Baltimore Ecosystem Study: Riparian vegetation data - 7 of 11 - 2004 plot elevations

This is one of 11 datasets generated in a study of riparian vegetation
in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study from 1999-2004. Comparisons of
vegetation between the rural/suburban (upper) and urban (lower)
sections of the watershed show distinct patterns across an urban to
rural gradient. In the lower, more urban section of the watershed,
wetland tree species are either absent or occur as small stems while
upland species are abundant, in mixed sizes. A comparison of the
number of wetland and upland species in the mostly urbanized Gwynns
Falls riparian zone with non-urbanized Piedmont floodplains throughout
Maryland shows approximately twice as many upland species in the urban
floodplain than in non-urbanized floodplains. The majority of shrubs
in riparian zones through the Gwynns Falls are upland species. For
herbaceous species, frequencies of upland and wetland species are
about equal in the upper and middle regions of the watershed, but
upland species are more common in the more urban lower floodplains by
a factor of greater than two.