Water relationships among wetland habitat types in the Mingo Swamp, Missouri

Abstract

The hydrologic relationships of 15 lowland hardwood wetland habitat types in the Mingo Swamp of southeastern Missouri were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering multivariate techniques. Both the PCA and cluster analyses defined significant differences among wetland types. In all PCAs, the percentage of total water coverage, percentage of water 30 cm deep had the highest loading in factor I and were most useful in separating wetland types. Typically, open water habitats were classified at one extreme in the analyses and pin oak/hickory habitats at the opposite extreme. Dead tree, open marsh, ditch, and river habitats were usually closely grouped; however, all green-tree reservoir habitats were hydrologically shifted toward deeper, more permanently flooded conditions, especially in fall and early winter.