Vegetation in Fallow Vineyards, South Bass Island, Ohio
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Date
1968-01
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Abstract
More than a third of the 1500-acre surface area of South Bass Island, Ottawa County, Ohio, is occupied by vineyards fallowed between 1900 and 1955. A floristic reconnaissance was made in July, 1962, to describe weed vegetation in an active vineyard, in four vineyards fallowed and unmowed from 7 to 24 years, and in areas mowed since retirement.
The active vineyard had the most diverse flora, but annual and biennial species composed the bulk of the vegetation. Perennial forbs were predominant in undisturbed vineyards fallowed 7 to 16 years and in older areas mowed after fallowing. Forest development was found to be more rapid on the north section of the island, where a 24-year-fallow vineyard supported a closed-canopy box elder-white ash forest. Box elder (Acer negundo) was not found in fields on the south section and forest development there apparently leads to a sugar maple-hackberry type.
Acquisition by a governmental or private agency of one or more fallow vineyards on each section of South Bass Island is recommended. Protection of such areas would preserve open space, provide areas for studies of later trends of vegetation development and assure availability of sites for terrestrial field studies by classes from the Stone Laboratory of The Ohio State University.
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Author Institution: Department of Ecology and Land Management, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
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The Ohio Journal of Science. v68 n1 (January, 1968), 1-11