4.4 Terrestrial Communities
T ABLE 4.34 Comparison of climate change with other threats to mesic forests
Rank Order
Threat
Comments
Development
1 Destruction and indirect efects such as fragmentation and edge efect result from land development in suburban areas and even in many rural areas. 1 Logging severely alters canopy structure and composition, and is a threat to all but the steepest unprotected examples. Invasive plants are a present and increasing threat. Both development of nearby areas and logging increase the potential for invasion. 2 Plants such as Autumn Olive, Japanese Stiltgrass, Japanese Honeysuckle, Princess Tree, Tree-of-heaven, and Chinese Privet have taken resources from native vegetation and altered habitat structure and species composition. Te extent of negative (and positive) impacts of exotic species on populations of native fauna is largely unknown. 3 Te severity of climate change efects on these sheltered sites is uncertain. It is expected that the boundary with drier communities will shift, so that periph- eral portions are lost, smaller or more marginal examples may be lost, and the total acreage will shrink. Tese communities often support species disjunct from cooler areas, and some of these species may be lost. 4 Fires that would have naturally swept through these sites (relatively infre- quently in the Piedmont, perhaps more frequently in the Coastal Plain) have been suppressed, likely afecting the community composition of mesic plant species and exotics.
Logging/ Exploitation
Invasive Species
Climate Change
Fire Suppression
4.4.9.5 Impacts to Wildlife Appendix G provides a list of SGCN and other priority species for which there are knowl- edge gaps and management concerns. Appendix H identifes SGCN that depend on or are associated with this habitat type. Fragmentation of mesic forests into smaller or narrower contiguous blocks is a concern for forest interior birds (like the Wood Trush, Hooded Warbler, and Worm-eating Warbler), which may occur in lower densities or sufer lower productivity or survival in small habitat patches. Fragmentation by roads and development can be problematic for reptiles (espe- cially Timber Rattlesnakes and Eastern Box Turtles), amphibians, and small mammals (particularly Eastern Mole) that sufer high mortality on roads when traveling between forest patches or between mesic forest and other habitats. A lack of canopy gaps in this habitat type has probably lead to a reduced number of some avifauna such as the Eastern Wood-pewee, Hooded Warbler, and Kentucky Warbler. Tis reduction in canopy gaps has also caused a decline in midstory and understory vegetation, which has impacted species such as the Swainson’s, Kentucky, and Hooded warblers, and Wood Trush. Te reduction in standing snags negatively impacts primary and secondary cavity nesting species and the lack of dead wood on the forest foor impacts herpetofauna and small mammals.
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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