Vegetation Patterns within the Lower Bluestone River Gorge in Southern West Virginia

Seven forest community types are described for a 2,100 ha study area in the lower Bluestone River Gorge in southern West Virginia. This is a remote, steeply sloped area, part of a large natural area that provides habitat to several plants not known elsewhere in the state. It is an example a topographic setting underrepresented in quantitative studies of forest vegetation in the region. Forest types were derived from cluster analysis of quantitative data on composition and structure of large tree (dbh ≥ 10 cm) strata obtained from 51 0.1 ha quadrats, the majority of which were included in a series of eleven transects that extended from the bottom of the gorge to a point near the rim. Multi-response permutation procedures verified the community classification. Mean topographic and soil characteristics for each community type were then compared using analysis of variance. The community types recognized conform to forest cover-types widely distributed throughout the region. Non-metric dimensional scaling indicates that topographic variables have a strong influence on the distribution of community types within the gorge. However, due to the presence of limestones and calcareous shales at midslope position, variation in soil nutrient quality tended to account for more of the variation in vegetative composition. Various species of Quercus were prominent overstory trees in six of seven community types. The continued dominance of Quercus spp. seems most likely on the more nutrient poor, west- southwest-facing sites at mid- to upper-slope positions. On more mesic, better quality growing sites, Acer saccharum and A. rubrum exhibit overwhelming importance in the understory and are likely to increase in importance.