Comparison of Vegetational, Hydrologic, and Edaphic Characteristics of Riverine Forested Wetlands on North Carolina Coastal Plain

Abstract

Although forested wetlands are relatively abundant on the coastal plain of North Carolina, restoration of forested wetlands is becoming more common since these communities are frequent targets for impact or destruction, especially as a result of road construction projects. Successful restoration of ecosystems is made difficult by a lack of basic knowledge about the soil and hydrologic characteristics of different types of forested wetlands. The plant community composition of two forested wetlands types is described: bottomland hardwood communities and a coastal plain small stream swamp. The edaphic and hydrologic characteristics of each community type were also compared. Many researchers have suggested the construction of detailed water budgets to describe the hydrologic regimes of natural forested wetlands and for use in restoration projects. Although several soil and hydrologic characteristics were associated with variation in plant community composition, the results of this investigation suggest that using a particular flood frequency as a surrogate measure of several flood frequencies may be sufficient to explain this variation. Use of this information would simplify the reconstruction of appropriate hydrologic regimes in forested wetlands and perhaps increase the success of restoration projects.