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CORE THEMES
• Everything is connected• Nature is dynamic• Human values impact natural systems
Pennsylvania Master Naturalist
Understanding Ecoregions
“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is
the story of the earth.”--Rachel Carson
Ecoregions bring order to something complex – the natural
landscape.
Classifying Ecoregions
Pennsylvania Level II Ecoregions
Pennsylvania Level III Ecoregions
Southeastern and Coastal Plains
Northern PiedmontPiedmont Upland, Piedmont Limestone/
Dolomite Lowland, Triassic Lowland
Northern PiedmontPiedmont Uplands
• Rounded hills, low ridges, high relief and narrow valleys.
• Substantially higher relief than neighboring ecoregions.
• Folded and faulted paleozoic and precambrian metamorphic rock.
• Deep Ultisols and Inceptisols are common soils. Chrome soils from serpentinite also occur.
• The Chrome soils support eastern serpentine barrens (Chester, Delaware, and Lancaster counties)
Northern PiedmontPiedmont Limestone/Dolomite Lowlands
• Nearly level, undulating terrain consisting of sink holes, caverns, and disappearing streams.
• Ordovician limestone predominates, dolomite and shale also occur.
• Soils are derived largely from carbonate rock and are very fertile.
• Soils support a natural vegetation of Appalachian Oak Forest (white and red oak), which has been almost entirely replaced by general farming.
Northern PiedmontTriassic Lowlands
• Wide undulating ridges, broad valleys, limited local relief.
• Underlain by sedimentary rock.
• Soils are derived triassic sandstone, shale, siltstone, and argillite.
• Soils support a natural vegetation of Appalachian Oak forest (dominated by red and white oaks).
• Supports a mosaic of dairy farms, houses, and woodland.
Natural Communities of theNorthern Piedmont
Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands
Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands
• Low, nearly level terraces.
• Ocean modified climate.
• Saline marsh deposits dominate; alluvial and estuarine sand and silt also widespread.
• Underlain by unconsolidated and easily eroded Quaternary gravels, sands and silts.
Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands
20071777
Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands
Coastal Plain Leopard Frog Rana utricularia
Red-bellied TurtlePseudemys rubriventris
King RailRalas elegans elegans
Bog Turtle Clemmys muhlenbergii
Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus flammeus
PA Endangered Plants
swamp beggar-ticksBidens bidentoides
river bank quillwortIsoetes riparia
coast violet Viola brittoniana
ArrowheadSagittaria calycina
The Urban Ecosystem
Biological Social
Physical/Built