Aquatic Ecosystems
February 19, 2014 Nantahala and Pisgah NFs Assessment Aquatic Ecosystems The overall richness of North Carolina’s aquatic fauna is directly related to the geomorphology of the state, which defines the major drainage divisions and the diversity of habitats found within. There are seventeen major river basins in North Carolina. Five western basins are part of the Interior Basin (IB) and drain to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico (Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, French Broad, Watauga, and New). Parts of these five river basins are within the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests (NFs). Twelve central and eastern basins are part of the Atlantic Slope (AS) and flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of these twelve central and eastern basins, parts of the Savannah, Broad, Catawba, and Yadkin-Pee Dee basins are within the Nantahala and Pisgah NFs. As described later in this report, the Nantahala and Pisgah NFs, for the most part, support higher elevation coldwater streams, and relatively little cool- and warmwater resources. To gain perspective on the importance of aquatic ecosystems on the Nantahala and Pisgah NFs, it is first necessary to understand their value at regional and national scales. The southeastern United States has the highest aquatic species diversity in the entire United States (Burr and Mayden 1992; Williams et al. 1993; Taylor et al. 1996; Warren et al. 2000,), with southeastern fishes comprising 62% of the United States fauna, and nearly 50% of the North American fish fauna (Burr and Mayden 1992). Freshwater mollusk diversity in the southeast is ‘globally unparalleled’, representing 91% of all United States mussel species (Neves et al.
[Show full text]