Chapter 4 Habitats
Table 4.2.11-1 Climate change compared to other threats to stream swamp systems. Threat Rank Order Comments from spills and reduced water quality from spreading animal manure on surrounding fields.
4 Invasive plants and animals are potential problems, although specific interactions are unknown. Red swamp crayfish thrive in this habitat and outcompete native crayfish
Invasive Species
4.2.11.5 Impacts to Wildlife Appendix 3 includes a list of SGCN and other priority species for which there are knowledge gap and management concern priorities. Appendix 3-18 identifies SGCN that use stream swamp systems. Rapid changes in water temperature will have direct impacts on the physiology and metabolic rates of freshwater biota (Allan et al. 2005) , which are dominated by cold-blooded organisms with no physiological ability to regulate their body temperature. Aquatic species are particularly sensitive to temperature cues, and recent research has shown that many species of freshwater mussels may already be living at the upper thermal tolerances of their early life stages (glochidia and juveniles) (Pandolfo et al. 2010) . Eaton et al. (1995) reported maximum temperature tolerance estimates for 30 species of freshwater fishes occurring in the United States. Temperature tolerance ranges are species-specific, and the availability of cooler waters may become limiting to some species in their current range in a warmer climate. Aquatic species could experience shifts in their range or distribution, and sensitive species may experience decline or extirpation due to changes in water quality and habitat. The ability of freshwater organisms to move to new locations is constrained by the connectivity of streams and rivers within drainage basins and by the connectivity between suitable habitat types within an aquatic system. Saltwater intrusion is expected to impact large rivers initially, and the extent to which saltwater will reach small streams and swamps is yet to be determined. However, if these smaller systems experience saltwater intrusion, existing freshwater fauna may be replaced with more brackish water species and, if salinity levels increase gradually, there could be adaptation by some freshwater species to this change. Additionally, if these systems remain freshwater, but large rivers at confluences with these smaller systems are brackish water, it could lower genetic diversity and available habitat for species that moved between large and small river systems in the Coastal Plain. Also, there may be a change in the number of freshwater streams and swamps in this community type as some may become brackish or saltwater systems.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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