4.3 Wetland Natural Communities
T ABLE 4.22 Comparison of climate change with other threats to pocosins
Rank Order Comments
Threat
Logging/ Exploitation Flood Regime Alteration
1 Unprotected white cedar and pond pine stands continue to be logged and often do not regenerate. 2 Ditching for drainage and for road construction alters communities, increases wildfre damage, and likely exacerbates efects of droughts. Ditches will bring tidal water into peatlands and will hasten their destruction. Impounding efects of roads also alter hydrology in some peatlands, and may have increasing impact if rainfall events become more extreme. 3 Loss of natural fre has altered communities and ecosystem processes. Deep peat fres in artifcially drained areas cause lasting damage to communities. Increased wildfre or increased temperature may actually be ecologically ben- efcial in some areas, but could be detrimental in others that have been ditched and could cause excessive peat consumption. Extreme wildfres in deep peat can result in depressions several feet deep. Tese areas could fll with water in wet years and create freshwater marsh type conditions. 3 Pocosins on private land have largely been ditched and converted to loblolly pine plantations by the forest products industry. While deeper peats resist conversion, pine plantations continue to replace pond pine woodland and peatland Atlantic white cedar forest. 4 Areas that occur in the lowest elevations may be lost to sea level rise due to salt- water intrusion and inundation. Loss of signifcant minority acreage is a likely threat. Other threats are very uncertain.
Fire
Conversion to Agriculture/ Silviculture
Climate Change
quantities of berries that are persistent through much of the winter. In more extensive pocosins, such as the Alligator River refuge, Prairie Warblers and Prothonotary Warblers are quite common in the breeding season, and Gray Catbirds are numerous as well. A study by NCWRC in the Sandhills demonstrated a high territory density of shrub nest- ing birds in fre-managed streamhead pocosin, including Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Towhee, and Yellow-breasted Chat. Tis same study found a relatively high density of cavity nesters such as Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Carolina Wren. Fire-suppressed streamhead pocosins supported signifcantly lower densities of nine bird species but had higher numbers of Carolina Chickadee, Hooded Warbler, and Red-eyed Vireo. Red-cockaded Woodpeckers exist in some of these Pond Pine-dominated sites. However, loss of this fre maintained habitat has caused fragmenta- tion of Red-cockaded Woodpecker habitat across the landscape. Tere is a signifcant lack of information about populations of small mammals, bats, rep- tiles and amphibians in pocosin habitats ( Mitchell 1992 ). Sandhills Salamander ( Eurycea n. sp. 9) is endemic to this habitat (in streamhead pocosins) and is the species most at risk to alterations of hydrology and fre frequency due to climate change. Other species associated with this ecosystem include Pinebarrens Treefrog, a species with strong associations to
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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