Sumter National Forest Final Report - NatureServe

USFS Ecoregions: The distribution of the alliance at the ecoregion section level, with a level of confidence for the alliance’s status in thatecoregion section. Ecoregion codes are from Keys et al. 1995. Ecological Units of the Eastern United States -- First approximation (map). A listecoregion codes and names is included in an appendix at the end of this report. Each code is followed by a colon and letters that indicate confidencein the occurrence of an alliance in each section. Confidence levels are defined as follows: C = alliance occurrence is certain, P = alliance occurrenceis probable, ? = alliance occurrence is possible. Sections that are not listed for an alliance should not necessarily be taken to mean that the allianceabsolutely does not occur there. Inventory efforts for many taxonomic groups of vegetation types, and in some geographic areas, are incomplete.Federal Lands: This field lists federal land units (such as National Park Service units, individual National Forests, etc.) within which the allianceoccurs. This field is incompletely populated. The intent is to develop a comprehensive listing of the occurrence of vegetation types on the lands ofimportant federal land-managing agencies, especially (in the Southeast) the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Defense, National Park Service, U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service, and Corps of Engineers. Because the field is in the process of being populated, the absence of a federal land managementunit should not be considered to indicate that the type is absent on that unit, but the listing of a federal land management unit is generally a reliableindication of the type’s likely occurrence there. The information iscurrently most complete for U.S. Forest Service units, and for selected other units on which effort has been concentrated.ALLIANCE SOURCESReferences: References listed are those that have contributed directly to the concept of the alliance. It is by no means an exhaustive list ofliterature which deals with the alliance. The list of references is in a short citation format and the reader should consult the Bibliography at the backof the report for a full citation.FORMAT OF ASSOCIATION DESCRIPTIONSThe hierarchical nature of the USNVC generally places structurally and compositionally related vegetation types (alliances andassociations) near one another. Thus, the Forest Class (vegetation dominated by closed canopies of trees) is followed by theWoodland Class (vegetation dominated by open canopies of trees). All temperate pine forests will be found together in I.A.(Evergreen Forest subclass). Of course, such a linear ordering of types does not and cannot capture all relationships, and sometimescommunities that are closely related ecologically are separated widely in the physiognomic hierarchy. For example, temperate liveoak Woodlands are grouped together in II.C, separately from the temperate live oak Forests (I.C.). Similarly, related wetlandcommunities, such as tidal flat communities may be found classed all across the hierarchy as Shrublands (III), Dwarf Shrublands (IV)or Herbaceous Vegetation (V).For this reason, the association descriptions in this report have been organized into ecological groupings rather than following thehierarchical ordering of the upper levels of the USNVC. These groupings are not intended for use as a standard classification level,but are just a way of organizing the report. This ordering is intended to facilitate the use of this document by those unfamiliar with theUSNVC hierarchy, by grouping ecologically related associations under a single heading. Additionally, ecological groups mayprovide another method for aggregating associations into higher level units for mapping or other management purposes.The Table of Contents includes a index to association descriptions organized by Ecological Groups. The associations are then listedwithin each group. Within the main body of this report, the ecological group is printed at the beginning of each associations.Each association description is divided into sections and fields of information reported from the national classification database.Figure 2 presents the format of an association description with a description of the information contained in each field or section,including caveats about the data in that field or section.FIGURE 2: ASSOCIATION DESCRIPTION CONTENTECOLOGICAL SYSTEMCOMMON NAME OF ASSOCIATIONELEMENT IDENTIFIERSNVC association: The scientific name (Global name) of the association based on Latin names of dominant or characteristic plant species. Thestandard name used in the USNVC. (nomenclature follows Kartesz 1999).Database Code: Element Code (ELCODE). The database code used to identify the association in the national community database (BCD).Formation: The lowest physiognomic level of the national classification hierarchy. The formation represents a grouping of community types thatshare a definite physiognomy or structure and broadly defined environmental factors, such as elevation and hydrologic regime.Alliance: Alliance scientific name based on the Latin names of the dominant or characteristic plant species, followed by the alliance code from thenational community database (BCD).ELEMENT CONCEPTVegetation of Sumter National Forest April 30 2004Copyright © 2004 NatureServexv