4atural Stand Dynamics in Longleaf Pine: How Climatic Disturbances Shape the Community

INTRODUCTION 1,ongleaf pine (Pinuspalustris) once dominated the overstory of a wide range of southern plant communities including wet flatwoods and savannas of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains to higher, droughty sand deposits such as the fall line sandhills and the central ridge of Florida. It was also the dominant overstory tree on the lower rolling sandhills of lower Mississippi, central Louisiana, and east Texas. Longleaf pine even oxtended onto the mountain slopes and ridges of Alabama and northwest Georgia, where it was found growing at elevations up to 600 m. Frequent low intensity fires favored longleaf over other pines, because it has seedlings better adapted to surviving such fires. These periodic fires, every 2 to 8 years, also shaped the rest of the community, keeping woody shrubs in check while promoting the growth of grasses and forbs.