Rainbow Springs: Upland Hardwood Forest #2 Traditional Geocache

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Hidden : 10/27/2012
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
3 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

You are looking for a small camo’d container (3” x 1”). There is a $2 entry fee or annual pass required. BYOP!

Congrats to Flatouts and Kindbus for co-FTF!!!!

This is a series of caches focused on the Ecological Communities of Rainbow Springs State Park. This cache is in the middle of an Upland Hardwood Forest which is in succession from a Longleaf Pine Sandhill community.

Description:

Upland hardwood forest is a well-developed, closed-canopy forest dominated by deciduous hardwood trees on mesic soils in areas sheltered from fire. It typically has a diverse assemblage of deciduous and evergreen tree species in the canopy and midstory, shade-tolerant shrubs, and a sparse groundcover. Upland hardwood forest occurs on rolling mesic hills, slopes above river floodplains, in smaller areas on the sides of sinkholes, and occasionally on rises within floodplains. Limestone or phosphatic rock may be near the surface. Soils are generally sandy clays or clayey sands with substantial organic and sometimes calcareous components. These soils have higher nutrient levels than the sandy soils prevalent in most of Florida. The moisture retention properties of clays and layers of leaf mulch conserve soil moisture and create decidedly mesic conditions. The dense canopy and multiple layers of midstory vegetation restrict air movement and light penetration, which maintains high relative humidity within the community. Upland hardwood forest occurs throughout the southeastern coastal plain from the Carolinas to east Texas (Platt and Schwartz 1990). Upland hardwood forest occurs in the Florida Panhandle south to the central peninsula (Schwartz 1988; USFWS 1999). Upland hardwood forest most commonly occurs within the inland portions of the state. Light gap succession is the driving force behind tree recruitment in upland hardwood forest and can happen at many different scales from single tree sized gaps to larger canopy openings (Clewell 1986; Platt and Schwartz 1990). Localized damage from low intensity, naturally occurring fires that creep into the forest edges from surrounding pyrogenic upland communities (e.g., upland pine, sandhill) appears to be a natural part of the forest dynamics of upland hardwood forest; however, fires rarely burn completely through the understory, and even less frequently lead to crown or devastating fires (Batista and Platt 1997). Hurricanes are another irregular natural process by which the canopy opens and the forest canopy regenerates (Batista and Platt 1997). Source: Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) Ecological Communities Guide.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ybbx vafvqr na "rk" gerr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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