The Shoreline Vegetation of Lake Sakakawea, A Man-Made Fluctuating Water Level Reservoir of the Upper Missouri River Basin.

During the summer of 1971, 50 study sites were established on lake Sakakawea and lake Audubon to study the vascular plants growing along the shoreline. These sites were permanently marked, and the vegetation was analyzed in 2 x 5 dm. plots along a transect across the shore at each site. On Lake Sakakawea, the fluctuating water level lake, three zones are described, zone inundated every year, a zone inundated 3 years ago, and a zone above the highest water mark. Around Lake Audubon, the non-fluctuating reservoir, there are also three zones, slightly different from those around Lake Sakakawea. They are an open water zone, a wet shoreline zone and an upland zone. Very little vegetation is found, curiously, in the open water zone. The wet shoreline community is dominated by emergent aquatics, and the upland is similar to the upland zone around the other lake. Results of soils analyses were similar on the 50 sites as a result of soils developing on nearly uniform parent material under nearly uniform climatic conditions. The soils are mostly loamy Chestnuts.