NATURAL DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF FOREST SPECIES AND COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN FLORIDA

Quantitative estimates of the distribution and abundance of trees in northern Florida prior to extensive land development are summarized from Public Land Survey (PLS) records. The PLS data on 127 653 trees at 48 831 sample locations, collected between 1822 and 1854 and tabulated from original field notes, are summarized here to examine the abundance and distribution of major tree species and plant associations. These results are compared to another early, quantified estimate of vegetation published in 1914. These two records of vegetation were compared within 20 vegetation zones in northern Florida. Both data sets describe the vegetation of northern Florida as strongly dominated by pine and similarly describe regions more heavily represented by upland hardwood or forested wetland trees. The data sets differ predominantly in that the PLS data indicate: (1) more pine; (2) less cypress, gum, and sweetgum than the early 20th-century survey; and (3) that, in contrast to major upland hardwood taxa, the representation of major taxa typical of pinelands and forested wetlands is only loosely correlated between data sets. The PLS records were used to map the distribution of species and community types across northern Florida. The PLS data support, and quantify, previously published accounts of the over whelming dominance of pine in the presettlement vegetation of northern Florida. This abundance of pine refutes various hypotheses that mixed hardwood vegetation dominated upland habitats in northern Florida.