Plant Communities of the Midwest - NatureServe

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Level 1 distinguishes wetland ecological groups from upland ones. Non-tidal wetlands include wetlands that vary from permanently saturated to intermittently flooded. The water table is usually at or near the surface, or the surface is covered by water. Non-tidal wetlands are also referred to as palustrine wetlands (Cowardin et al. 1979). No wetlands in the Midwest are subject to tidal movements so no other Level 1 wetland group is necessary in the Midwest. Uplands contain well-drained soils that range from xeric to very moist. Some strand and rocky shore ecological groups overlap with wetlands. Level 2 groups are more diverse (see Table 5). Among the wetland types, the primary distinctions are based on hydrology, water quality and vegetation physiognomy. The wetland groups are defined, in part, using the Canadian Wetland classification system (National Wetlands Working Group 1988). Among the upland groups, the primary distinctions are based on parent material and substrate type and their interaction with physiognomy. The upland ecological groups fall into two main categories: those where the parent material is exposed or prominent and vegetation cover is discontinuous (e.g., talus, dunes, rock flats), and those where vegetation cover is continuous (e.g., forests and woodlands, prairies/grasslands). Level 3 groups are based on biogeographic factors that help to aggregate groups that share similar broad patterns of vegetation and ecological processes. Biogeographic regions are defined using information on the distribution of flora and fauna (and their evolutionary history) and information on large-scale vegetation structure. Biogeographic regions, even at their finest scales, are expected to contain a wide number of endemic species, and even endemic genera. They also contain distinctive vegetation features (Brown et al. 1998). To define biogeographic units for the midwestern ecological groups, we used the floristic provinces or regions approach of Takhtajan (1986) and the biotic communities approach of Brown et al. (1998). In the Midwest, these two approaches have three virtually identical units (Takhtajan’s names are in parentheses): the Northeastern (Appalachian), the Southeastern (Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain) and the Plains (North American Prairies) (Figure 4a). A fourth region, the Canadian (Takhtajan uses the same name) comes very near to the United States-Canada border north of Minnesota and Michigan. These broad regions serve as a useful framework for organizing North American-wide vegetation patterns. Associations are readily placed into these regions. The boundaries for these regions are used somewhat flexibly, depending on the pattern of associations; that is, associations placed within a biogeographic region are expected to be concentrated in that region, but occurrences may extend “outside” the region. Within these regions, a number of subregions were helpful in organizing the associations (Figure 4b). These subregions show some similarities to the vegetational or ecological regions of Braun (1950) and of Bailey (1995). Within the Northeastern Region, subregions include the Northern Laurentian, Midwestern (upper part of Bailey’s Dry Deciduous Forest), the Interior Highlands (the lower part of Bailey’s Dry Deciduous Forest, including both the Ozarks and the Interior Low Plateau), and the Appalachian Highlands (Bailey’s Moist Deciduous Forest). In the Plains, the only subregion is the Great Plains. These major regions and subregions provide a useful biogeographic component to the definitions of ecological groups. Again, the regions and subregions are primarily conceptual units, and have flexible geographical boundaries. For example, the Northern (Laurentian) Acid Peatlands are concentrated in the area defined as the Northern Laurentian Subregion (Figure 4b), but individual associations may extend southward into the Midwestern Subregion (and probably northward into the Canadian Region). Level 4 groups, where needed, add finer level groupings based on a variety of vegetation structure, species dominants, substrate, and hydrogeomorphic criteria that further refine the vegetational and ecological processes that the various associations share. Level 4 has been standardized between the PLANT COMMUNITIES OF THE MIDWEST – 2001 24
PLATE 1 1. 2. 1.1. Acid Peatlands 1. Leatherleaf Poor Fen (CEGL005277) at edge of beaver pond. Junction Bay, Voyageurs National Park, northern Minnesota. D. Faber-Langendoen 2. Leatherleaf Bog (CEGL005278). Trygg Island, Voyageurs National Park, northern Minnesota. D. Faber-Langendoen 3. Black Spruce - (Tamarack) / Labrador Tea Poor Swamp (CEGL005271). Chequamegon National Forest, northern Wisconsin. D. Faber-Langendoen 3. 1.2. Rich Peat Fens 4. Prairie Transition Rich Fen (CEGL002383). Neufolden Fen, Marshall County, northwest Minnesota. D. Faber-Langendoen 5. Western Allegheny Cinquefoil - Sedge Rich Fen (CEGL005140). Beck Fen Nature Preserve, Portage County, northeast Ohio. D. Faber-Langendoen 4. 5.
Page 1: PLANT COMMUNITIES OF THE MIDWEST CL
Page 4 and 5: ISBN 0-9711053-0-8 © 2001 Associat
Page 6 and 7: This work has also benefited from i
Page 8 and 9: LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of
Page 10 and 11: Figure 1a. Distribution of alvar si
Page 12 and 13: (most associations were defined and
Page 14 and 15: particularly in Indiana and western
Page 16 and 17: y ABI and the Natural Heritage Netw
Page 18 and 19: Table 2. Illustration of the USNVC
Page 20 and 21: to year. In addition, the same asso
Page 22 and 23: journal articles, books, agency rep
Page 24 and 25: Once the cross-walk and review of t
Page 26 and 27: peatland, Great Lakes dune-swale co
Page 28 and 29: groupings, such as “forested peat
Page 30 and 31: Table 5. Definitions of ecological
Page 34 and 35: PLATE 2 1. 1.4. Open and Emergent M
Page 36 and 37: PLATE 4 1. 2. 2.1. Shoreline Sand/M
Page 38 and 39: PLATE 6 2. 3. 1. 2.3. Rocky Uplands
Page 40 and 41: PLATE 8 1. 2. 2.5. Forests and Wood
Page 42 and 43: PLATE 10 1. 2. 2.9. Prairies/Grassl
Page 44 and 45: PLATE 12 Map of The Nature Conserva
Page 46 and 47: Great Plains Northern (Laurentian)
Page 48 and 49: Table 6. Ecological groups for the
Page 50 and 51: Grassland Forest and Woodland Prair
Page 52 and 53: High Tp w Woodland Only Mean Annual
Page 54 and 55: Box 1. Summary of information used
Page 56 and 57: Table 9. A list of plant communitie
Page 58 and 59: 1.4. OPEN AND EMERGENT MARSHES 1.4.
Page 60 and 61: 1.5.5.3. Great Plains Prairie Potho
Page 62 and 63: 1.6.4.5. Southeastern Coastal Plain
Page 64 and 65: 2.3.1.2. Northern Acid Rock Outcrop
Page 66 and 67: 2.4.3.5. Eastern Alkaline Talus Lim
Page 68 and 69: 2.5.2.3. Midwestern Mesic Hardwood
Page 70 and 71: 2.5.6. Rocky Mountains Forests and
Page 72 and 73: 2.8.3. Interior Highlands Oak Savan
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Page 76 and 77: Bliss, L. C. and G. W. Cox. 1964. P
Page 78 and 79: Jenkins, R. 1996. Natural Heritage
Page 80 and 81: Sneddon, L., M. Anderson, and K. Me

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