Chapter 4 Habitats
4.4.17 Maritime Grasslands, Dunes, and Beaches 4.4.17.1 Ecosystem Description
Classification of the Natural Communities of North Carolina, Fourth Approximation (Schafale 2024) has defined this natural community as the Atlantic Coastal Plain southern dune and maritime grassland (Schafale 2024) . Maritime grasslands include several themes and subtypes. • Dune grass (southern, bluestem, and northern subtypes) (Schafale 2024) communities occur on the line of foredunes just behind the active beach and on unstable sand dunes farther back on barrier islands. The loose, shifting sand with its low water holding capacity and low nutrient reserves makes these environments habitable by only a handful of specialized plant species. Sea oats grass is the dominant plant in most examples, with American beach grass dominating examples in the northern part of the state. Artificial dune stabilization by planting grasses or placing sand fencing modifies the natural dune structure and dynamics. Dredged or mined sediment is sometimes used to widen the beach and/or construct new dunes. Constructed beaches/dunes are often susceptible to faster rates of erosion than natural beaches/dunes. • Maritime dry grasslands occur on more stable sands in the interior and back side of barrier islands. They may be on low, stable, old dunes, but are most typically found on sandy flats on low islands that lack continuous foredunes. Seawater over washes the low islands during severe storms and kills any invading woody vegetation. They are distinguished from all other communities by the dominance of Spartina patens in dry, often low-lying areas (Schafale 2024) . Overall, plant diversity is fairly low. • Live dune barren is composed of sparsely vegetated, unstabilized dunes where the vegetation is affected more by sand movement than by salt spray. Jockeys Ridge on the Outer Banks is a well-known example of this theme. Maritime wet grasslands include numerous subtypes: southern hairgrass and switchgrass subtypes; interdune marsh and pond subtypes; maritime swamp forest typic and cypress subtypes; maritime shrub swamp dogwood, red bay, willow subtypes; estuarine fringe pine forest loblolly pine and pond pine subtypes; and estuarine beach. They occur on dune swales and other depressions on barrier islands, occasionally on sand flats elevated above tide levels. Some examples may even be flooded for substantial periods. There is a wide variety of vegetation associated with the range of hydrologic conditions. As noted in Schafale (2024), they are extremely dynamic and subject to extreme natural disturbance by wind, heavy salt spray, saltwater intrusion during storms and storm waves. The Classification of the Natural Communities of North Carolina, Fourth Approximation (Schafale 2024) has placed Upper Beach (northern and southern subtypes) communities within the Estuarine Communities theme. It occurs above the mean high tide line behind the intertidal
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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