Plant communities of Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, U.S.A.

The vegetation of Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, U.S.A., was investigated, in part to establish a plant community classification system that would be useful to park managers and naturalists, and to evaluate short-term changes within plant communities. Samples from 120 stands were ordinated and classified on the basis of synecological coordinates, a system of ecological coordinates relating floristics to physical site conditions. Along indirect gradients of moisture and nutrient conditions, 12 ecological types were distinguished. Within each ecological type, it is expected that stands of diverse cover types will tend to converge, over a period of 150–200 years, on an edaphically constrained “climax” community characteristic of that ecological type, given present management practices and disturbance regimes. Permanent plots were established in 46 stands to permit future testing of these projections. Ecological types, named for expected dominants and for a typical undergrowth species or genus, include (1) jack pine – oak – Arctostaphylos; (2) red pine – white pine – Linnaea; (3) fir–spruce–birch–Lycopodium; (4) fir–birch–Mitella; (5) oak–maple–Uvularia; (6) ash–elm–Trillium; (7) black ash – Caltha; (8) white cedar – Coptis; (9) black spruce – Alnus; (10) black spruce – Kalmia; (11) leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne) bog; and (12) marsh.