Plant
communities
Donald
W. Imm and Kenneth W. McLeod
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Drawer E, Aiken,
South Carolina 29802, USA
The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a predominantly forested tract that lies
below the Piedmont and north of the Savannah River. It is in the Sandhill
and Upper Coastal Plain physiographic regions. Most of the area occupied
by the SRS was once used for agriculture and is now forested with mid-
to late-successional plant communities. This section will describe the
general vegetation types on the varied landscape of the SRS, identify
the factors that regulate or influence the dynamics of each type, and
discuss the general impact of current forest management practices and
past land-use activities. First, we discuss environmental factors that
influence plant distribution (and, hence, community composition); second,
we describe previously reported classifications of vegetation cover types
on SRS; and finally, we present general descriptions of SRS vegetation
types and plant communities.
Each broad type of vegetation is typically composed of predictable suites
of species, though the range of variation within a type may encompass
several distinct subtypes, or “communities.” The appendix
lists
scientific names and the occurrence of other species in SRS vegetation
types. Nomenclature follows Radford, Ahles, and Bell (1968). Tables, the
appendix, and interpretations are based on published and unpublished data
collected from SRS, review of other SRS studies, and information from
the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) and the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources (GADNR) heritage programs.
SREL
Reprint #2914
Imm, D.W. and K.W. McLeod. 2005. Plant communities. p. 106-161. In Biotic Communities. In Ecology and Management of a Forested Landscape: Fifty Years on the Savannah River Site, edited by J.C. Kilgo and J.I. Blake. Island Press. Washington, DC.
