Wet-Mesic Flatwoods Communitywet-Mesic Flatwoods, Abstract Page 1
Wet-mesic Flatwoods CommunityWet-mesic Flatwoods, Abstract Page 1 Historical Range Prevalent or likely prevalent Infrequent or likely infrequent Absent or likely absent Photo by Suzan L. Campbell Overview: Wet-mesic flatwoods is a somewhat Rank Justification: The acreage of wet-mesic poorly drained to poorly drained forest on mineral flatwoods present in Michigan circa 1800 is difficult soils dominated by a mixture of lowland and upland to determine because the community type has hardwoods. The community occurs exclusively on characteristics that overlap those of several of the glacial lakeplain in southeastern Lower Michigan, forest types mapped based on General Land Office where an impermeable clay layer in the soil profile (GLO) survey notes, primarily hardwood swamp and contributes to poor internal drainage. Seasonal beech-sugar maple forest (Comer et al. 1995a, Kost hydrologic fluctuations and windthrow are important et al. 2007). Analysis of GLO survey notes reveals natural disturbances that influence community structure, that lowland forest dominated by hardwoods covered species composition, and successional trajectory of wet- approximately 570,000 ha (1,400,000 ac) of southern mesic flatwoods. Lower Michigan circa 1800 (Comer et al. 1995a). These stands were characterized by mixed hardwoods Global and State Rank: G2G3/S2 (490,000 ha or 1,200,000 ac), black ash (77,000 ha or 190,000 ac), elm (5,300 ha or 13,000 ac), and silver Range: Flatwoods communities characterized by maple-red maple (4,000 ha or 10,000 ac). The majority relatively flat topography, slowly permeable to of lowland forest acreage in southern Lower Michigan impermeable subsurface soil layers, and seasonal was associated with stream and river floodplains, hydrologic fluctuation occur scattered throughout the and is classified as floodplain forest (Tepley et al.
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