NATL-west has nearly a third of its area devoted to each of these three upland ecosystems. NATL-east has only hammock and a large central marsh.
In addition there are smaller areas devoted to these aquatic or transitional ecosystems.Soils and invasives (all ecosystems)
Soils are an important component of all ecosystems. Personnel in the
Soil and Water Science Department,
led by Dr. Mary E. Collins, have completed an exhaustive inventory of NATL-west
soils. The final report of the survey is delayed until laboratory
analyses of the samples are completed. In 2000 Dr. Collins
provided a 115-page preliminary report. (Its title
page, soil map, and summary are posted separately here.)
In 2008, Ron Kuehl completed a fine-scale survey of the soils of the old-field successional plots.
Invasive exotic plants are a continuing problem in NATL's ecosytems even though eradication efforts have been pursued for more than a decade. Visit the page on controlling invasives to learn what invasives are most threatening and what has been and is being done to control them.
| Hammock Ecosystem |  Click
on thumbnail to see photo gallery of Hammock Ecosystem |
Hammock ecosystems are among Florida's most diverse and are characterized by thick stands of shade-tolerant hardwoods and few pines. Understory vegetation may be quite sparse. Hammocks occur on rolling terrain. The soils vary from somewhat poorly to well drained, are high in nutrients, and contain more organic material and litter than drier sites. Hammocks occur commonly in north central Florida and sparingly elsewhere in Florida. The largest historic hammock areas are near Brooksville, Ocala, and Gainesville.
Some of the most common plants in this community are black cherry, flowering dogwood, laurel oak, live oak, pignut hickory, American beautyberry, sparkleberry, common greenbriar, wild grape, and blackberry. Animal species include spring peeper, broadhead skink, Florida box turtle, pileated woodpecker, tufted titmouse, cardinal, carolina wren, and gray squirrel.
By suppressing naturally occurring fires, humans have caused many natural upland pine communities to be succeeded by hammock-like communities. Normally, hammock plants that invade adjacent upland pine are killed by fire. If fire is suppressed, the hammock vegetation continues to grow and eventually shades out and replaces the plants characteristic of upland pine.
Management
Unlike the old-field successional plots, which must be cleared and tilled at predetermined intervals, and the upland pine, which must be restored after decades of fire exclusion, NATL's hammocks need little active management. The chief exception is that NATL's hammocks contain a number of species of alien plants that, unless controlled, are likely to become superabundant and drastically alter the hammocks' species composition.
The four that seem particularly threatening are Japanese climbing fern (Lygodium japonicum), air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera), coral ardisia (Ardisia crenata), and skunk vine (Paederia foetida).
| Upland-Pine Ecosystem |  Click on thumbnail to see photo gallery of Upland-Pine Ecosystem |
History of NATL's upland pine, 1890 to 1990.
Management of NATL's upland pine, 1993 to date.
Principal events in restoration of NATL's upland pine: 1995 to date.
Update of restoration plan for NATL's upland pine (2007).
Plan for demo plot in NATL's pineland (2012).
Upland pine restoration, 1995-2008 (with map).
Upland Pine Nature Trail
Semi-annual photos of Public and Restricted Area Pines, 2007-date.
Maps & diameters of NATL's pines (2008).
48 "Restoration Islands" (2005 to date).
The upland-pine ecosystem, sometimes termed the sandhills ecosystem, occurs on upland, well-drained sites. In its pristine state, it is dominated by widely spaced longleaf pines with few understory shrubs and a dense ground cover of grasses and herbs. Other plants commonly occurring in this community are turkey oak, bluejack oak, southern red oak, live oak, persimmon, gopher apple, and leadplant. Animal species include green treefrog, gopher tortoise, eastern fence lizard, red-bellied woodpecker, loggerhead shrike, cotton mouse, and fox squirrel.
This ecosystem occurs on the rolling hills in the panhandle and in north and central peninsular Florida. Fire is a dominant factor in the ecology of this community because it reduces hardwood encroachment and facilitates pine and wiregrass reproduction. Without fire, longleaf pine seedlings cannot establish and oaks and other hardwoods become more numerous, shading out young pines and associated species. In the absence of frequent fires, this community succeeds to a hammock-like ecosystem. Historically, the natural fire frequency was about every 3 to 5 years. These fires usually were started by lightning strikes during summer thunderstorms. The thick bark of longleaf pines protects adult trees from fire damage. Even seedling trees, with their buds protected by a thick mass of needles, survive frequent, light ground fires. The trees are widely spaced, and wiregrass and pine needles provide most of the fuel to carry fire through this community. Implementation of an appropriate management strategy can successfully restore this ecosystem in areas where fire has been suppressed and succession has proceeded toward a community dominated by fire-susceptible hardwoods.
The loose, well-drained soils of this community allow rapid downward movement of rainwater into groundwater supplies (aquifer recharge). Most of the pristine upland pine in Florida has been converted to other uses such as residential and commercial development, agriculture, and forestry, severely curtailing many of the species adapted to this once extensive ecosystem. While not large enough to maintain populations of some of these species, the NATL tract, if properly managed, should display to visitors a substantial, representative sample, including sandhill katydids, gopher tortoises, and poppy mallows.
Management
Upland pine depends on burning for its continuance. In large natural tracts, lightning-caused fires are frequent enough to maintain the ecosystem. However, NATL's upland pine has not burned for decades, allowing hammock species to invade and nearly overwhelm the upland-pine species. Carefully controlled burning will be needed to restore the upland-pine ecosystem. Once restored, it will be maintained by burning part of its area each year. Burning at 3 to 6-year intervals will maintain the upland pine species, and the burn schedule will allow students each year to see the immediate and longer term effects of burning.
| Old-Field Succession |  Click
on thumbnail to see photo gallery of Old-Field Succession |
When land has been cleared and farmed and then abandoned, a more-or-less predictable sequence of species occupies the site as the original community is restored. Many species of plants and animals are characteristic of particular stages of succession, and the overall diversity is greater than in the self-perpetuating ecosystem to which the site returns. A typical old field succession in north Florida is dominated successively by annual weeds, blackberry and dog fennel, loblolly pine, and mixed hardwoods.
Management Plans
Old-field succession must be periodically interrupted to prevent the succession from reaching its endpoint, i.e., a self-sustaining community (hammock or upland pine in this case). The succession area is subdivided into plots (see map) that will be cleared and cultivated at 1-, 10-, or 40-year intervals. Units with the same period of rotation will be cleared and cultivated out of phase. For example, every five years one of the two 10-year plots will be cultivated. The 1-year plot will be cultivated only during years that none of the other plots is cultivated. This schedule will produce five representative successional states at all times.
Mature longleaf pines in the successional plots will not be cut. Dense
stands of Johnsongrass and elephantgrass, both exotics, will be eliminated
by herbiciding and cultivation to allow normal succession.
| Wetlands |  Click
on thumbnail to see photo gallery of Wetlands Ecosystem |
Hardwood Maps -NATL-east
The central marsh of NATL-east occupies a depression basin that receives water from
surrounding areas on campus and private property and from neighboring Archer Road. The central marsh is surrounded by and grades into a shrub wetland/hydric hammock, and, farther upland, a mesic mixed hardwood
hammock. The boundaries of these plant communities are not clearly defined and fluctuate depending
on rainfall patterns. Water flows from the central marsh via a channel that passes under Surge Area Drive canal and into NATL-west's sinkhole pond.
DIY Eco Art on Display in NATL for Summer B 2012
Building Eco Art to represent NATL Upland Pine
Welcome to Camp Hyla, part of DIY Eco Art and a home for treefrogs
