DOCUMENT

Name:   Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) Interagency Handbook Reference Conditions. Pond Pine (-Bay) Forest - PDPN(PDPN)

Date Published:  3/7/2004

Document Type:  report

Brief Description:  Geographic Area: Lower Coastal Plain mainly from SE Virginia to South Carolina, but exists as inclusions in the lower Coastal Plain from southern NJ to GA, FL, and AL.

Complete Description:  Geographic Area: Lower Coastal Plain mainly from SE Virginia to South Carolina, but exists as inclusions in the lower Coastal Plain from southern NJ to GA, FL, and AL. Description: Circa 1600. Typically confined to lower coastal plain terraces, on extensive flats. Very gently sloping areas with impeded soil drainage, where anaerobic growing season soil conditions allowed acidic surface organic (peat and muck) deposits to develop. Sites typically are saturated or intermittently to seasonally flooded, but the water table drops sufficiently to allow plant roots to contact underlying mineral sediments at least during periodic or seasonal droughts. Layers of charcoal are common within this organic layer. Pond Pine (Pinus serotina) dominates (55+%) the upper vegetation layer as relatively evenly spaced individuals, or sizeable patches of closed forest. Bays (Gordonia lasianthus, Persea, Magnolia sp.), red maple, swamp black gum, Atlantic white cedar, and bald or pond cypress are common canopy associates but collectively comprised <40% of the overstory. A dense understory dominated by herbs, especially switchcane (Arundinaria gigantea) and/or broadleaved evergreen “pocosin” shrubs (Ilex sp., Myrica cerifera, Lyonia lucida, Smilax laurifolia, Cyrilla racemiflora, Zenobia pulverulenta) and tree regeneration (same as overstory species) is common before prolonged canopy closure. Where fires have been particularly severe, and burned down through the shallow root zone in surface organic layers, the ground cover may be dominated by graminoids (Andropogon glomeratus, switchcane, sedges), ferns (Woodwardia virginica), and bog (often insectivorous) herbs (Sarracinia sp., Drosera sp., Dionaea muscipula) with scattered patches or individual low growing broadleaved evergreen pocosin shrubs and bays, pond pine, and Atlantic white cedar seedlings. The type frequently occurred as part of/in association with a larger landscape mosaic that also included canebrakes and herbaceous or shrub bogs, high pocosin, Atlantic white cedar, and bay forest as described by Schafale and Weakley (1990) for North Carolina. Significant portions of Kuchler Types K112, K113, and K114 are represented. However, the most nutrient limited conditions on the deepest, longest hydroperiod peatlands, where plant roots are unable to penetrate to underlying mineral sediments identified as Low Pocosin by Schafale and Weakley (1990), or on wet mineral soils identified as Wet Pine Flatwoods or Pine Savanna are not included.

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Fire Regime Condition Class Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC)

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Distribution ®	Format ® Online Source: http://frames.nbii.gov/frcc/documents/PNVG/EastNew/PDPN.pdf Fees: none Instructions: Created 3/7/2004. pdf available at http://frames.nbii.gov/frcc/documents/PNVG/EastNew/PDPN.pdf
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Details ®	Created Date: 5/26/2007 Metadata Creator: Chris Szell The Nature Conservancy 6114 Fayetteville Rd Suite 109 Durham, NC  27713  USA (919) 484-7857 Ext. 142 cszell@tnc.org Type: FRAMES document Metadata Version: 1 Security Information: Schema: http://frames.nbii.gov/metadata/documents/documents.xsd
Keyword(s):	FRAMES subject categories fire ecology GACC regions Eastern GACC regions Southern none FRCC none NIFTT
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