Appendix II

Rare Natural Communities

Cross Reference Table

Throughout this report, but particularly in the individual habitat narratives, we have emphasized the presence, composition, and global and watershed status of rare natural communities occurring within the study area, in addition to rare, vulnerable, or otherwise regionally-important species. Indeed, many of the communities are as rare or endangered as the individual species that comprise them, sometimes even more so. Undisturbed high-quality examples of natural communities are especially rare in the watershed. While in some cases natural communities have always been rare and geographically restricted in the watershed as a result of specific habitat requirements, in many instances they have been greatly fragmented and reduced in areal extent from historical levels.

Natural or Ecological Communities are defined by the New York Natural Heritage Program as a "variable assemblage of interacting plant and animal populations that share a common environment." Since animal and plant populations are quite variable in space and time and tend to grade from one habitat to another, any classification system which attempts to group these species into distinct communities is somewhat arbitrary. Community classification is still a useful method to describe the habitats and populations in an area, organize information, determine the status and trends of rare populations, and determine changes in environmental parameters. Most of the communities used in this report are classified based on the dominant plant species composition. We have also defined animal concentration areas which describe consistent seasonal or year-round use areas for animal species of special emphasis. Most of this information on rare communities has come from the Natural Heritage Programs in both states that classify and track the occurrences and status of these communities on a statewide basis, much as they do species occurrences. In addition, substantial information has been provided from the regional and national offices of The Nature Conservancy, particularly on the national or global status of these communities. The Nature Conservancy has recently completed initial rare plant community classifications on a regional and national scale. Seventeen of the 53 communities ranked as globally rare in the eastern region occur in the New York Bight study area; several of them occur nowhere else. Also, the National Wetlands Inventory has its own classification system for wetlands.

This appendix contains a table of those rare natural communities that occur in the New York Bight watershed and that are specifically referred to in the list of Species of Special Emphasis (Appendix I) and individual habitat narratives in the body of the report. While the community classification systems and naming conventions developed by the states of New York and New Jersey are similar, they are not identical, and required cross-referencing as well as the selection of a single name for each community type referred to in this report. The following table shows the community names used in this report and shows their relationship to the two state classifications for rare communities occurring in the New York Bight study area, as well as to The Nature Conservancy's and National Wetland Inventory's classification systems. State ranks, Bight watershed ranks, and global ranks are also provided; see Appendix I for definitions of ranks.

References:

Breden, T. 1989. A preliminary natural community classification for New Jersey. In E.F. Karlin (ed.) New Jersey's rare and endangered plants and animals, pp. 157-191. Institute for Environmental Studies, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ.

Cowardin, L.M., V. Carter, F.C. Golet, and E.T. Laroe. 1979. Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. FWS/OBS-79/31.

Grossman, D.H., K.L. Goodin, and C.L. Reuss. 1994. Rare plant communities of the conterminous United States, an initial survey. Prepared by The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

Reschke, C. 1990. Ecological communities of New York State. New York Natural Heritage Program, Latham, NY. 96 p.

Sneddon, L. and K. Metzler. 1992. Eastern regional community classification, organizational hierarchy, and cross-reference to state heritage community. The Nature Conservancy Eastern Heritage Task Force, Boston, MA.

Cross-Reference Table of Natural Communities

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