4.2 Aquatic Communities
protect important natural communities. Protective measures that utilize existing regula- tory frameworks to protect habitats and species should be incorporated where applicable. Land conservation or preservation can serve numerous purposes in the face of anticipated climate change, but above all, it promotes ecosystem resilience.
• Limit lakeshore development at sites where there is no protected bufer land.
• Acquire lakeshore bufer lands (as was done at Jordan and Falls reservoirs) to exclude development.
• Implement conservation strategies where appropriate to protect downstream reaches of relic dams where there are known populations of priority mussel species.
4.2.14 Estuarine Aquatic Communities 4.2.14.1 Ecosystem Description
Estuarine aquatic communities are represented by the sounds and near-shore waters along North Carolina’s coast. North Carolina’s estuarine aquatic communities represent the largest estuarine systems along the US Atlantic coast and include the Albemarle, Pamlico, Core, Back, and Bogue Sounds. Tese sounds are collectively a part of the Albemarle– Pamlico National Estuary Partnership (APNEP), a cooperative efort jointly sponsored by NC and Virginia state resource agencies. Tey receive freshwater drainage from rivers and tributaries of the Lumber, Cape Fear, White Oak, Neuse, Tar–Pamlico, Roanoke, Pasquotank, and Chowan River basins. Near-shore waters are those located within three nautical miles of North Carolina’s coastal land area and are marine waters. Trough tidal infuences and storm surge events, near-shore waters contribute saline water to the sounds. Tis mixing of freshwater from rivers and tributaries with saline waters from near-shore and ocean marine waters contributes to seasonal and temporal variability of salinity in the brackish waters within the sounds. Tis habitat is closely associated with estuarine and freshwater marsh wetland communities (See Section 4.3.2). Coastal freshwaters generally have salinity levels between 0 and 0.5 ppt as defned by the Venice System (Cowardin et al. 1979) . Average ocean water salinity levels are between 25 and 35 ppt (Reshetilof 2004) . Salinity is typically less than 5 ppt in the sounds and can be vertically homogeneous in the water column according to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Plan (SAFMC 1998) . Coastal shallow water temperatures along the North Carolina coast typi- cally reach 31°C–33°C (Burkholder et al. 1992, 1994; Mallin et al. 2000a). Te NC Coastal Habitat Protection Plan (CHPP) refers to these waters as essential fsh habitat (EFH) (Deaton et al. 2010) . EFH supports the diferent life cycles of approximately 1,000 aquatic species managed under the SAFMP, including anadromous species such as striped
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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