Soil-Vegetation Relationships in a Prairie Grove Remnant

Abstract

GEIS, J. W. and W. R. BOGGESS (Univ. Illinois, Urbana). Soil-vegetation relationships in a prairie grove remnant. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 97: 196-203. 1970.-The distribution of soils and woody vegetation is closely correlated in a 24-heetare prairie-grove remnant in Champaign County, Illinois. Although the site has been forested for an estimated 400 to 600 years, soil development has been retarded by excessive moisture conditions, and the soils on 71% of the area are morphologically identical to the Brunizem and Humic Gley soils developed under the original tall grass prairie. An overstory of dead elm (predominantly Ulmus americana), Celtis occidentalis, and Quercus macrocarpa, along with a heavy shrub cover of Lindera benzoin, Euonymus atropurpureus and Xanthoxylum americanum occurs in low physiographic locations on Humic Gley soils. Acer saccharum, Q. rubra, C. occidentalis, U. rubra, and Aesculus glabra dominate a mixed hardwood complex in relatively flat physiographic areas in which Brunizem soils persist. Soils transitional between Brunizem and Gray-Brown Podzolic soils have developed in areas of greatest topographic relief. Acer saccharum dominates these transitional sites, along with Q. rubra, Tilia americana, and C. occidentalis. Species distribution and soil pattern are similarly related to a physiographically based gradient from hydromesic conditions in low-lying and depressional areas to mesic conditions in areas of greatest topographic relief.