Vegetation and Substrate of Cranberry Glades, West Virginia

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Abstract
An apparently level area of about 600 acres at the head of Cranberry R. in Pocahontas Co., W. Virginia, is covered with-bog forest, shrub, and areas of sedges, mosses and lichens commonly called "glade" and, with the exception of areas near the streams, is underlain by peat accumulation from a few inches to 11 feet in thickness below which are 4 or more feet of clay, marl, sand, and gravel. This level area upon which 15 ft. of inorganic material and peat have accumulated is apparently a part of the Harrisburg peneplain temporarily base-levelled in the soft shales and sand-stones of dipping strata. The area may be properly classified as bog. The bog conditions were initiated by the deposits of levees along the banks of the streams causing undrained conditions in the areas away from the streams. In the later glacial and early post-glacial periods while it was too cold for many aquatic seed-plants the clays, marl, and algal ooze accumulated. As the climate became warmer increased plant life filled the shallow water and initiated the sedge swamp which formed the 4-5 feet of sedge peat now overlying the algal ooze and underlying the sphagnum peat. Six plant communities are differentiated: sedge-sphagnum, sphagnum-cranberry-beaked rush, moss-lichen, bog forest, and 2 shrub communities. The structure and pollen of the transect profiles of the sediments and the existing communities point to a succession from shallow water with its accompanying communities to a sedge swamp, to a retrogression to sphagnum, to a moss-lichen in some parts, to shrub, to bog forest. Succession will continue until bog forest has occupied the whole area, to be followed by regional climax forest only when sufficient stream erosion has removed the peat accumulation and provided sufficient drainage.