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Pocosins

Pocosins. By Steven Gilio. Distribution. Found on the coastal plains of the southeastern United States from Virginia to Florida. Most common in North Carolina (70%). Characteristics. Occupy poorly drained higher ground between streams and floodplains.

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Pocosins

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  1. Pocosins By Steven Gilio

  2. Distribution • Found on the coastal plains of the southeastern United States from Virginia to Florida. • Most common in North Carolina (70%).

  3. Characteristics • Occupy poorly drained higher ground between streams and floodplains. • Pocosin is an Algonquin Indian word that means “swamp on a hill”. • Range in size from less than an acre to several thousand acres.

  4. Characteristics • Pocosins will often be found on top of perched water tables

  5. Characteristics • Deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils • Dense evergreen plant communities, which thrive on acidic, nutrient-poor soils. • No standing water present . • Shallow water table leaves the soil saturated for much of the year.

  6. Characteristics • Pocosins are pyrophitic ecosystems. • Natural fires occur because pocosins periodically become very dry in the spring or summer. • Fires are ecologically important because they Increase the diversity of shrub types in pocosins.

  7. Characteristics Tall Pocosins • Taller trees • Shallow peat • More soil nutrients Short Pocosins • Shorter trees • Deeper peat • Less soil nutrients

  8. Ecological Functions • Essential to the healthy functioning of estuaries along the Southeastern U.S. coastline. • Good at absorbing and retaining rainfall, which is then released slowly into nearby streams and saltwater marshes. • Valuable for storm water retention and groundwater recharge. • Provides specialized habitat

  9. Flora and Plant Life Loblolly Pine Longleaf Pine Pond Pine

  10. Flora and Plant Life Zenobia Titi Tree Fetterbush

  11. Flora and Plant Life Sphagnum Moss Venus Fly Trap

  12. Wildlife Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Black Bear Red Wolf

  13. Threats • Agriculture • More than 3,000 square miles were drained between 1962 and 1979. • About 1,400 square miles of undisturbed pocosins Remain today • Timber harvest • Peat mining • Phosphate mining

  14. The End

  15. Just ignore this slide skinner, I won’t show it during my presentation it is for my own personal use http://www.nhptv.org/wild/pocosins.asp http://www.iwla.org/publications/enews/ss/v1_iss5.htm http://www.eoearth.org/article/Pocosins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocosin

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