Vascular Flora and Vegetation Classification of the South Atlantic Coastal Plain Limestone Forest Association of Central Georgia
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VASCULAR FLORA AND VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN LIMESTONE FOREST ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL GEORGIA by PATRICK SUMNER LYNCH (Under the Direction of J.L. Hamrick) ABSTRACT The South Atlantic Coastal Plain Limestone forest is a globally imperiled (G2) forest association known only from the upper Coastal Plain of central Georgia. These calcareous forest communities support diverse floristic assemblages unique among the Georgia Coastal Plain, but have not been subject to detailed floristic study. I conducted a comprehensive floristic inventory, multivariate community analyses and floristic quality assessments to document composition, elucidate community structure and underlying physiographic regimes, and assess habitat integrity for seven sites in Houston, Bleckley and Twiggs counties. Community analyses revealed twelve community types within two floristically defined domains corresponding to uplands and slopes, and bottomlands, respectively, and governed largely by moisture content and degree of inclination. Floristic quality assessments revealed varying degrees of floristic quality and habitat integrity corresponding primarily to local physiography and disturbance history. Floristic inventory recovered 339 vascular plant taxa representing 218 genera in 98 families, including 17 rare Georgia species. INDEX WORDS: Limestone forest, community analysis, floristic inventory, floristic quality assessment, Georgia, Coastal Plain. VASCULAR FLORA AND VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN LIMESTONE FOREST ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL GEORGIA by PATRICK SUMNER LYNCH B.S., The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2006 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2012 Patrick Sumner Lynch All Rights Reserved VASCULAR FLORA AND VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN LIMESTONE FOREST ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL GEORGIA by PATRICK SUMNER LYNCH Major Professor: J.L. Hamrick Committee: Lisa Donovan Aaron Thompson Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2012 DEDICATION To My Family iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my advisor, Dr. Wendy Zomlefer, for her encouragement as well as guidance with research design and implementation, data collection, plant identification and a host of additional considerations too lengthy to detail here. Without her help, this research would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Dr. Jim Hamrick for his considerable insight, patience and assistance in all facets pertaining to the development and preparation of this manuscript. Without his help, this thesis would not have been possible Thank you to committee members, past and present, including Dr. Aaron Thompson, Dr. Lisa Donovan and Dr. Becky Sharitz for all of their considerable expertise, wisdom and guidance over the past few years. I would like to thank Dr. Rick Lankau and Dr. Chris Peterson for their help with community classification, and Dr. David Giannasi for his assistance with plant identification. Thank you to all herbarium managers, past and present: Kristian Jones for her assistance in the field, Laura Lukas for help with plant identification and Brenda Wichmann for her help with community classification. I thank all of them for their continued moral support. Thank you to the staff of the University of Georgia, Department of Plant Biology, including Susan Watkins for all of her help navigating university bureaucracy, Brenda Merola for her help with grant distribution, and Kristin Meents and Shannon Kennedy for always being there when I needed something. Thank you to Dr. Richard Carter of Valdosta State University for cross-checking hundreds of possible county records against Valdosta State University herbarium holdings. I would like to thank Dr. Leticia Sonon and the University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences soil, plant and water laboratory for providing soil analyses and v supplementary funding. I also thank Tom Maddox and the University of Georgia, Odum School of Ecology, soil, plant and water analysis laboratory for supplemental soil analyses. I thank Chris Graham and Dr. Glenn Galau for their assistance in the field. Thanks to Jason Comer, my lab and office-mate for providing levity during the most trying times. Thank you to Ethan Milton for his friendship and for always defending me from me. I would also like to thank Dr. Sharon Mozley-Standridge and Zach Standridge for graciously opening their home to me during many trips to conduct field research. Your generosity knows no bounds. I would like to thank Tom Patrick, Matt Elliott, Raye Jones, Randy Wood and Bobby Bond of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources: Tom Patrick for introducing me to this project, field assistance and for his continued enthusiasm, both Raye Jones and Randy Wood for personally sharing their extensive knowledge of the area, Bobby Bond for always scheduling visits and for pulling me out of a ditch one particularly hot summer afternoon and Matt Elliott for helping identify research sites and assistance with funding. I also thank Sherry Carlson of the United States Department of Agriculture- Natural Resources Conservation Service for providing extensive soils maps and supplementary research materials. I thank several private property owners who graciously granted me access to their property including Mr. and Mrs. Gary J. Black, Kelvin Seagraves, Keith Holcomb, Joan Grantham, Thomas Hunt Jr., James Howard Jr. and Plum Creek Timber company, Inc. I would also like to thank land managers Keith Barnes and Ben Lindsey for giving me free rein to explore their respective properties. I especially thank the Georgia Botanical Society, Georgia Native Plant Society, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the University of Georgia, Department of Plant Biology for providing critical funding for this research. Without their help, this research would not have been possible. Last, but not least, I’d like to thank friends and family for a lifetime of support and encouragement. I would not be where I am today without all of them. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION & LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 1 Literature Cited ........................................................................................................................ 3 2 VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN LIMESTONE FOREST ASSOCIATION................................................................................ 4 Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6 Methods .................................................................................................................................. 11 Results .................................................................................................................................... 17 Discussion .............................................................................................................................. 32 Literature Cited ...................................................................................................................... 45 Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 75 3 VASCULAR FLORA OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN LIMESTONE FOREST ................................................................................................................................. 94 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 95 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 96 Physiographic Background .................................................................................................... 97 Climate ................................................................................................................................. 100 Methods ................................................................................................................................ 100 vii Results .................................................................................................................................. 104 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 115 Annotated List of Vascular Plant Taxa ................................................................................ 119 Literature Cited ...................................................................................................................