LACLAIRE: UPLAND TEMPORARY POND VEGETATION IN FLORIDA


pond and located at 5 m intervals until the upland boundary, as indicated by
vegetation (pines or oak hammock), was reached (Abrahamson et al. 1988). If the
next 5 m sampling point along the transect was completely within upland habitat,
the sampling was terminated at the previous location. Transect lengths varied
from 25 to 80 m depending on the size of the pond basin. At each of the sampling
points, percent ground cover was sampled within quadrats using a rectangular
vegetation sampling frame with dimensions 0.5 m x 2.0 m. To facilitate ocular
estimation of cover, 0.1 m portions of the sampling frame were shaded. Percent
cover was estimated for all plants (< 1 m tall or non-woody) rooted within the
quadrat. Plants were identified to the species level where possible. Bare soil
(classified as unvegetated), dead vegetation, surface water, and non-vascular plants
were also given cover estimates. In one pond (BP, 1989 sampling), a distinction
was made between a ground cover layer and a shrub layer. Shrubs, defined as
woody plants greater than 1 m in height, were sampled using 5 m x 5 m quadrats
located at 5 m intervals along the transect. In all other pond basins, shrubs at the
transect sampling locations were sampled within the same 1 m square quadrat as
the ground cover layer.
 During each sampling in 1989 and 1990, a survey of the flora was made after
the transect sampling. Circuits were made around the pond basins from the center
to the upland boundary to opportunistically identify additional species missed on
the transects. This method of sampling was also used to obtain species
presence/absence data for LDP and RP.


 Data Analysis


 Analyses were chosen to address the research objective and to fit the field
 methods used. Plant lists were compiled for each site. Plant species identification
 and nomenclature follow Wunderlin (1982) and Clewell (1985). Only those 11
 ponds sampled using transects during 1989 and 1990 were used in calculations.
 Total species occurrence data in all ponds, including LDP and RP, were used to
 make comparisons between sites.
 To determine the similarities between the plant community at each pond, a
 number of different methods was used. The most common plant species were
 determined by finding those present in greater than 60% (7/11) of the ponds. Sixty
 percent was an arbitrary limit set as indicative of presence in a high percentage of
 samples, and plants found with this frequency were considered "constant" species
 (Mueller-Dombois and Ellenberg 1974). The most common plant species were
 identified from the 1990 transect data alone, then the 1989 transect data and data
 from the circuit searches were added, and the most common plant species were
 determined from the combined samples.