Maritime Forest Environments

• Develop under the influence of salt aerosols

• Restricted distribution

• Shear edge created by salt aerosols

Maritime Forests

Tidal marsh and creek

Maritime forestMaritime forest

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)

Salt aerosol damageSalt aerosol damage

oceanocean

American Holly (Ilex opaca)

Loblolly Pine (Pinus (Pinus taeda)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.)Grapes (Vitis spp.)

Dogwood (Cornus florida)

Poison Ivy Poison Ivy

(Rhus toxicodendron)(Rhus toxicodendron)

Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

Partridge Berry (Mitchella repens)

Resurrection Fern (Polypodium polypoidies)

Fern with adequate Fern with adequate moisturemoisture

Fern during drought conditions

Development of Maritime Forests

• Develop on coastal dune systems

• Sterile sandy soils

• Hummocky topography

• Begin as scattered shrubs

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.

Natural Impacts on Maritime ForestsNatural Impacts on Maritime Forests

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 Forest opened to salt aerosol salt aerosol impacts when impacts when development development occursoccurs

Freshwater Wetland Environments

• Ponds, swamps, marshes

• Form where water table intersects ground surface

Freshwater Wetland Environments

• Receive groundwater input from adjacent dunes

• Influenced by groundwater and rainfall

Water flows from adjacent dunes into slough between dunes

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

• “Pulse-stable environments

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 is common at the upper edge of the tidal marsh where the tide floods only occasionally

Black NeedlerushBlack Needlerush

Sea Ox-eye (Borrichia frutescens)

Sea Lavender (Limonium carolinianum)

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

Sand flats are colonized by clumps of smooth cordgrass. Alternatively, the sand flats can be colonized by germinating seeds of smooth cordgrass.

Colonization by Spartina alterniflora

Formation of Tidal Marsh

• Sand flats may become uniformly vegetated in 2-5 years

• Creeks become incised as community matures

Human Impacts

• Finger canals (now outlawed in all states)

• Point and non-point source runoff

Mudflats and Sandflats• No rooted aquatic

vegetation• Significant infauna

(clams, worms, etc.)• Important habitat

for organisms in intertidal environments