Working Group on wiregrass and the structure of
longleaf pine communities

Participants: Jessic Kaplan

Summary statement:

Plant Compositional Differences With Presence and Absence of a "Keystone" Species in the Longleaf Pine Communities

Asking the question "is wiregrass (Aristida stricata s.l.) a keystone species in the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) communities?" I would like to see if differences in richness and plant species composition arise in areas that do not contain wiregrass, the possible keystone species. I have taken the dataset and limited it to plots that have a longleaf cover of greater than 5-10% in .1 hectares. I have then separated this longleaf dataset into those plots that have wiregrass and those that do not.

On the .1 ha. scale, I have compared species richness and have found no significant difference. I would like to also look at plant composition, possibly using ordination, and maybe number of invasive species. The next step would be to tease apart environmental variables and examine differences at smaller scales.

Outline of activities: [coming soon?]

Other documents and information:

Readings: