Chapter 4 Habitats
cause eutrophication and oxygen depletion. The result is severe alteration of habitat needed for wildlife in river mouths and estuaries near shore.
Fire Suppression . Fire return intervals vary widely depending on vegetation, hydrology, and extent of organic soils. Fire suppression takes the peatland pocosin out of the normal 25- to 50- year burn cycle and allows the build-up of fuel, because the acidic habitat has slow decomposition and rates of soil formation. The build-up of fuel increases vulnerability to fires during dry summers. Impacts of fire suppression lead to larger, hotter fires in the vegetation and can cause ignition of peat fires that are difficult to extinguish. Similarly, the streamhead Atlantic White Cedar forest composition is affected by the fire cycle; fire suppression leads to accumulating fuel loads and a layer of thick, understory shrubs, and hardwood saplings. Hydrologic Changes. Historic ditching and draining of North Carolina’s pocosins have significantly disrupted their natural hydrology. Since the 1950s, large areas of pocosins have been affected by land use changes, including conversion to development and agriculture (Richardson 1991) . Draining these wetlands causes the organic peat soils to subside over time, releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere (Moritz et al. 2023, 2022; Ewing and Vepraskas 2006) . While restoration efforts aim to recover ecological function, they do not guarantee the same levels of carbon sequestration as those found in undisturbed, intact wetlands (Moritz et al. 2023, 2022) . 4.3.10.4 Climate Change Compared to Other Threats Overall, climate change is not the most significant threat to peatland pocosins. The most pressing climate change impacts on peatland pocosins will be from intense precipitation events and intense fire events. Other important climate change events will be from wind damage to tree species that do not regenerate and saltwater intrusion from storm surge and sea level rise. Tropical storms are predicted to become more frequent, larger, and more intense with rainfall larger than in the past. Larger rainfalls connected with violent storms will add to drainage problems in estuaries. Pocosins play an important role in climate change by acting as a carbon sink, thereby mitigating CO 2 emissions from human activities. The carbon gained by pocosin ecosystems through photosynthesis is taken from the atmosphere and stored in biomass that does not decompose. The primary productivity of pocosins offsets CO 2 emissions produced through use of fossil fuels and land use activities. Pocosin communities can also be large carbon sources, adding CO 2 to the atmosphere. For example, if vegetation burns, CO 2 is released into the atmosphere adding to the greenhouse gas effect driving climate change. If peat burns, the CO 2 release will be much larger than from just the vegetation alone.
Predicted warmer temperatures and longer summer droughts will lead to increased fires. Burning vegetation and peat will generate large amounts of greenhouse gases. The change in
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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