Flood tolerance of plant species in bottomland forests of the southeastern United States

224 Pages·1992·4.5 MB·English

by  Theriot, Russell F

FLOOD TOLERANCE OF PLANT SPECIES
IN BOTTOMLAND FORESTS OF THE
SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES
BY
RUSSELL FRANCIS THERIOT
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
1992
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA USSAS1ES
Digitized by the InternetArchive
in 2011 with funding from
University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries with supportfrom LYRASIS and the Sloan Foundation
To my parents
http://www.archive.org/details/floodtoleranceofOOther
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research effort was greatly aided by innumerable people.
Foremost among them is Dr. Dana Sanders, who assisted me in all phases
of the study. His advice and encouragement throughout this effort are
greatly appreciated. I thank Drs Ken Rodgers Dan Evans, and Tom Hein-
. ,
eke for their assistance in identifying the plant species in this study.
Blake Parker was invaluable in helping me interpret the soils in the
study. Don Hill conducted the geodetic surveys for all of the sites.
Phil Jones and Jeff Irvin taught me all I know about hydrology. Phil
was especially helpful in correcting the water surface elevations
between the study sites and the gauging stations, and Jeff interpreted
the hydrologic program into FORTRAN language. I am also grateful to
Dr. Dara Wilber, who assisted me in the statistical analyses of the
data.
Many people provided helpful discussion and advice on various
aspects of the study, including Drs. Donal Hook, Bill Patrick,
Helen Leitman, Sandra Brown, and Bill Mitsch.
I gratefully acknowledge the support and understanding of Dr. Bob
Engler, who allowed a work schedule flexible enough to finish the
manuscript.
I especially want to thank my wife and children, who encouraged me
to go on when it would have been easy to quit.
iii
.
Finally, I would like to thank my major professor, Dr. Jerome
Shireman, for his advice, encouragement, and support in guiding my
degree program, and also my committee for their helpful suggestions and
patience
IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii
LIST OF TABLES vii
LIST OF FIGURES x
ABSTRACT xil
INTRODUCTION 1
Plant Community Organization 2
Bottomland Forest Community Organization 3
Zonation of Bottomland Forests 5
Purpose and Objectives 7
METHODS 8
Study Area 8
Site Selection 10
Determining Hydrologic Zone Elevations 11
Site Preparation and Data Collection 14
Analyzing Vegetation Data 16
Calculating Species FTI Numbers 17
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 20
Flood Analysis of Study Sites 20
Vegetation Data 22
Weighted Averaging 36
Statistical Analysis of the Vegetation Data 37
Cluster Analyses 38
Discriminant Function Analysis 47
Regional Variation in Species FTI Numbers 56
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 59
APPENDIX A SITE DESCRIPTIONS AND MAP LOCATIONS 62
APPENDIX B GUIDE FOR COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR ANALYZING
HYDROLOGIC DATA 90
APPENDIX C HYDROGRAPH FOR STEELE BAYOU (SITE 3) 97
APPENDIX D IMPORTANCE VALUES FOR SPECIES BY ZONE AND
VEGETATION LAYER 102
APPENDIX E FTI PLANT LIST AND COMPARISON WITH TWO OTHER
WATER-TOLERANCE RATING SYSTEMS 186
REFERENCES 202
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 207
VI
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Hydrologic Zones Occurring in Bottomland Forests of the
Southeastern United States 12
2 Annual Flood Frequency (Percent of Years in Which
Boundary Is Exceeded at Least Once during Growing
....
Season for More than 7 days) for Zone Boundaries 21
3 Average Annual Duration of Flood Events (days)
for Zone Boundaries 23
4 FTI Numbers of Commonly Occurring Species in this
Study 25
5 Variations in Species Flood Tolerance Index
Numbers According to Life Stage 30
6 Comparison of Three Water-Tolerance Ratings for
Selected Bottomland Forest Tree Species 34
7 Relative Frequencies in Each Hydrologic Zone of Tree
Species Used in the Statistical Analyses; Groupings
of Species Correspond to Cluster Membership 40
8 Relative Frequency of Occurrence of Each Sapling
Species in the Hydrologic Zones along with Their
Cluster Memberships 45
9 Relative Frequencies in Each Hydrologic Zone of the
Vine Species Used in Statistical Analyses 47
10 Mean Importance Values for Species in Each Cluster Used
in the DFA, Arranged by Zone/Sample 50
11 Predicted Hydrologic Zones (Columns) and Actual
Zones (Rows) Based on DFA Results Using Only
Tree Importance Values 51
12 Predicted Hydrologic Zones (Columns) and Actual
Zones (Rows) Based on DFA Results Using Average
FTI Values for All Observed Tree Species at the Site 52
. .
vn
Table Page
13 Cross-Validation Results of Zone Membership Using
Linear Discriminant Function Analysis 53
D-l Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 1,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 103
D-2 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 2,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 108
D-3 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 3,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 113
D-4 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 4,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 121
D-5 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 5,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 124
D-6 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 6,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 127
D-7 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 7,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 130
D-8 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 8,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 135
D-9 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 9,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 137
D-10 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 10,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 141
D-ll Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 11,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 147
D-12 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 12,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 152
D-13 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 13,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 158
D-14 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 14,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 163
D-15 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 15,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 168
V11L
Table Page
D-16 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 16,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 173
D-17 Importance Values for Species Occurring at Site 17,
Arranged by Zone and Vegetation Layer 180
E-l FTI Plant List 187
IX
:
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 Zonal classification of bottomland forest wetlands
(adapted from Clark and Benforado 1981) 6
2 Study area and sites in the southeastern United States 9
.
3 Representation of a typical research site 15
4 Ecological amplitude of some commonly occurring species;
CAAQ: Carya aquatica; FOAC: Forestiera acuminata; FRPE:
Fraxinus pennsylvanica; LIST: Liquidambar styraciflua;
NYAQ: Nyssa aquatica; PITA: Pinus taeda; QUAL: Quercus
alba; QULY: Quercus lyrata; SAAL: Sassafras albidum; QUNI
Quercus nigra; TADI Taxodium distichum; ULAM: Ulmus
:
americana 32
5 Cluster diagram for trees 39
6 Cluster diagram for saplings and shrubs 42
7 Cluster diagram for saplings alone 43
8 Cluster diagram for shrubs alone 44
9 Cluster diagram for vines 46
10 Cluster diagram for herbs 48
11 Mean tree FTI numbers plotted versus observed and
predicted hydrologic zones for all 55 sites 57
A-l Neches River (sites 1 and 2) 64
A-2 Steele Bayou (site 3) 66
A-3 Ouachita River (sites 4 and 5) 68
A-4 Yazoo River (site 6) 70
A-5 Big Black River (site 7) 72
A-6 L'Anguille River (sites 8 and 9) 74