PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #13: Restoration Ecology.
Tuesday, August 7, 2001. Presentation from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM. Exhibition Hall

Carolina Bay restoration: vegetation assessment of Lost Lake after 9 years.

Scott, Irvin ¹, Dyer, Andrew¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Lost Lake, a large Carolina Bay in the M Area of the Savannah River Site, SC, was stripped of vegetation and contaminated topsoil then replanted with common herbaceous vegetation in 1991. In summer 2000, using line transects, we surveyed the vegetation of Lost Lake to determine whether 9 years of natural and assisted revegetation had resulted in the re-establishment of a plant community resembling that of less disturbed Carolina Bays. We found higher cover in areas with greater soil disturbance, but dominance of weedy species also increased. We found no significant difference in cover or species richness in areas with soil fertility amendments despite evidence for such differences following restoration activities. Mean and total species richness increased with time since inundation reflecting a successional gradient with distance from the shoreline. We suggest that the convergence of vegetation toward less disturbed Carolina Bays is related to the hydrological cycle and has been slowed by recent dry conditions in the southeast. If long-term development is related to repeated hydrological cycles, there is a possibility that intensive human intervention may be unnecessary in Carolina Bay restoration.

KEY WORDS: Carolina Bay, revegetation, soil disturbance, wetland restoration