I examine three aspects forest vegetation of northern Florida: the Land Office Survey records of the abundance and distribution of woody species across northern Florida in the early nineteenth century; the abundance and distribution of woody species across a sharp elevation gradient in the hardwood slope forests along the Apalachicola River; and the population decline of Torreya taxifolia. / Land Office Survey data was tabulated for all available bearing trees north of Gainesville. This study includes 131,227 trees sampled at 49,896 section corners and mid-point lines. This data tabulation shows that northern Florida was dominated by pines prior to U.S. settlement. Over 77 percent of bearing trees were pines. Pineland oaks are the next most abundant species after pine. Wetlands trees, such as bay, gum, and cypress were dominant species in the absence of pine. The mixed hardwood species are a diverse group, including beech, magnolia, and dogwood, with no clear dominant among them. / The second portion of this research examines the spatial relationships among the species of the hardwood slope forests along the Apalachicola River. Species distributions were sampled using 80 belt transects in four ravine systems. Species turnover across elevation is high, but measures of species diversity and forest structure do not change with elevation. Distribution patterns of the major species indicate that assemblages in the adjacent elevation samples in the middle and upper slope positions are more similar to one another than are assemblages from the lower elevations. The assemblages do not, however, appear to form sub-communities with respect to elevation. / Finally, I examine hypotheses for the decline of Torreya taxifolia, a narrowly endemic conifer native to ravines along the Apalachicola River. Included in this analysis of the torreya decline is a demographic summary of 108 torreya on preserve land. Most individual torreya are multiple stemmed and less than 14 years old. Further, these individuals are most frequently grown at low elevations and under moderate to dense canopy shade. Among the many hypotheses proposed to explain the decline, I present evidence that fire suppression may have allowed fungal populations to soar, contributing to the onset of disease. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: B, page: 5692. / Major Professor: Joseph Travis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78403 |
| Contributors | Schwartz, Mark William., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 181 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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