Date of Award

Spring 1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biological Sciences

Program/Concentration

Biology

Committee Director

Frank P. Day, Jr.

Committee Member

Mark J. Butler

Committee Member

Lytton J. Musselman

Committee Member

James Perry

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.B46 H346

Abstract

Forested wetlands are being destroyed at a rapid rate. Wetlands are valuable for flood control, aquifer recharge, and for their role in denitrification and storage of global carbon. When wetlands are lost, their functions and value to humans are lost as well. One response to the continued development of wetlands has been the artificial creation of new wetlands. This study compared the species density, relative density, coverage and frequency of occurrence of the woody vegetation in two southeastern Virginia created wetlands with that in two reference wetlands, also in southeastern Virginia, to determine the structural similarity of their respective communities. The Two-Term Local Quadrat Variance technique was used to analyze the spatial distribution of Betula nigra L. (river birch), Nyasa aquatica L. (tupelo gum), and Taxodium distichum (L.) Richard (bald cypress) at each of the created and reference wetlands. A map of the species distributions was also made for one of the created wetlands, based on a census of the saplings in that wetland. The census was also analyzed to determine if species density was correlated with elevation and showed that there was an inverse correlation for all three species. Several sampling methods were evaluated to find a method that was simple to use and accurate for analyzing sapling density in created wetlands. A belt transect method was chosen over a simple quadrat method for analyzing the wetlands. Survival of Betula nigra and Taxodium distichum were higher than that for Nyssa aquatica, indicated by their higher density and frequency values in the created wetlands. Results from a Model I two-factor ANOVA indicated that estimates of tree density did not differ when obtained using the belt transect method, simple quadrat method or the census data. Species density, relative density, coverage and frequency did not differ among the created and reference wetlands.

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DOI

10.25777/rsn0-pg27

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