METHODS 

 Study Area 



The study was conducted in portions of the subtropical ecoregion 

 of the southeastern United States (Bailey 1980) , including portions of 

 eastern Texas and the Gulf and South Atlantic states. Northern limits 

 of the area extended across northern Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, 

 Georgia, and South Carolina. The study area included the states of 

 Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. Georgia and South Caro- 

 lina were included, except for the piedmont region. Only the extreme 

 eastern portion of Texas was included, as was the northern portion of 

 Florida (Figure 2) . The intent was to study natural undisturbed sites 

 encompassing the largest possible area where the resulting FTI numbers 

 would be applicable without including areas that would introduce too 

 many additional species or different climatic variables. 



Specific sites were selected according to the following criteria: 

 (1) No major disturbance (e.g., timber harvesting, ditching, or diking) 

 had occurred during the past 20 years; (2) sufficient hydrologic data 

 (10 to 20 years of daily stream gauge readings) accurately portraying 

 water-level fluctuations on the site (considering ponding, tributary 

 influence between site and gauge, etc.) were available; (3) no site 

 changes (e.g., timber harvesting or ditching) were anticipated during 

 the study period; (4) soil data (e.g., soil surveys, soil series, and/or 



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