Vegetative Communities

A text document containing the following informational sections: vegetative communiites, cypress forests, cypress domes, cypress prairie, cypress strand, mixed hardwood and cypress swamps, marshes, hardwood hammock, herbaceous prairie, mixed hardwood-cypress strand, pine forest, pine forest with cypress associates, mangrove forests, and distubred area. Vegetative communities in Big Cypress National Preserve are mostly hydric, sub-tropical forested systems. Mesic forests occur mostly in the northern part of the preserve (mostly north of I-75), where pine flatwoods and hardwood hammocks are common. These communities are less common to the south, but occur as flatwoods or hardwood islands surrounded by wetlands, or tropical hardwood hammocks near the coast. Virtually all other communities in the preserve are hydric, and are forested (swamps) or are dominnated by ground cover (marshes or wet prairies). Communities near the coast, and influenced by tides, are dominated by mangrove swamps or salt marshes. Gunderson et al. (1982) classified communities in Big Cypress in four major associations: 1- pine habitats; 2- mixed hardwood associations; 3- freshwater swamps; and 4- marshes and prairies, based on vegetative assemblages outlined by Davis (1943), Craighead (1971), McPherson (1973), and Duever et al. (1979). These authors identified communities within the major assemblages primarily by dominant vegetation and physiognomy. This treatment of vegetative communities will consider communities similarly, and will include differences in physical ecological components of the communities.