6 Mary K. Clark, David S. Lee, John B. Funderburg, Jr. 



shrub savannas. Early successional stages of all these types appear to be 

 grass-sedge communities and later ones mature conifer-hardwood and 

 evergreen bay forests. With long-term absence of fire, all eventually 

 become deciduous bay forests. In these later stages cypress and Black 

 Gum emerge on the sites with protracted hydroperiods, and Sweet Gum, 

 Liquidambar styraciflua, and pines grow on drier ones. Thus, pocosins 

 in general can be viewed as intermediate successional communities, 

 often maintained in a subclimax stage by fire and hydroperiod, with the 

 mature vegetational stages being suppressed for long periods on the wet- 

 test sites but developing relatively quickly on drier ones. Figure 1 

 depicts our perception of a general successional model of pocosin com- 

 munities. Figure 2 shows various examples of the communities discussed. 



Development of white cedar forests is unusual in that this species 

 needs fire or other disturbance to remove vegetation so seedlings can 

 develop. However, extremely hot fires destroy the peat soil and dormant 

 seeds, and white cedar forests do not appear. Conversely, low intensity, 

 fast moving fires do not destroy enough of the root stocks of competi- 

 tive shrubs for cedar to become well established. When established, 

 white cedar is extremely fire susceptible and persists only in the absence 

 of fire. Young white cedar forests are usually pure, nearly even-age 

 stands, and the density of such forests often inhibits the establishment 

 of other tree species for about 40 years. After that time the trees begin 

 to thin out and the nature of their crowns changes, which permits light 

 to penetrate to the forest floor. At this stage bay forests develop rapidly, 

 although individual white cedar trees may persist for long periods. The 

 open savanna community requires a periodic disturbance by fire. If fire 

 is suppressed for several consecutive years, many characteristic savanna 

 plants vanish. (The above analysis is summarized from Wells 1946; 

 Buell and Cain 1943; Kologiski 1977; Wells and Whitford 1976; and our 

 personal observations.) 



We have included the sand rims associated with Carolina bays and 

 Coastal Plain stream-head forests in our discussion of animal distribu- 

 tions. In both sand rim and stream-head forest communities, fire plays 

 an important role in maintaining community structure. The stream-head 

 forest communities were considered by Wells and Whitford (1976) to be 

 vegetatively similar to certain pocosin communities and we have also 

 found them to be similar faunistically. Plant communities of the sand 

 rims, while in direct contrast to pocosin vegetation types, are a charac- 

 teristic vegetational feature of Carolina bays and are included in our 

 discussion. These sand rims are dominated by Longleaf Pine; Turkey Oak, 

 Quercus laevis; and Wire Grass. 



