This community profile is one in a series of Fish and Wildlife
Service publications compiled to provide a state-of-knowledge synthesis of scientific information and literature on various coastal habitats.
The subject of this profile is the hydric hammock, a distinctive type of
forested wetland occurring at low elevations along the gulf coast of
Florida from Aripeka to St. Marks and at various inland sites in
Florida.
Relatively little research has been conducted in hydric hammocks,
and no thorough effort has been made previously to define this
community. Consequently, no consensus has existed about the extent and
nature of this community; some published works and active researchers
have differed in their judgments about it; and the entity sometimes is
ignored and often is lumped with other types of mixed hardwood forests.
The purpose of this profile is to establish or clarify an identification
and understanding of the hydric-hammock community. Information for the
profile was gathered from published and unpublished literature, from
persona 1 communication with many technical experts, and from our own
fie 1 d experience. The profile includes some new data gathered in the
field for the purpose of defining this community.
It is hoped that the content and format of the profile will be
useful to a broad spectrum of users, including other scientists,
students, resource managers and planners, teachers, and interested
citizens. The profile includes structural and functional aspects of the
community: its physical setting, plant and animal composition and
dynamics, interactions of its flora and fauna, and its relationships with other communities.
