A Successional Model for Restoration and Management of a Diverse Natural Upland-Wetland Complex in Central Florida

We developed a Successional Model for Disney Wilderness Preserve (DWP), which describes relationships among the major natural plant communities in terms of the site's two major environmental processes, its hydrologic and fire regimes. The goals of the model were to provide a framework for predicting long-term consequences of alterations in the site's hydrologic and fire regimes that were precipitated by either offsite activities as surrounding lands are developed or by onsite restoration and management activities. The model was adapted from previous models developed for other sites with different mixes of communities that were more or less similar to those on DWP. The initial step in the process was to define the major plant communities present on DWP, and to characterize them in terms of their topographic position, substrates, dominant vegetation, and their hydrologic and fire regimes. The direction and timing of transitions between communities in this and the previous models were based largely upon many years of field experience on the part of the authors and other collaborators and on old and recent aerial photography. We also incorporated available field data, such as tree ages and organic soil C-14 dates, which allowed us to extend the temporal depth of the models. We used "best professional judgment" to fill information gaps. Major assumptions in the models are the constant availability of seeds that could facilitate a transition to another community type if environmental conditions were altered, a long-term perspective for the development of the communities, and the absence of human disturbance. The final models represent our current hypothesis about successional mechanisms that influence the distribution of major plant communities on the DWP in the absence of fire.