Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest: Climax in the Southeastern Coastal Plain, U.S.A.

Abstract

DESCRIPTION OF AREA The Coastal Plain in the southeastern tier of states is divided into several major portions, namely the Sea Island Section, the Floridian Section, the East Gulf Coastal Plain, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and the West Gulf Coastal Plain (Fenneman 1938). This study dealt with forests that occur on uplands of the Sea Island Section and on the East and West Gulf Coastal Plains. A distinct fall line separates the Sea Island Section, which drains into the Atlantic, from the adjacent Piedmont, and the Coastal Plain itself is comprised of a series of northeasterly-southwesterly oriented belts, the two lowermost of which consist of terraces of Pleistocene age. The East and West Gulf Coastal Plains, separated by the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, are very similar to each other in general plan. They are broadly belted, have a somewhat indistinct demarcation at the inner boundary, and their combined Pleistocene terraces form a narrower strip than do those on the Atlantic slope. This investigation was concerned with an area that corresponds approximately to the Southeastern Ever-