Lab 1: Sand Pine Scrub

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Lab 1 Sand Pine Scrub

• www.plantatlas.usf.edu
• www.enature.com/fieldguide

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Introductory definitions

• Community an assemblage of plants animals
  sharing a common environment operating as a
  highly interrelated unit.
• Ex the small patches of scrub sandhill on
  campus
• Succession change in species composition through
  time. Species in a community compete with each
  other replace each other. Succession is
  orderly predictable.
• A ? B ? C ? D ? E

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Introductory definitions

• Seral stage temporary, discrete community,
  unable to maintain itself
• Ex old field
• Sere the collection of seral stages a series.
  The community type may be fuzzy between the
  arrows.
• Ex sandhill scrub have fire acting as a
  disturbance to set back succession.
• Lichens/mosses Grasses/herbs Shrubs
  seedlings Pines Hardwoods
• A B
  C D
  E
• Sere Climax

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Introductory definitions

• Fire climax communities community composition is
  maintained by periodic burning, plant adaptations
  exist to cope with these disturbances. The
  community is set back by the fires.
• Disturbance ? Recovery ? Growth ? Disturbance.
• A B C D
  E
• Fire
• Climax community species are not replaced they
  replace themselves. After fires, some
  communities require long times to reach the
  climax community.
• Ex redwoods on the west coast may require 2,000
  years before being replaced by white fir
• Ex in FL, longleaf pine may live for 400 years
  before being replaced by live oak

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Introductory definitions

• Endemic limited to one geographic area
  specialized plants animals associated with the
  community, frequently endangered due to loss of
  habitat.
• Allelopathy the suppression of growth of one
  plant species by another due to the release of
  toxic substances
• Ex rosemary

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Scrub

• Scrub occurs almost exclusively in Florida, with
  some sparse patches on the Alabama coast.
• The largest example of continuous scrub in
  Florida is located on the Ocala National Forest.
• Scrub is a xeromorphic community dominated by a
  layer of evergreen, or nearly evergreen oaks or
  Florida rosemary, or both with or without a pine
  overstory, occupying well-drained, infertile,
  sandy soils (Myers 1990).
• Scrub originates from Pleistocene marine deposits
  of sand from the higher shoreline during
  interglacial periods.

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Location of Florida Ridges (peninsular)
Brooksville Ridge Mount Dora Ridge Lake Wales
Ridge Crescent City Ridge Deland Ridge
Atlantic Coastal Ridge Lakeland Ridge Bombing
Range Ridge
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Soils

• Sands of marine origin. Archbold Fine (sugar)
  sand is white quartz sand.
• Soil nutrients are leached from the soil past the
  root zones by the rapid percolation of rainfall
  by the porous sand.
• The soil is acidic, usually around 4.5, making it
  difficult for the plants to uptake ions
  nutrients. As calcium other cations are
  leached from the soil, hydrogen ions accumulate
  the pH goes down.

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Internal drainage Recharge

• The highly pervious sands play an important role
  in recharging the aquifers.
• The aquifer is a series of caverns in the
  limestone bedrock which Florida sits on that
  collect rainwater. Erosion by rain formed these
  caverns when the water combined with CO2 to form
  carbonic acid.
• The Floridian aquifer is the largest in the state.

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Floridas aquifers
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Water

• Water is a major limiting factor to scrub plants,
  therefore most are sclerophyllous.
• Sclerophyllous (literally means hard leaves)
  adaptation to obtain, store and prevent the loss
  of water
• Ex Quercus geminata, Sand live oak
• Leaf adaptations small surface area, a thick
  waxy cuticle the presence of hairs prevent
  water loss. Some plants can turn their leaves
  parallel to the sun to prevent overheating
  water loss.
• Scrub plants have typically shallow but widely
  spreading root systems to catch water as it
  travels through the soil, as well as a deep tap
  root(s) to reach water at greater depths.

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Stratification of Plants

• Canopy is dominated by sand pine, Pinus clausa.
• The thick shrub layer is composed of oaks
  certain other woody species.
• Herbaceous ground layer is sparse.
• The community is called scrub because of its
  density because most of the vegetation is below
  5 ft.

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Successional Aspects

• Scrub is a fire climax community. Without
  periodic fires, the scrub advances to xeric
  hardwoods. The fires are usually infrequent
  (15-70 years) high intensity. This maintains
  the community by replacing the stands of sand
  pine keeping the oaks at shrub level.
• Fire adapted plants will not lose roots to the
  fire can regenerate the above ground biomass.
  Plants such as Sand pine have developed serotiny
  in response to fire, while other species such as
  rosemary have seed banks.
• Serotinous cones remain closed on the tree with
  no seed development (in this case, until a fire
  occurs)

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Scrub Pre-Burn
Scrub Post-Burn
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Flora of the scrub

• Pinus clausa Sand pine serotinous
• Ceratiola ericoides Florida rosemary soil seed
  bank, allelopathic
• Lyonia ferruginea rusty lyonia
• Osmanthus megacarpa scrub olive endemic
• Asimina reticulata dog banana or pawpaw
  endemic
• Serenoa repens saw palmetto
• Quercus chapmanii Chapman oak
• Q. geminata Sand live oak sclerophyllous
• Q. inopina Scrub oak
• Q. myrtifolia Myrtle oak
• Opunitia humifusa Prickly-pear cactus
• Galactia elliottii milkpea legume, fixes
  nitrogen
• Smilax auriculata Greenbriar or Catbriar

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Fauna of the scrub

• Podomys floridanus Florida mouse endemic to FL,
  commensal w/ gopher tortoise
• Peromyscus gossypinus cotton mouse
• Sigmodon hispidus cotton rat
• Sciurus carolinensis Eastern gray squirrel