Chapter 4 Habitats
Coastal Plain that results in differences in ecosystem patterns and the variety of relief and roughness (Bailey 2009) . This ecoregion covers about 40% of the state, is centrally located between the Mountains and Coastal Plain, and generally contains the most urban areas with the highest population densities. A variety of underlying hard rock formations influence the landform, with gently rolling hills to the rather steep hills of the Uwharrie Mountain Range (Montgomery, Randolph, and Stanly counties) and the Kings Mountain Range (Cleveland and Gaston counties) (SCO 2014) . Elevations range from about 1,500 feet (amsl) in the foothills to about 200 feet (amsl) at the fall line (SCO 2014) . Because water resources are often seasonally limited, several reservoirs have been built to provide drinking water to rapidly developing urban and suburban centers that are replacing agriculture and forest lands (Gallant et al. 2004) . • Sandhills . The North Carolina Sandhills is the southwestern portion of the Coastal Plain physiographic province. The Sandhills ecoregion is distinguished because of its distinctive geomorphology and vegetation and covers about 3% of the state. It is generally located between the south-central and southeastern part of the state, encompassing portions of Anson, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Moore, Richmond, Scotland, and Montgomery counties. The name derives from the predominantly sandy soils formed of Cretaceous-age marine sands and, in some places, clays that are capped by Tertiary-age sands deposited over Piedmont metamorphic rocks. The landscape has rolling hills and nutrient-poor soils. The Sandhills represents a former coastline and is well known for having many rare plants (Omernik and Griffith 2008) . • Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain (Coastal Plain). This ecoregion includes areas east of the fall line (excluding the Sandhills) and the tidal coast (ocean, sounds, barrier islands, and mainland brackish and salt marshes). The Coastal Plain covers about 40% of the state (Land et al. 2004) . It may be divided roughly into two sections: the tidewater area (lower Coastal Plain), which is largely flat and swampy, and the interior portion (upper Coastal Plain), which is made up of gently sloping elevations and is better drained than other regions. The average elevation is from about 200 feet (amsl) at the fall line (or western boundary separation from the Piedmont), sloping to an elevation of generally 50 feet (amsl) or less over most of the mainland landscape, with barrier islands being close to sea level (SCO 2014) . 4.1.1 Natural Community Descriptions This chapter provides descriptions for important aquatic, wetland, and terrestrial natural communities found in North Carolina. The community descriptions incorporate a subset of the climate change vulnerability assessments conducted by the NC Natural Heritage Program (NCNHP) with other resource agencies in 2010 and updates drafted in 2025. As noted in previous chapters, common names are used throughout this document for all species except those for which there is taxonomic uncertainty; in those few instances the scientific name is
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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