4.3 Wetland Natural Communities
• Work to develop eight patches of forested wetlands at least 10,000 acres in size through- out the South Atlantic Coastal Plain, as called for in the South Atlantic Coastal Plain Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Plan (Hunter et al . 2001b) .
4.3.4 Floodplains—Brownwater Systems 4.3.4.1 Ecosystem Description
Tis ecosystem group includes the vegetated communities that occur on brownwater food- plains. In contrast to blackwater rivers, they carry heavy loads of mineral sediment, partic- ularly clay and silt. Te water is generally near neutral pH and high in nutrients. Te depo- sition of sediment in the foodplain provides a periodic nutrient input that keeps the soils rich. Depositional topographic features such as natural levees, point bars, ridge-and-swale systems, and sloughs are well developed, with their size depending on the size of the river. Tere are seven communities that occur in Coastal Plain brownwater foodplains: Levee Forests, Bottomland Hardwoods, Small Stream Swamps, Cypress–Gum Swamps, Semipermanent Impoundments, Oxbow Lakes, and Sand and Mud Bars (Schafale and Weakley 1990) . 4.3.4.2 Location of Habitat Brownwater rivers originate in the Mountains or Piedmont and fow eastward into the Coastal Plain ecoregion. Brownwater foodplain forests of various conditions and sizes can be found throughout the Coastal Plain ecoregion; however, the majority of them are associ- ated with the Roanoke, Tar–Pamlico, Neuse, and Cape Fear rivers. Te condition of Coastal Plain foodplain forests of all types have been greatly reduced in recent years throughout North Carolina and the entire southeast (Weller and Stegman 1977; Schafale and Weakley 1990) by a variety of anthropogenic factors. 4.3.4.3 Problems Affecting Habitats Flooding . Factors that impact these systems include fooding regime patterns that have been changed by dams and other development, habitat fragmentation, changes in water chemistry and organic matter loads, increased nitrogen from agricultural and development-related runof, exotic species and high-grading of stands and logging that reduces wide bufers. All of these factors individually or interactively produce abrupt or gradual changes in foodplain plant and wildlife communities. In particular, the sediment load in many brownwater rivers is now a major problem in the Coastal Plain, and even many blackwater systems now have high sediment loads (Schafale and Weakley 1990) .
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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