General information

Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.

MLRA notes

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 111X–Indiana and Ohio Till Plain

111B – Indiana and Ohio Till Plain, Northeastern Part. This area is in the Eastern Lake and Till Plains Sections of the Central Lowland Province of the Interior Plains. The entire MLRA is glaciated, and most areas are dominated by ground moraines that are broken in places by lake plains, outwash plains, flood plains, and many recessional moraines. The ground moraines and lake plains in front of the recessional moraines are flat to undulating. In many places stream valleys occur at the leading edge of the recessional moraines. Narrow, shallow valleys commonly are along the major rivers and streams in this MLRA, and some areas along the major rivers and streams have deposits of sand. Elevation ranges from 630 to 1,550 feet (190 to 470 meters), increasing gradually from west to east. Relief is mainly a few meters, but in some areas hills rise as much as 100 feet (30 meters) above the adjoining plains.

The extent of the major Hydrologic Unit Areas (identified by four-digit numbers) that make up this MLRA is as follows: Western Lake Erie (0410), 41 percent; Wabash (0512), 28 percent; Scioto (0, 28 percent; Scioto (0506), 10 percent; St. Clair-Detroit (0409), 9 percent; Great Miami (0508), 6 percent; Southeastern Lake Michigan (0405), 5 percent; and Southwestern Lake Huron (0408), 1 percent. The Huron River in Michigan, Cedar Creek in Indiana, and the Sandusky River in Ohio have been designated as National Wild and Scenic Rivers in this MLRA.

The surficial materials in this area include glacial deposits of till, outwash, and lacustrine sediments from Wisconsin and older glacial periods. A thin mantle of loess occurs in some areas. Most of the MLRA is underlain by Silurian and Devonian limestone and dolostone. Middle Devonian to Early Mississippian black shale and Early to Middle Mississippian siltstone and shale are in some areas of the northern part of the MLRA.

Classification relationships

Hierarchical Classification Relationships
Major Land Resource Area (USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2006)

USFS Ecological Regions (USDA, 2007):
Sections –Central Till Plains, Beech Maple (222H), South Central Great Lakes (222J)

Subsections – Bluffton Till Plains (222Ha), Bluffton-Ann Arbor Till Plains (222Je), Jackson Interlobate Moraine (222Jg), Steuben Interlobate Moraines (222Ji)

NatureServe Systems anticipated (NatureServe, 2011): Agriculture - Cultivated Crops and Irrigated Agriculture, Agriculture – Pasture/Hay, North-Central Interior Beech-Maple Forest, North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods, North-Central Interior Floodplain

LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings anticipated (USGS, 2010): Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems, North-Central Interior Beech-Maple Forest

Ecological site concept

This site is a riparian site formed on alluvial parent materials that are very poorly to moderately well drained. It is located along the floodplain of lotic systems in loamy alluvial deposits often overlaying coarser materials. As such the site is often constrained to a narrow landscape that is influenced by the adjacent uplands and riparian areas.

The characteristic vegetation of the site is that of a floodplain forest dominated principally by American sycamore and eastern cottonwood. Additional canopy level species include silver maple, swamp white oak, and walnut. Active hydrologic and geomorphic process, along with windthrow of established trees, drive the long interval disturbance regime of this tree dominated site. These macro and micro scale disturbance events creates mixed-aged forests that contains both late and early seral species. These dynamics have been drastically changed due to the installation of levees, dams, and channelization of the lotic systems. Establishment woody non-native, invasive species, followed by no management to control them, can alter the state of the site. The invasive species can persist in the understory as a component and then spread rapidly with an opening in the canopy. They can come to dominate the understory of the site. The canopy level species are not in direct competition with the invasive species, but over time their dominance in the understory can change the canopy level species composition. Removal of the woody species, installation of tile, and agricultural practices move this site to a new state. Much of the historic acres of this site have been transitioned to agriculture with the bulk of those acres being in corn and soybean rotations.

Associated sites

Similar sites

Table 1. Dominant plant species