Chapter 4 Habitats
4.3.6 Floodplains – Inland Systems 4.3.6.1 Ecosystem Description
For this natural community description, inland floodplains are forested communities associated with freshwater systems of various conditions and sizes and are located primarily in the Mountain, Piedmont, and Sandhills ecoregions. Depending on landscape position and soil moisture gradients, some of the wetland communities described in Section 4.3 may also be part of the inland floodplain community; however, in this description, floodplain forests are considered the dominant community type. For this natural community description, inland floodplains are forested communities associated with freshwater systems of various conditions and sizes and are located primarily in the Mountain, Piedmont, and Sandhills ecoregions. Floodplain systems in the Coastal Plain ecoregion may be associated with blackwater rivers (originating in the Coastal Plain) or brownwater rivers (originating in the Piedmont or Mountains but flowing into the Coastal Plain). Floodplains in the Coastal Plain are typically characterized as broad alluvial features that may be inundated for prolonged periods every year with low gradient meandering streams that terminate in tidal estuaries (Hupp 2000) . Separate community descriptions are provided for the blackwater and brownwater floodplains (see Sections 4.3.4 and 4.3.5, respectively) because of their unique characteristics. In the Piedmont and Sandhills ecoregions, floodplain forests generally do not contain the significant recognizable elevation differences seen in the larger coastal floodplain systems. In these smaller floodplains, the relief and size of the fluvial landforms (levees, sloughs, and ridges) that differentiate the communities in large floodplains become smaller and harder to find (Schafale and Weakley 1990) . In larger and more expansive examples of these floodplains, the forest canopy contains a good mixture of bottomland and mesophytic (moderately moisture tolerant) plant species. Floodplain forests of the Mountain ecoregion are relatively narrow and do not contain well- developed levees, sloughs, and ridges. Smaller high-gradient streams often do not have representative floodplains, but instead have riparian zones embedded within other habitat types such as isolated patches of various wetland communities (Schafale and Weakley 1990) . Mountain floodplains are subject to sporadic high-intensity flood events of short duration. 4.3.6.2 Location of Habitat Floodplain forests of some type are found beside most rivers and streams in the Piedmont and Sandhills ecoregions. They are of varying widths, depending on the topography of land adjacent to the river, and the transition between floodplain and upland forest is often gradual. Mountain floodplains are generally restricted to larger streams and rivers with relatively low gradients of the valley landscape.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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