How Do You Rate This Publication?       

Title:	Composition and species diversity of pine-wiregrass savannas of the Green Swamp, North Carolina
Author(s):	Walker, Joan; Peet, Robert K.
Date:	1983
Source:	Vegetatio 55, 163 179 (1983).
Description:	Fire-maintained, species-rich pines wiregrass savannas in the Green Swamp, North Carolina were sampled over their natural range of environmental conditions and fire frequencies. Species composition, species richness, diversity (Exp H', I/ C), and aboveground production were documented and fertilization experiments conducted to assess possible mechanisms for the maintenance of high species diversity in these communities. Although savanna composition varies continuously, DECORANA ordination and TWINSPAN classification of 2 I sites facilitated recognition of 3 community types: dry, mesic, and wet savannas. These savannas are remarkably species-rich with up to 42 species/O.25 m2 and 84 species/625 m2. Maximum richness occurred on mesic, annually burned sites. Aboveground production, reported as peak standing crop, was only 293 g*m2 on a frequently burned mesic savanna but was significantly higher (375 g*m2) on an infrequently burned mesic site. Production values from fertilized high and low fire frequency sites were equivalent. Monthly harvest samples showed that savanna biomass composition by species groups did not vary seasonally, but within groups the relative importance of species showed clear phenological progressions. The variation in species richness with fire frequency is consistent with non-equilibrium theories of species diversity, while phenological variation in production among similar species and the changing species composition across the moisture gradient suggest the importance of equilibrium processes for maintenance of savanna diversity.
	View and Print this Publication (528 KB)
Pristine Version:	An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here: View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (1.7 MB)
Publication Notes:	We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain. Our on-line publications are scanned and captured using Adobe Acrobat. During the capture process some typographical errors may occur. Please contact the SRS Webmaster, srswebmaster@fs.fed.us if you notice any errors which make this publication unuseable.
	Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility