Ordination of Quarterman and Keever’s Original Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest

The original Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest data gathered by Elsie Quarterman and Catherine Keever for their paper on the forests of the southeastern United States Coastal Plain were reanalyzed using ordination techniques not available in 1962. When importance percent of the broadly distributed successional species Pinus taeda was deleted, detrended correspondence analysis produced an interpretable ordination of 27 stands. Fagus grandifolia is concentrated at the opposite end of an X axis from Quercus hemisphaerica Bartr. (= Q. laurifolia of Quarterman and Keever), with soils sandier and with lower available minerals at the Q. hemisphaerica end. Carya glabra and Liquidambar styraciflua concentrations overlap both of the above species. Quercus alba and Carya tomentosa are concentrated on the lower (drier?) end of the Y axis, with Magnolia grandiflora on the upper half of that axis and Pinus glabra at the extreme upper end. Quercus falcata and Q. stellata are concentrated at the lower end of the Y axis, and Q. nigra is broadly scattered over the ordination. The most abundant understory species, Cornus florida, is more important in the lower (drier?) portion of the ordination, and the second most important understory species, Ostrya virginica, is most important in the upper portion of the ordination. Nyssa sylvatica and the understory species Ilex opaca do not have interpretable patterns across the ordination. No geographical patterns or recognizable vegetational subdivisions emerge.