANDSCAPE: THE NATURAL DIVISIONS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ........ 15 Climate and regional vegetation patterns .............................................................................................. 15 Landforms ............................................................................................................................................. 16 Ecological regions: sections and subsections ........................................................................................ 18 Open uplands .............................................................................................................................................. 21 Alpine and subalpine communities ........................................................................................................ 21 Alpine herbaceous snowbank and other wet-mesic alpine communities ....................................... 22 • Alpine herbaceous snowbank/rill (S1) ............................................................................. 22 • Moist alpine herb - heath meadow (S1) ........................................................................... 24 • Alpine ravine shrub thicket (S1S2) .................................................................................. 24 Dwarf shrub - sedge - rush meadows and shrublands .................................................................... 25 • Alpine heath snowbank (S1S2) ........................................................................................ 25 • Bigelow’s sedge meadow (S1) ......................................................................................... 26 • Sedge - rush - heath meadow (S1) ................................................................................... 26 • Subalpine dwarf shrubland (S2) ....................................................................................... 27 • Diapensia shrubland (S1) ................................................................................................. 28 Krummholz and heath - krummholz .............................................................................................. 29 • Black spruce - balsam fir krummholz (S2S3) .................................................................. 29 • Labrador tea heath - krummholz (S2) .............................................................................. 30 • Sheep laurel - Labrador tea heath - krummholz (S2) ....................................................... 31 Sparsely vegetated alpine and subalpine communities................................................................... 32 • Felsenmeer barren (S2) .................................................................................................... 32 • Subalpine rocky bald (S2) ................................................................................................ 32 Landslides and talus barrens ................................................................................................................ 33 • Montane landslide barren and thicket (S3S4) .................................................................. 33 • Montane lichen talus barren (S3) ..................................................................................... 34 • Temperate lichen talus barren (S2S3) .............................................................................. 35 Cliffs ...................................................................................................................................................... 35 • Montane - subalpine acidic cliff (S4) ............................................................................... 36 • Montane - subalpine circumneutral cliff (S2S3) .............................................................. 37 • Temperate acidic cliff (S4) .............................................................................................. 38 • Temperate circumneutral cliff (S2) .................................................................................. 39 Rocky maritime communities ................................................................................................................. 40 • Maritime cobble beach (S1) ............................................................................................. 40 • Maritime rocky barren (S2).............................................................................................. 41 • Maritime meadow (S1) .................................................................................................... 41 • Maritime shrub thicket (S1) ............................................................................................. 42 Coastal dunes and inland beach strands ............................................................................................... 43 1 Open coastal dune communities ..................................................................................................... 43 • Maritime sandy beach (S1) .............................................................................................. 43 • Beach grass grassland (S1) .............................................................................................. 44 • Hudsonia maritime shrubland (S1) .................................................................................