The Structure and Composition of Vegetation in the Lake-Fill Peatlands of Indiana
2001. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 1 10:51-78 THE STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF VEGETATION IN THE LAKE-FILL PEATLANDS OF INDIANA Anthony L. Swinehart 1 and George R. Parker: Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Daniel E. Wujek: Department of Biology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859 ABSTRACT. The vegetation of 16 lake-fill peatlands in northern Indiana was systematically sampled. Peatland types included fens, tall shrub bogs, leatherleaf bogs and forested peatlands. No significant difference in species richness among the four peatland types was identified from the systematic sampling. Vegetation composition and structure, along with water chemistry variables, was analyzed using multi- variate statistical analysis. Alkalinity and woody plant cover accounted for much of the variability in the herbaceous and ground layers of the peatlands, and a successional gradient separating the peatlands was evident. A multivariate statistical comparison of leatherleaf bogs from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire was made on the basis of vegetation composition and frequency and five climatic variables. The vascular vegetation communities of Indiana peatlands and other peatlands in the southern Great Lakes region are distinct from those in the northeastern U.S., Ohio and the northern Great Lakes. Some of these distinctions are attributed to climatic factors, while others are related to biogeo- graphic history of the respective regions. Keywords: Peatlands, leatherleaf bogs, fens, ecological succession, phytogeography Within midwestern North America, the such as Chamaedaphne calyculata, Androm- northern counties of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio eda glaucophylla, and Carex oligospermia of- 1 represent the southern extent of peatland com- ten make "southern outlier peatlands ' con- munities containing characteristic plant spe- spicuous to botanists, studies of such cies of northern or boreal affinity.
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