9. Site Description: 



Battery Island represents a natural island whose surrounding 

 marshes have undergone some, although not drastic, modification in 

 the past by the addition of dredged spoil material. Two upland, normally 

 non- flooding areas occur on the "island," one at its southeast end, 

 and one in the central portion of the island. These sites are domi- 

 nated by dense thickets of "developing" mixed coastal hardwoods, and 

 by areas where species transitional between the maritime thickets 

 and swale and flat associes occur. Woody species such as live oak 

 (Quercus virginiana ) , Hercules* club ( Zanthoxylum clava - herculis ) , 

 ©astern red cedar CJuniperus virginiana ) , wax myrtle TMyrijca cerifera ) , 

 yaupon ( Ilex vomitoria ), and marsh elder ( Iva frutescens ) predominate. 

 Canopy trees are approximately 6 to 8 meters in height, and transgres- 

 sives of the listed species form subcanopy and shrub strata which are 

 essentially continuous with the canopy layer. It is in these thickets 

 that the well developed rookeries of the island are located (see 

 Table 2 for species compositions and numbers). 



The upland portions of the island are surrounded by smooth cord 

 grass ( Spartina alterniflora ) salt marsh, which is especially exten- 

 sive around the northernmost upland portion of the area. Swales^ 

 flats, and low ridges between the salt marsh and the upland maritime 

 thickets are dominated by a mixture of grasses, especially salt- 

 meadow cord grass (S, patens ) , sedges, and forbs (see "Swale and 

 Flat Associes" in Introduction), Dense patches of giant reed 

 ( Phragmites communis ) dominate a few of the dredged spoil material 

 deposits around the upland island ridges. 



