Is a historical vegetation map a useful predictor of dry season soil water fraction in seasonal ponds?

Is a historical vegetation map a useful predictor of dry season soil water fraction in seasonal ponds? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Is a historical vegetation map a useful predictor of dry season soil water fraction in seasonal ponds? Evan Heberlein, Warren Abrahamson, Jed Sparks This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6752646/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Maps of vegetation communities have been produced by ecological researchers for over a century, but the utility of these historical resources today is poorly understood or often overlooked in designing new studies and estimating environmental parameters across spatial scales. This study was based on a four-decade old map of dominant wetland vegetation species in seasonal ponds at Archbold Biological Station (ABS) on the Lake Wales Ridge, an ancient xeric ecosystem home to many endangered species in central Florida, USA. This map was used to design a study across four pond vegetation types at ABS, which collected shallow soil cores to measure soil water content and soil organic matter. These data were used to develop a mixed effects model of soil water fraction, which identified statistically significant trends in the soil water fraction gradient both within and between pond types in the vegetation classification system. This model demonstrates that the soil water fraction gradient indicated by the original pond classification system used in historical vegetation mapping at ABS is still prevalent today, highlighting the continued utility of this map's vegetation classification scheme in predicting spatial differences in environmental factors such as soil water fraction. Soil organic matter exhibited a statistically significant positive correlation with soil water fraction in the collected samples. These results show the utility of historical vegetation maps in predicting environmental variables today, and this study's approach using a historical map to design new data collection and modeling efforts can be implemented using other vegetation maps of different ecosystems. Seasonal ponds Vegetation mapping Soil moisture Ephemeral wetlands Florida scrub Full Text Supplementary Files Sedweights.csv Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6752646","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":479049053,"identity":"a90e17c2-7d57-4394-8e14-b562bcdcf63e","order_by":0,"name":"Evan Heberlein","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAxklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHgbjPxVgFuOBB0CigaAONh6GAp4zEPaBBGK1fOBtI0ULv3zvwQ2S8+zkzGc3HwBqsZHdcICAFsk2vmQDw23JxjJ3jiUAtaQZE9RicIzHzCBx24HEGRI5BkAthxMJarE/xmP+4+AckJb8D0At/wlrMWDjMTBsbADbAvL+AcJaJI7lGBgzHEs2lpBIAzrMINl4JiEt/M1ngFpq7OQkJJIfPvhQYSfbR0gLujtJUz4KRsEoGAWjAAcAADOxRHO0PiebAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3567-3427","institution":"Cornell University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Evan","middleName":"","lastName":"Heberlein","suffix":""},{"id":479049054,"identity":"546c0a78-1751-4a04-987f-5da2f7079218","order_by":1,"name":"Warren Abrahamson","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Archbold Biological Station","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Warren","middleName":"","lastName":"Abrahamson","suffix":""},{"id":479049055,"identity":"d28c1f8f-f41e-4d9e-a16d-99fcf23c5149","order_by":2,"name":"Jed Sparks","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4333-1251","institution":"Cornell University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jed","middleName":"","lastName":"Sparks","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-26 16:34:14","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6752646/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6752646/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":91893499,"identity":"dd4fab20-5bd1-4317-94c4-b26bcde2f437","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-22 17:08:09","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1411604,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"FLWetlands.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6752646/v1_covered_cb9d9e9c-1486-484a-b372-9a1374b5f020.pdf"},{"id":89339560,"identity":"637e73f2-914e-400c-86b2-063d52be8203","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-19 03:05:34","extension":"csv","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":5269,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Sedweights.csv","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6752646/v1/a5680f32e16e00deb555d73d.csv"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Is a historical vegetation map a useful predictor of dry season soil water fraction in seasonal ponds?","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":true,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Seasonal ponds, Vegetation mapping, Soil moisture, Ephemeral wetlands, Florida scrub","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6752646/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6752646/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Maps of vegetation communities have been produced by ecological researchers for over a century, but the utility of these historical resources today is poorly understood or often overlooked in designing new studies and estimating environmental parameters across spatial scales. 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