Browsing by Author "Dr. Jon M. Stucky, Committee Chair"

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    Characterization and Community Analysis of Three Carolina Bays in Bladen County, North Carolina
    (2004-11-11) Lees, Britta; Dr. Thomas R. Wentworth, Committee Member; Dr. Jon M. Stucky, Committee Chair; Dr. Michael J. Vepraskas, Committee Member
    Carolina Bays are unique elliptical depressional wetlands that are abundant in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, particularly in North Carolina. A large percentage of these bays have been ditched, drained, logged, or otherwise disturbed by humans in the past 200 years. Currently, Carolina Bay restoration provides a means for mitigating wetlands lost to development. The purpose of this study was to characterize compositional variation of vegetation relative to gradients of environmental conditions in three Carolina Bays in order to provide reference data for restoring impacted bays. Within three unaltered Carolina Bays, soil sampling, water table monitoring, and vegetation assessments were conducted. Four community types were identified: pond pine woodland, non-riverine swamp forest, high pocosin, and bay forest. Distributions of these community types were strongly correlated to depth of organic material and associated soil properties and hydrologic regimes. Pond pine woodland dominated mineral soils; both pond pine woodland and nonriverine swamp forest were found on histic and shallow organic soils; both high pocosin and bay forest were found on deep organic soils. Examination of the data included simple averaging, single factor analyses of variance, Fisher's protected least significant differences, chi-square tests of independence, cluster analyses, and ordination procedures. The application of this material was intended for a North Carolina Department of Transportation Carolina Bay mitigation project and future Carolina Bay restoration projects in this region.
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    Effects and Importance of Soil Wetness and Neighboring Vegetation on Solidago verna
    (2007-04-28) Fleming, Miranda Maxine; Dr. Nick M. Haddad, Committee Member; Dr. Jon M. Stucky, Committee Chair; Dr. Gary B. Blank, Committee Member
    Solidago verna (spring-flowering goldenrod) is a rare endemic primarily of frequently burned longleaf pine flatwoods in the Carolinas. It is listed as threatened in North Carolina and as a federal species of concern. Continued threats to the species are fire suppression and habitat destruction, including planned highway construction through the largest known population. Plants in this threatened population were transplanted into study plots on seven Coastal Plain soils varying in wetness. Full vegetation and reduced vegetation treatments were applied to test the effects of plant interactions. Soil was the most important factor affecting transplant survival. Survival was low in areas where ponding or flooding occured. Plant interaction effects on survival differed significantly among soils. Both increasing soil wetness and the presence of neighboring vegetation negatively affected transplant growth; however, most of the decrease in transplant mass was attributed to other environmental factors, possibly shading from the tree canopy or transplanting stress. We recommend establishing mitigation transplant sites on the Lenoir soil series and burning those sites every 1-3 years.
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    Systematics of Gonolobus and the Gonolobinae (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae): Circumscription based on evidence from molecules and morphology; new species and new combinations; typification, revision, and conservation in the West Indies.
    (2008-04-20) Krings, Alexander; Dr. Qui-Yun (Jenny) Xiang, Committee Co-Chair; Dr. Pedro Acevedo-Rodriguez, Committee Member; Dr. Richard R. Braham, Committee Member; Dr. Paul Fantz, Committee Member; Dr. Jon M. Stucky, Committee Chair