Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Ecological site F154XA013FL
Histic Alluvial Forests
Last updated: 2/21/2024
Accessed: 11/13/2024
General information
Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.
MLRA notes
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 154X–South-Central Florida Ridge
MLRA 154 is entirely in Peninsular Florida, and contains 8,285 square miles. The landscape of MLRA 154 is characterized by a series of parallel, prominent sandy ridges of Pleistocene marine origin, including the Brooksville and Mount Dora Ridges. These North to South oriented parallel ridges are interspersed with more low lying physiographic provinces, including: upland hills, plains, valleys and gaps (Puri and Vernon 1964). The extreme western portion of the MLRA consists of thin belt of coastal lowlands and marshlands.
Many of the soils of MLRA 154 are Pleistocene or Holocene sands that are underlain with older, loamy Pliocene marine sediments (Cypresshead formation) or the clayey Miocene marine sediments (Hawthorne formation). A combination of marine depositional events and the dissolution of underlying limestone (karst geology) is responsible for surficial topography throughout Peninsular Florida.
Classification relationships
All portions of the geographical range of this site falls under the following ecological / land classifications including:
-Environmental Protection Agency’s Level 3 and 4 Ecoregions of Florida: 75 Southern Coastal Plain; 75c Central Florida Ridges and Uplands (Griffith, G. E., Omernik, J. M., & Pierson, S. M., 2013)
-Florida Natural Area Inventory, 2010 Edition: Floodplain Swamp & Basin Swamp (FNAI, 2010)
Ecological site concept
The central concept of the Histic Alluvial and Forestlands includes deep, very poorly drained soils formed in organic material with a mineral substratum. These soils occur on low gradient alluvial floodplains with slopes less than 1%. This site includes map units of the Chobee, Demory, Everglades, Gator Maurepas, Myakka, Nittaw, Okeelanta, Pamlico, Shenks, and Terra Ceia series, and is situated primarily along low gradient rivers and streams in the Tsala Apopka Plain, Lake Harris Cross Valley, Central Valley, and Western Valley physiographic units.
Associated sites
F154XA014FL |
Histic Wetland Depressions These are very poorly drained depressional concepts that will occur in organic soils, and will differ in physiographic positions, affect the types of vegetation and management strategies |
---|---|
F154XA015FL |
Mineral Depressional Wetlands These are very poorly drained depressional concepts that will occur in mineral soils rather than organic soils, and will differ in physiographic positions, affect the types of vegetation and management strategies |
F154XA016FL |
Wet Mineral Alluvial Forest And Marshlands These sites are very poorly drained alluvial concepts that will occur on mineral soils rather than organic soils, resulting in different types and amounts of vegetation as well as management strategies |
R154XX017FL |
Wet Saline Marshes And Swamps These are very poorly drained tidal soils that will exist in intertidal landscape positions |
Similar sites
F154XA014FL |
Histic Wetland Depressions These are very poorly drained depressional concepts that will occur in organic soils, and will differ in physiographic positions, affect the types of vegetation and management strategies |
---|---|
F154XA015FL |
Mineral Depressional Wetlands These are very poorly drained depressional concepts that will occur in mineral soils rather than organic soils, and will differ in physiographic positions, affect the types of vegetation and management strategies |
F154XA016FL |
Wet Mineral Alluvial Forest And Marshlands These sites are very poorly drained alluvial concepts that will occur on mineral soils rather than organic soils, resulting in different types and amounts of vegetation as well as management strategies |
Table 1. Dominant plant species
Tree |
(1) Taxodium distichum |
---|---|
Shrub |
(1) Fraxinus caroliniana |
Herbaceous |
(1) Saururus cernuus |
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