FLORISTIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT ALONG AN OLD-FIELD CHRONOSEQUENCE

Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA), a protocol for quantifying plant community quality relative to one that retains remnant natural condition, has been successfully applied to a suite of natural community types and ecological restoration projects. This study, performed in east central Indiana, examined floristic quality in a natural old-field succession chronosequence. Sites ranged in age from 1 to 50 years. Differences in species richness, mean conservatism, and floristic quality index were assessed at both transect and quadrat level. As hypothesized, richness of non-native species decreased while all other metrics increased with post-disturbance time. The mean conservatism for native species (at both transect and quadrat level) was ca. 2–3 for sites over 30 years of age. Floristic quality index for native species ranged from ca. 9–15 (transect level) and 4–7 (quadrat level). Given FQA expectations in the literature, 50 years of old-field succession was insufficient for mean conservatism or the floristic quality index to even reach levels associated with a degraded remnant natural community.