rooted woody vines occurring at the 18-year-old Sink Branch site with over 8,000 rooted
woody vines per hectare.

 Figure 6.7 also shows that mean vine basal diameter appeared to increase with site
 age. However, the standard deviations were large, and results from the Kruskal-Wallis
 test (Appendix 6.C) suggest there was no significant trend in increasing mean vine basal
 diameter for either herbaceous (HC = 4.65, df = 5, P = 0.460) or woody vines (HC =
 1.75, df= 3, P = 0.625) over time.

 Above ground herbaceous vine biomass increased through age six, followed by a
 decrease. Woody vine biomass occurred on only three of the chronosequence sites
 including, 6-year old Hydric Hammock, 14-year old SP11, and 15-year old Guy Branch.
 An exception was 17-year-old Morrow Swamp, with far greater herbaceous vine biomass
 than any other site sampled and no woody vine biomass. Biomass data were not
 collected at the oldest site, 18-year-old Sink Branch, because this was the first site
 sampled, and above ground biomass harvesting was added to the methods after sampling
 occurred.

 Figure 6.8 shows vine species richness increased with increased site age, with 18-
 year-old Sink Branch having the greatest vine species richness value of 3.8. Fourteen-
 year-old SP11 had the second highest vines species richness with a value of 3.3. The
 three youngest sites, 0.5-year-old LP2 Phase-1, 2-year-old Super Hummock, and 5-year-
 old Nichols Mine, had a vine species richness values of zero.

 Most vines identified within the boundaries of the transects on the
 chronosequence sites occurred on 3 or fewer sites, with the exception of Mikania
 scandens, which occurred on 8 of the 9 chronosequence sites. Seven genera were found
 on 3 sites, 5 genera on only 2 sites, and the remaining 5 genera were found on just one
 site.

 Table 6.5 provides the frequency of occurrence data for vines present on each
particular site within the square meter quadrats. Only 13 vine genera occurred within the
square meter quadrats and were included in frequency of occurrence calculations. The
two youngest sites, LP2 Phase-1 and Super Hummock, had no vines present in the square
meter quadrats, and the 5-year-old Nichols Mine site had only one vine, Mikania
scandens, present at 30% of the quadrats. Mikania scandens occurred within the square
meter quadrats on 6 of the 9 sites, occurring 90% of the time at Morrow Swamp. Five
sites, including LP2 Phase-1, Super Hummock, Nichols Mine, Cateye, and Morrow
Swamp, had no woody vines present within the square meter quadrats. At the oldest site,
Sink Branch, the total frequency for all vines was 100%, suggesting that every square
meter of this site contained vines.

 Table 6.6 provides the climbing mechanisms and families of the vine genera
found on the sample sites. Six tendrillar genera were sampled and 5 twining genera. The
least common climbing mechanisms of vines sampled included adventitious root climbers
with aerial roots, adventitious root climbers with tendrils and adhesive disks, and twisting


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