maritime forest environments develop under the influence of salt aerosols restricted distribution...
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Maritime Forest Environments
• Develop under the influence of salt aerosols
• Restricted distribution
• Shear edge created by salt aerosols
Maritime Forest Environments
• Species adapted to:– Low salt aerosols– low soil nutrients– sandy soils
Loblolly Pine (Pinus (Pinus taeda)taeda)
Loblolly pine is the most common pine in the maritime forest. It typically is successional and is replaced by live or laurel oak in the southeastern US.
Wax Myrtle (Myrica pennsylvanica)
• Northern Bayberry is common in thickets and forests from Cape Hatteras northward into New England
• Bayberry candles are made from the waxy coating on the berries
Dogwood (Cornus florida)
Poison Ivy Poison Ivy
(Rhus toxicodendron)(Rhus toxicodendron)
Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
Resurrection Fern (Polypodium polypoidies)
Fern with adequate Fern with adequate moisturemoisture
Fern during drought conditions
Development of Maritime Forests
• Develop on coastal dune systems
• Sterile sandy soils
• Hummocky topography
• Begin as scattered shrubs
Impact of hurricanes on maritime forest vegetation. Pines are typically snapped off; cabbage palms survive. Live oak and magnolia have branches and leaves ripped off.
Natural Impacts on Maritime ForestsNatural Impacts on Maritime Forests
Large migrating dunes are capable of overwhelming shrub and forest vegetation
Significant Human Impacts
• Fragmentation occurs when development occurs within a continuous forest
Forest opened to Forest opened to salt aerosol salt aerosol impacts when impacts when development development occursoccurs
Freshwater Wetland Environments
• Ponds, swamps, marshes
• Form where water table intersects ground surface
Freshwater Wetland Environments
• Receive groundwater input from adjacent dunes
• Influenced by groundwater and rainfall
Water flows from adjacent dunes into slough between dunes
Tidal Marsh Environments
• Develop in areas protected from wave attack
• Topographically flat, incised with drainage creeks
Tidal Marsh Environments
• Alternately exposed and covered by tides daily
• “Pulse-stable environments
Tidal Marsh Environment
• Saltmeadow Cordgrass (Spartina patens)
• Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora)
Zonation
• Cordgrass dominant above and below mean tide level
• Many other species dominant above average high tides
Black Needlerush (Juncus roemerianus)
Black Needlerush is common at the upper edge of the tidal marsh where the tide floods only occasionally
Black NeedlerushBlack Needlerush
Glassworts (Salicornia
spp.)
These succulent plants grow in the most salinr environments in the tidal marsh area
Batis (Batis maritima)
This succulent, similar to glasswort, is common in the southern United States
Formation of Tidal Marsh
• Sand and mudflats colonized by smooth cordgrass– must reach critical
elevation– seed falls on flats– spread by rhizomes
Typical environments colonized by smooth cordgrass primarily by seeds
Formation of Tidal Marsh
Sand flats are colonized by clumps of smooth cordgrass. Alternatively, the sand flats can be colonized by germinating seeds of smooth cordgrass.
Colonization by Spartina alterniflora
Formation of Tidal Marsh
• Sand flats may become uniformly vegetated in 2-5 years
• Creeks become incised as community matures