BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM


forest, shown by models (Fig. 21B) to be at a late successional stage at
36 years after mining. The late successional stage had an enormous amount
of biomass stored as living wood and had more diverse and more abun-
dant wildlife than endpoints of other treatments-clay waste areas and
reclaimed pastures. In addition, these old sites had considerable aes-
thetic value that is difficult to quantify. As anticipated, community struc-
ture on late successional sites was strongly affected by the presence of
lakes. The kinds of wildlife occupying these two treatments were very
different, and the numbers of tree and bird species, tree H', and amount
of bird biomass were significantly different (Table 13).
 Reclaimed pastures had consistently low wildlife values (Table 14). In
almost all categories the animal community on ungrazed sites was more
diverse and abundant than on grazed sites, with a significant difference
apparent for bird H' (Table 13). However, the selective harvest of grazing
resulted in a somewhat more diverse pasture vegetation. Stocking of pas-
tures with cattle, by adding a large amount of mammal biomass, showed
that reclaimed sites have integrity as good life-support systems. Hence,
reclaimed pastures are valuable because they support an abundant food
source for humans. Though wildlife value of this treatment is low, the
viability of reclaimed pastures suggests that high wildlife potential could
be realized on these sites if a wildlife-oriented land use decision was
made.
 Four distinct seral stages are apparent (Fig. 21). First is the oldfield
stage of grasses and forbs, reaching its fullest development at 5-7 years.
Second is the pioneer shrub stage, characterized by Lantana, Baccharis,
vines, and forbs, between 8 and 14 years after mining. Third is the wax
myrtle stage, dominated by wax myrtle and invading forest trees from
about 15 to 30 years. Fourth is the oak forest stage, dominated by water
oak, live oak, and several other species. Later forest types that might
occur were not available for study. The decline of herbs occurred as woody
plants increasingly intercepted the sunlight on which the herbs de-
pended for energy. Minimum values for shrub species and tree H' coin-
cided in time and correlated with dominance of wax myrtle in the tree
and/or shrub data. Apparently the allelopathic wax myrtle forced the de-
cline of the pioneer shrub community, dominated the next community of
young trees, and declined as the forest community emerged into the full
sunlight. Two distinctive small mammal communities occurred with peak
abundances in the pioneer shrub and forest stages. Mammal abundance
correlated with the number of shrub species (and no other plant variable)
and may have responded directly to shrubs for food or shelter. However,
shrub H' and cover cannot be eliminated as causes of the mammal pat-
tern, because significance levels did not permit modelling of possible
effects. The reason for low mammal abundance in the wax myrtle stage


VOL. 30 NO. 3