Mitchem, David O.2014-03-142014-03-142004-12-07etd-12202004-124931http://hdl.handle.net/10919/37157Camp Brookside, a seasonal island, is located on the floodplain of the New River in Summers County, West Virginia. This island hosts several rare plant species and a rare plant community known as a riverside flat rock plant community (FRPC). The FRPC is characterized by flat resistant sandstone shelves above water that are generally associated with rapids. Flooding has historically maintained the FRPC by scouring any soil off of the bedrock and leaving sand deposits in cracks or depressions. However, since the Bluestone Dam was built in 1950, organic material accumulation and soil development has gone unabated. Measurements were taken of the overstory, lower canopy, regeneration layers, and soils found at Camp Brookside. Our overstory data indicated that there are five distinct plant communities on the island. The FRPC has an overstory of eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana), and white ash (Fraxinus americana). The FRPC has an average soil depth of 1.8 cm, a loamy sand soil texture, and a soil pH of 3.9. A xeric pine community dominated by Virginia pine and eastern redcedar was found along the riverside portion of the island. Historically, this community was part of the FRPC. The xeric pine community has an average soil depth of 17.6 cm, a loamy sand soil texture, and a soil pH of 4.6. Our results indicate that soil and organic material is accumulating in the FRPC, and that some type of disturbance will be needed to maintain this community.application/pdfen-USI hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Virginia Tech or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.New Riversandstone gladeeastern redcedarriverside flat rockMajor paperhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-12202004-124931/