Welcome to the
Texas Pineywoods Ecosystems Gallery!
These galleries explore the local ecosystem types of "Pineywoods"-the
forested eastern edge of Texas
and the the
ecologically-similar forests of adjacent Louisiana. Markedly different from most of Texas, tall stands of trees cover much of the
gently rolling landscape.
There is a rich variety of natural habitats: Upland pine-oak
communities, remnants of once-extensive longleaf pine woodlands,
rich "mesic" deciduous forests on sheltered slopes and along small
streams, and vast "bottomland hardwood" forests on the floodplains of the
region's numerous rivers. The climate is warm and humid; some areas experience
as much as 50" (1270 mm) of rainfall a year. Timber, poultry, and ranching are
among the important local industries and much of the Pineywoods
remains relatively free from urbanization. Public lands such as
Kisatchie National Forest (Louisiana),
the
National Forests &
Grasslands of Texas,
the
Big Thicket National Preserve,
and the
Pineywoods Native
Plant Center on the campus of
Stephen F. Austin State University in
Nacogdoches enable one to
easily explore the rich and varied natural environment.
These pages provide
images of both local ecosystems and the plants typically found in them. They
reflect the characteristic natural or semi-natural (usually forested) plant
communities (assemblages) which develop in an ecosystem over time in the absence of extensive
human disturbance. However, vegetation in a location is a function of
both natural environmental factors (soils, topography, and climate) and any
management or disturbance a site has experienced; the plant
communities on disturbed or heavily managed sites may be rather different from
the "potential natural" communities described here.
The gallery is a
"spin-off" from more than 14 years of research aimed at developing an ecological
classification system (ECS) for National Forest lands in Texas and Louisiana
(Van Kley et al 2007). ECS aims to classify forest lands into "ecological
Units" on the basis of a given site's topographic features, soil properties,
and potential natural vegetation. A summary of these ecological units
appears in the introduction to the "Illustrated Flora of East Texas Volume I" (Diggs et al.
2006). Other literature describing Pineywoods habitats includes Marks and Harcombe (1981), Harcombe
et al. (1983), Van Kley and Hine (1998), Van Kley 1999a, and Van Kley 1999b). Botanical nomenclature follows Diggs et
al. (2006) for ferns, Lycophytes, gymnosperms, and monocots and Kartesz
(1999) for all other vascular plants.
Our aim is to reconnect
students, laymen, and professionals with the plants and ecosystems that form
the foundation of both the ecology and economy of east Texas. We hope you
enjoy this window into the natural world of this fascinating, and to many,
little known, part of North America!
What's New-
13 May, 2008 (Version 8.05): The Pineywoods Ecosystems gallery was launched as a part of revisions to its parent gallery "Pineywoods Plants" which consists of photographs of plants from far east Texas.
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