1987 SCHNOES AND HUMPHREY: TERRESTRIAL COMMUNITIES IN FLORIDA 59


left to recover without manipulation. Successional changes were detected by studying
sites of different ages. Major components of the biological community were documented
in terms of their identity, abundance, and diversity, and these were evaluated as re-
sponses to site treatment. These groups of organisms included plants, insects, reptiles
and amphibians, birds, and mammals. Measurements were done with systematic, stan-
dardized sampling methods that enabled comparison of all habitats and sites. Three sepa-
rate sites were studied for each post-mining treatment, with the replicates selected to
represent the full range of site variation evident from visual examination of soil, topogra-
phy, and vegetation. Plants were measured once during the study, whereas animals were
measured quarterly to enable detection of seasonal changes while producing realistic av-
erage values for the year.

 STUDY AREAS

 The 24 study areas were located in Polk County, Florida, and comprised three repli-
cates each of eight post-mining treatments (Table 1). The first category, consolidated clay
settling ponds, is the terrestrial habitat resulting from consolidation of clay waste stored
in large ponds. After slime ponds are filled with colloidal clay, they slowly dry out by
evaporation and transpiration. When the surface clay of a site compacts into a thick crust
with deep cracks, it has made the transition from aquatic to terrestrial habitat, and the
dewatered pond is no longer subject to regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Data from these sites can be compared with data from the younger artificial marshes (see
Gilbert et al. 1981). Subsequent successional stages seldom occur because these areas
become subject either to re-mining or to reclamation by capping with sand tailings. Be-
cause the latter practice is a recent development, fully reclaimed sites were unavailable


Table 1. Study sites, showing eight treatments with three replicates of each.

 Replicates
Treatments 1 2 3

Consolidated Clay
 Settling Ponds Swift N-2 A-3

Unreclaimed Pits
 and Spoil Piles

 0-5 years
 with lakes Big Teeth Shark Tooth Young Tiger
 5-15 years
 with lakes Orange Grove Pits Tiger Tail Tiger Bay South
 15-30 years
 with lakes Homeland Cemetery Gator Lake Achan-4
 >30 years
 with lakes Bartow South Saddle Creek Park Sanlan Ranch
 >30 years
 without lakes Old Spoil Piles Christina Old Clarke James

Reclaimed Pastures

 Ungrazed Parcel B Noralyn Kibler
 Grazed 6-D Marina East H-4