Successional and Environmental Relationships of the Forest Vegetation of North Central Florida

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Abstract
The southern mixed hardwoods, mixed hardwood swamps, bayheads, sand pine scrub, sandhills, pine flatwoods, and cypress heads are the major forest community types in north central Florida. The 1st 3 are climax communities (on upland, wet fertile, and wet acid sites, respectively) the latter 4 are successional. With improvement of drainage or the elimination of fire, succession may proceed in a variety of directions. The sandhill and scrub community types occur on dry sterile soils and are fire-maintained. Succession proceeds toward the southern mixed hardwoods. The pine flatwoods are fire-maintained and are on poorly drained soils. With release from fire, succession proceeds towards either of the 3 climaxes. The direction appears related to soil moisture and fertility. Cypress heads are limited by flooding. With improved drainage they may be converted to mixed hardwood swamps or bayheads depending upon soil fertility. An environmental similarity index, based on 11 variables, was calculated for the 6 community types as well as for 45 tree species that occurred in 5 or more stands. Three general groups of species are recognized successional; climax pioneer; and climax exclusive. The successional and climax pioneer are habitat generalists in that their environmental similarity indices are lower than that of the community types. Flor-istic continuity in large-scale vegetation is maintained by the presence of the habitat generalists while the element of discontinuity may be attributed to the climax exclusives. The mean of 11 variables for 45 tree species was used to position the species spatially. The spatial relationships relate the 6 community types without aberrant transitions.