PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 31: Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species
Thursday, August 11, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Comparisons among habitat variables of TES plants of the southeastern Fall-line Sandhills.
Madden, Kathryn*,1, Sharitz, Rebecca1, Imm, Don2, Turner, Susan1, 1 Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Aiken, SC, USA2 USDA-Forest Service, Savannah River, New Ellenton, SC, USA
ABSTRACT- In the southeastern United States, military installations located along the Fall-line ecoregion are home to many rare sandhills taxa. The ability to predict occurrence of sandhills woodlands that might contain rare species on these intensely utilized lands would lead to a multiple species management approach to conservation for these species. Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina contain sandhills woodlands across a range of varying military training and forest management activities. Sixty-three populations of selected threatened, endangered, or sensitive (TES) listed sandhills plant species were surveyed to describe and quantify woody and herbaceous vegetation and also soil and other environmental variables. Emerging trends include, woodlands dominated by a similar suite of species in varying composition of oaks and pines. An NMDS ordination of canopy data reveals that TES populations, regardless of installation, occur on sites classified as dry hardwood woodland, mixed pine-oak woodland, dry pine savanna, and xeric barrens. Similarly, soils throughout all the sampled populations are excessively sandy with low soil moisture and organic content. In contrast, an NMDS ordination of herbaceous data reveals that TES sites within the same installations are more similar to one another and group closer together. Preliminary data of TES plant densities suggest a relationship between abundance and canopy openness. These data are used to build species-specific models to aid land stewards in predicting potential occurrence of TES habitat in the southeastern Fall-line ecoregion.
Key words: Sandhills, Fall-line, TES