Association of ecotones with relative elevation and fire in an upland Florida landscape

    Authors

    E. A. Boughton; P. F. Quintana-Ascencio; E. S. Menges;R. K. Boughton

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Veg. Sci.

    Keywords

    boundary; dissimilarity coefficient; landscape gradient; Monte Carlo; simulation; ordination; split moving window; time since fire; transition; zone; vegetation change; LAKE WALES RIDGE; ECOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES; VEGETATION; SAVANNA; SCRUB; DISCONTINUITIES; GRADIENTS; PYRENEES; PLANTS; SWITCH; Plant Sciences; Ecology; Forestry

    Abstract

    Question: What are the importance of elevation and fire in maintaining ecotones of Florida scrub assemblages along a gradual topographic gradient? Location: Archbold Biological Station (ABS), 12 km south of Lake Placid, Florida, USA. Methods: Vegetation cover of upland Florida shrublands was quantified using the line-intercept method along 20 transects traversing similar elevation gradients, stratified by time since fire (TSF). We objectively identified shrubland ecotones using a split moving windows boundary analysis (SMW) with three different window widths. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination was used to determine relationships among plant assemblages defined by SMW. Results: We located up to four ecotones per transect, the majority of which were wide, highly heterogeneous zones. Relative elevation controlled the distribution of plant assemblages in upland Florida shrublands. Ecotones in shrublands > 30 years TSF had relatively low dissimilarity values in SMW, indicating that previously discrete plant assemblages with longer TSF were becoming more similar with time. Conclusions: Split Moving Windows (SMW) analysis identified ecotones relatively well although patches generated by oak clonal growth were sometimes identified as ecotones. Fire suppression caused ecotones to become more diffuse, suggesting that without fire at least every 30 years, discrete plant assemblages within upland Florida shrublands will be more continuous.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Vegetation Science

    Volume

    17

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    361

    Last Page

    368

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000239585700012

    ISSN

    1100-9233

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