Transcript Freshwater Wetland Environments

Maritime Forest
Environments
• Develop under the
influence of salt aerosols
• Restricted distribution
• Shear edge created by
salt aerosols
Maritime Forests
Maritime forest
Tidal marsh and
creek
Maritime Forest
Environments
• Species adapted to:
– Low salt aerosols
– low soil nutrients
– sandy soils
Maritime Forest
Environments
• Salt
aerosols
control
location and
structure of
the maritime
forest
Maritime Forest
Characteristics
• Low height
growth
• Species
“selected” for
tolerance to
salts
Maritime Forest
Environments
• Vines and lianas common
• Tree leaves small, thick, evergreen
Live Oak (Quercus
virginiana)
Bear oak (Quercus illicifolia)
common along New England
maritime-influence forests
Southern Red Oak
(Quercus falcata)
Common in Mid-Atlantic maritime
forests
Red Cedar
(Juniperus virginiana)
ocean
Salt aerosol damage
American Holly (Ilex opaca)
Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda)
Loblolly pine is
the most common
pine in the
maritime forest.
It typically is
successional and
is replaced by live
or laurel oak in
the southeastern
US.
Wax Myrtle (Myrica
pennsylvanica)
• Northern Bayberry is
common in thickets
and forests from Cape
Hatteras northward
into New England
• Bayberry candles are
made from the waxy
coating on the berries
Red Bay (Persea
borbonia)
Grapes (Vitis spp.)
Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
Dogwood (Cornus florida)
Poison Ivy
(Rhus toxicodendron)
Partridge Berry
(Mitchella repens)
Resurrection Fern
(Polypodium polypoidies)
Fern with adequate
moisture
Fern during drought
conditions
Development of Maritime
Forests
• Develop on coastal
dune systems
• Sterile sandy soils
• Hummocky
topography
• Begin as scattered
shrubs
Natural Impacts on Maritime Forests
Impact of hurricanes on maritime forest
vegetation. Pines are typically snapped
off; cabbage palms survive. Live oak
and magnolia have branches and leaves
ripped off.
Large migrating dunes are capable
of overwhelming shrub and forest
vegetation
Significant Human Impacts
• Fragmentation occurs when
development occurs within a
continuous forest
Forest opened to
salt aerosol
impacts when
development
occurs
Freshwater Wetland
Environments
• Ponds,
swamps,
marshes
• Form where
water table
intersects
ground surface
Freshwater Wetland
Environments
Water flows from adjacent
dunes into slough between
dunes
• Receive
groundwater
input from
adjacent dunes
• Influenced by
groundwater
and rainfall
Freshwater Wetlands
• Cattails (Typha spp.)
• Bulrush (Scirpus spp.)
Tidal Marsh Environments
• Develop in areas
protected from
wave attack
• Topographically
flat, incised with
drainage creeks
Tidal Marsh Environments
• Alternately
exposed and
covered by
tides daily
• “Pulsestable
environment
s
Tidal Marsh Environment
• Saltmeadow
Cordgrass (Spartina
patens)
• Smooth Cordgrass
(Spartina
alterniflora)
Zonation
• Cordgrass
dominant
above and
below mean
tide level
• Many other
species
dominant
above average
high tides
Black Needlerush
(Juncus roemerianus)
Black Needlerush
Black Needlerush is common at the upper edge of the
tidal marsh where the tide floods only occasionally
Sea Lavender
(Limonium carolinianum)
Sea Ox-eye
(Borrichia
frutescens)
Glassworts
(Salicornia spp.)
These succulent plants grow in
the most salinr environments in
the tidal marsh area
Batis (Batis maritima)
This succulent,
similar to glasswort,
is common in the
southern United
States
Formation of Tidal Marsh
• Sand and mudflats
colonized by smooth
cordgrass
– must reach critical
elevation
– seed falls on flats
– spread by rhizomes
Typical environments
colonized by smooth
cordgrass primarily by
seeds
Formation of Tidal Marsh
Colonization
by Spartina
alterniflora
Sand flats are
colonized by
clumps of smooth
cordgrass.
Alternatively, the
sand flats can be
colonized by
germinating seeds
of smooth
cordgrass.
Formation of Tidal Marsh
• Sand flats may
become
uniformly
vegetated in 25 years
• Creeks
become
incised as
community
matures
Human Impacts
• Finger canals
(now outlawed
in all states)
• Point and nonpoint source
runoff
Mudflats and Sandflats
• No rooted aquatic
vegetation
• Significant infauna
(clams, worms, etc.)
• Important habitat for
organisms in intertidal
environments