Addendum 2
Chapter 4 Habitats
Rank Order
Threat
Comments likely a result of prolonged fire suppression. It is an ongoing problem regardless of climate change. Climate change may exacerbate it; if it makes controlled burning more difficult, but ongoing development and population growth has a much greater effect. Wildfires are likely to remain easy to control in the Piedmont. In the future climate, there may be an increase in natural fires (due to increased drought and higher average temperatures), but landscape fragmentation and fire suppression practices likely will continue to prevent most fires from spreading very far in the Piedmont and in the dissected lands where oak forests occur in the Coastal Plain. Most oak forests are expected to benefit from increased fire frequency, as long as the fire intensity is not too high. Direct effects of the warmer climate on these communities are likely to be limited. Similar oak forests range well to the south of North Carolina. The most severe droughts and hot spells of recent record have had only limited effects on them because they occupy the driest places on the Piedmont landscape.
Climate Change
5
4.4.19.5 Impacts to Wildlife
Rare species of animals, primarily insects, associated with these natural communities occupy habitats at the dry to xeric extreme, with some occurring only on a few isolated monadnocks in the Piedmont. Species that are confined to monadnocks or other small patches of habitat may be vulnerable to increased perturbations, such as fire, if their entire block of habitat is affected by any one event. Species confined to isolated habitats are unlikely to respond to climate change by migration. Lists of wildlife SGCN and other priority species for which there are knowledge gaps and management concerns are provided in Appendix G of the 2015 Plan. Plant SGCN that are associated with this habitat type are identified in a new table provided in Appendix HA-2.
2022 Addendum 2
4A2- 8
NC Wildlife Action Plan
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