Chapter 3 North Carolina Species
can affect crayfish populations—habitat destruction, over-utilization, disease, introduction of exotic species, and restricted range.
Endemic species that are of conservation concern include the Broad River Stream, French Broad River, Grandfather Mountain, Greensboro Burrowing, Pamlico, Tuckasegee Stream, and Valley River crayfishes. 3.4.4 Knowledge Gaps Species for which the Crayfish Taxa Team determined there are research priorities because of knowledge gaps are included in Table 3-3 Crayfish SGCN and Other Priority Species (see Appendix 3). An understanding of crayfish taxonomy, ecology, distribution, and abundance is necessary for resource managers to determine relative conservation status and to develop effective monitoring and management strategies (Simmons and Fraley 2010) . For some North American crayfishes there is a lack of ecological knowledge and contemporary distributional information (Taylor et al. 2007) . A recent evaluation of crayfish life history studies by Moore et al. (2013) substantiates the contemporary lack of knowledge and reports that only 12% of North American crayfishes have life history studies that have been published. These statistics are somewhat surprising considering the influence that crayfishes have on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, much work has been done in North Carolina over the last decade to address knowledge gaps about species in our state (Simmons and Fraley 2010) . In the late 1990s, the NCWRC began a focused effort to inventory and establish baseline data for the majority of crayfishes in the state. In-depth status assessments have been completed for several species considered SGCN, including Chauga, Grandfather Mountain, Little Tennessee, Hiwassee Headwater, Broad River Stream, French Broad River, Broad River Spiny, and Chowanoke crayfishes (Simmons and Fraley 2010; Thoma 2012; Russ and Fraley 2014) . Eleven of the remaining species need baseline or updated status assessments to better understand their contemporary status and improve distributional knowledge within North Carolina. And while the general distribution for many crayfish species in the state is known, additional surveys are needed to refine their range in the state. Updated status assessments are needed for all but one of the species ranked as knowledge gap priority species. Life history research is a conservation priority for all native crayfishes in North Carolina because this research forms the foundational knowledge base for evaluating threats and impacts from non-indigenous species, planning conservation activities, and guiding temporal aspects of environmental impacts. Nine of the SGCN species are high conservation priorities because of their North Carolina endemic status, restricted range, taxonomic relationship, or lack of basic biological knowledge.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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