Macrophyte vegetation of the Negril and Black River Morasses, Jamaica. Appendix V to Environmental feasibility study of peat mining in Jamaica.
1982
Coke L.B. | Bertrand R. | Batchelor S.
This report which forms the fourth appendix to the Environmental feasibility study of peat mining in Jamaica has for objectives the provision of detailed maps with suitable explanatory materials of vegetation in the areas of the Lower Black River and Negril Morasses which are being considered as sites for the mining of peat. Furthermore, it is to advise on sites where rare or endangered species of plants exist within the proposed mining areas. The fauna of the morasses is also observed, with particular emphasis on birds, crocodiles and turtles, their feeding and nesting areas. Notes are made of the impacts of human activities on the swamp vegetation, which may give clues about the future response of the swamp ecosystems to large-scale perturbation consequent on mining activities. The major vegetation formations in the Lower Morasses are herbaceous swamp, swamp forest and mangrove complex. The major feature of the Negril landscape are noted and include a range of thickly wooded limestone hills, a zone of cultivated land (sugarcane), an area containing sawgrass, palm forest and peat deposits, a marginal forest, a beach, offshore bed of turtle grass and coral reefs. In the Black River Lower Morasses four physiographic regions are evident. A classification of the diverse vegetation of the swampland is attempted; species were recorded at 120 sampling stations in Negril with much diversity. Three formations were recognised namely sawgrass, swamp forest and cultivated zones. Cladium and Roystonea are common species to both regions. Against a conservationist view, the morasses could be exploited for energy and food sources but excessive removal of vegetation stand would upset the ecology of the morasses.
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