Eastern Glades and Barrens - Code: Ne7D

Eastern Glades and Barrens occur in isolated pockets throughout the mountainous areas of the e.United States. In many ways this habitat represents relict pockets of Tallgrass Prairie that have been maintained by natural fire and rocky soils. The climate here is similar to surrounding forest types with experiences distinct seasons with cold winters, hot and humid summers, and significant rainfall. Winter lows vary from 30°F to ⎻15°F (⎻1 to ⎻26°C), while summer highs are in the range of 80–95°F (27–35°C). Precipitation falls consistently year-round as either rain or snow and totals 30–60 in. (750–1,500mm).
The grasslands here are generally small – oftentimes only occupying a few acres. The dominant grasses here overlap broadly with the Tallgrass Prairie and Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), and Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) are dominant. In the Ozarks and Ouachitas, Side-oats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) is also important. Glades and barrens are also shrubbier than other North American grasslands and small Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), Ashe Juniper (Juniperus ashei), various oaks (Quercus spp.), and Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) are common plants. The mafic and calcareous soils here have a large variety of specialized herbaceous plants and the diversity and endemism of flowering plants here is huge. Many of these glades share herbaceous plants with bog and fen environments. The barrens in the Ozarks and Ouachita mountains are relict patches of Oak-Juniper Woodlands, like those in central Texas and share many similar plants.
Eastern Glades and Barrens are strongly associated with thin soils and specific bedrock types, especially in the Appalachians, Ozark and Ouachita Mountains. These grasslands often occur in mafic environments which have bedrocks high in Magnesium and Iron like gneiss and dolomite. Glades and barrens also occur on calcareous environments with limestone, chalk, or other minerals high in calcium carbonate. These underlying bedrocks tend to form nutrient poor, acidic soils that are difficult for tree growth and have allowed grasslands to survive.
Outside of mafic and calcareous soils glades and barrens grasslands need frequent disturbance or else they will quickly be swallowed up by the surrounding Nearctic Temperate Deciduous Forest. Historically, this disturbance came in the form of controlled burns. The occasional fire was the results of lightning strikes, but most were controlled burns. Fire management practices by indigenous peoples were crucial to the health and maintenance of grasslands in the Piedmont Prairie region. The forcible removal of these people along with overhunting of important grazing animals like White-tailed Deer and Elk led to massive declines in this habitat throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. More recently reclaimed mine sites and associated disturbed, rocky soils will also pass through a grassland phase that is similar to Eastern Glades and Barrens. Without fire maintenance this is often just a short successional step on the way to becoming a forest.