Spatially Narrow Wet Prairies

Abstract Wet prairies in the Southeast consist of floristically diverse grass-sedge ecosystems that are conspicuously lacking in woody species because of seasonal soil saturation and frequent fire. They occupy a landscape position between mesic, pyrogenic pine savannas and hydric swamps and marshes. Wet prairies are recognized wherever they occur on broad expanses of land; however, many go unrecognized or are mistaken for ecotones where they occupy strips of land that narrowly separate pine savannas from more deeply inundated wetlands. Such spatially narrow wet prairie in west-central Florida was characterized in terms of its plant species composition and abundance, soils, and elevations relative to the saw-palmetto line (border with pine savanna), the cypress strand line (border with deeper wetlands), lichen line (maximum inundation following major storm events), and taper points on cypress buttresses (wet season normal pool). Wet prairie ranged horizontally from 1.5 to 30 m wide (mean 12.7 ± 3.9 m) and ...