Wetland Diversity in North Carolina

STATEWIDE STATEWIDE STATEWIDE STATEWIDE Riverine Forest Seep Basin Freshwater Marsh Riverine forests can include Seeps are located along Basin wetlands form in natural Freshwater marshes are in flat swamps, bottomland slopes, ridges, or hillsides depressions surrounded by uplands, areas, saturated or inundated hardwoods, and floodplain and kept semi-permanently where they hold rainwater and most of the time, and dominated pools where flooding from to permanently saturated provide habitat for a range of by non-woody vegetation. They a nearby stream or river is by groundwater. Seeps woody and herbaceous plants. often result from disturbances an important water source. are usually forested, but Seasonally wet basins are important such as fire, beaver activity, or Vegetation is mixed, with large the downslope portion of breeding areas for amphibians, as utility line maintenance. Marshes trees and small shrubs and a seep may transition to a predatory fish can’t survive when that are influenced by tides in the herbs. Riverine forest wetlands different wetland type. the basins dry up. Coastal Plain, and with a salinity provide important habitat for of < 0.5 ppt, are considered tidal many animals. freshwater marshes.

COASTAL North Carolina Ecoregions Salt/Brackish Marsh Our variety of wetland Salt/Brackish marshes are PIEDMONT regularly flooded by salty ocean MOUNTAIN tides. The primary vegetation types creates habitat is grasses and rushes, mostly saltmarsh cordgrass and black COASTAL needle rush. These wetlands are vital for lessening storm diversity across the state. damage in coastal communities and hosting commercial fish and shellfish species.

COASTAL Estuarine Woody Estuarine woody wetlands are found on the edges of estuaries and saltmarshes, occasionally flooded with ocean tides during storms; they are dominated by woody vegetation like pines, cedars, red maples, and sweetgums.

MOUNTAIN COASTAL COASTAL COASTAL COASTAL Bog Pocosin Non-Riverine Carolina Bay Pine Bogs are found in the state’s Pocosins, or “swamps on a hill,” Swamp Forest Carolina Bays are not a wetland Pine Flats or Pine Savannas occur on mountain region in relatively flat form atop hilly accumulations Non-riverine swamp forests are type per se, but are mysterious, very flat surfaces with poor drainage spaces at the base of slopes or of dead plant matter. The in flat areas between streams and isolated, elliptical landscape features and high water tables. Pines grow mountains. Long-term satura- primary water source is heavy are dominated by trees (e.g., bald in the Coastal Plain that can host well in their sandy mineral soils and tion makes suitable habitat for precipitation, and a high water cypress, black gum, Atlantic white a variety of wetland types (e.g., so do many flowering species. These a range of non-woody plants, table is the result of poor cedar, loblolly pine, and pond pocosins, marsh, swamp forest). wetlands are often planted with pine particularly sphagnum moss and drainage. Pocosins are dominated pine). They are usually inundated Named for the bay trees that grow trees for harvesting and managed, pitcher plants. by densely growing waxy by groundwater, precipitation, and there, they are important breeding which results in low species diversity. evergreen shrubs and pond pines. surface run-off, not by overbank areas for amphibians and have high ncwetlands.org or tidal flooding. species diversity, including rare or

endangered plant species. Produced by the NC Division of Water Resources with funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency.