natural_system_piedmont

PIEDMONT CRESCENT version 2 73
The Natural system
pcpiedmont crescent
Nature and the Human Network
Rebuilding the Nation’s Forest Fabric

a systems framework

74 PIEDMONT CRESCENT
Topography
Vegetation
Global Ecoregions
Original Forest Cover
Current Forest Cover
Major Flyways Migratory Birds
Global Natural Systems
North America
Land Climate Flora and Fauna
Global
Land Flora and Fauna Natural Systems
Water
Definition for this study:
The Natural System is the sum total of the planetary
environmental system, At the largest scale, this
takes in the solar system, the moon and the earth;s
rotation, which impact seasonal and tidal cycles. At
the plantetary level, it includes all the components
and processes—climatic, chemical and biological—
of both living beings and non-living things.
Selected Dictionary Definitions:
• (Nature) these phenomena collectively; the material
world; spec. plants, animals, and other features and
products of the earth itself, as opp. to humans or hu-
man creations or civilization.
• (Natural) Establish by nature; having a basis in the
normal constitution of things; taking place in confor-
mity with the ordinary course of nature; normal; not
unusual, exceptional, irregular or miraculous.
• (Natural) Having a real or physical existence; not
spiritual, intellectual or fictitious; pertaining to physical
things, operating or taking place in the physical (as
opp. to the spiritual) world.
• (Natural) Existing in or formed by nature; consisting
of objects or material of this kind; not artificially made
or constructed; not manufactured or processed.
• (of vegetation) growing of itself, self sown;
(of land) uncultivated.
• (System) A group or set of related or associated mate-
rial or immaterial things forming a unity or complex
whole; spec. (arch.) the universe.
• (System) Sci. A group or set of objects naturally as-
sociated or of phenomena sharing a common cause.
• (System) Orderly arrangement or method;
classification; orderliness.
• (System) The whole body of an organism regarded
as an organized whole; the sum of an organisms’ vital
processes or functions.
• Oxford Dictionary
Ocean Currents
Water Features
Climate
Koppen Climate Zones
Prevailing Winds
Topography
Soil Groups
Water
Major Drainage Basins
Waterways / 2-Digit Watersheds
Climate Zones
Fire Density 2005 – 2007
Prevailing Summer Winds North America Ecoregions
Globally Outstanding
Ecoregions
Global Scale Ecoregions
Ecoregion Vascular
Plant Richness
Ecoregion Mammal Richness
p.76
p.77
p.78
p.79
p.87
p.80
p.81
p.82
p.83
p.84
p.85
p.86
p.88
p.89
p.90
p.91
p.92
p.93
p.94
p.95
p.96
p.97
p.98
NATURAL SYSTEMS | Graphic Index

PIEDMONT CRESCENT 75
North America Natural Systems
Forest Cover TypesAverage Annual Temperature
Climate Zones
Average Annual Precipitation
Prominent Summer Wind
Patterns
Air Quality Nonattainment
Ecoregions
1992 National Landcover Data
(NLCD)
Ownership
Piedmont Crescent
Land Climate Flora and Fauna Ownership Natural Systems
Soil Groups
4 Digit Hydrologic Unit Code
(HUC)
Altered Waterways
Aquifers
Piedmont Crescent
Natural Systems
Natural Systems
Mammal Richness
Ecoregion Vascular Plant
Richness
Natural Features
p.99
p.102
p.103
p.104
p.100
p.101
p.110
p.116
p.105
p.106
p.107
p.108
p.109
p.113
p.114
p.117
p.118
p.119 p.120
Mapping and Analysis Method
The data on the Natural System maps is provided in three
scales: global, North America and the Piedmont Crescent.
The percentage of the land area depicted on each map
is compared to the total surface area of the Earth. As the
scale of the maps moves from Global to regional the detail
depicted on the maps increases. Natural System data is or-
ganized by 8 digit watersheds for the North American maps
and 12 digit watersheds for the regional maps.
This data analysis method and cardiographer technique al-
lows the reader to visualize the strength or weakness of the
nature as a system.
Water
Percent Forest Landcover by
Watershed
p.115

76 PIEDMONT CRESCENT version 2
NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Land
• Topography comes from the Latin and Greek
words meaning to describe a place in written or
graphic form.
• The use of the word has evolved to mean: the
art or practice of graphic delineation in detail,
usually on maps or charts, of natural and man-
made features of a place or region, especially
in a way to show their relative positions and
elevations, and the configuration of a surface
including its relief and the position of its natural
and man-made features.
• The Earth’s surface is about 30% land and 80%
water
• The highest mountains are 8,848 meters and the
deepest oceans are over 1,000 meters.
Topography

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Water
Water Features
• Water and temperature determine the global
ecology.
• Water regimes vary widely throughout the globe.
• The largest river system in the US is the Mis-
sissippi, which drains almost seventy percent
(70%) of the country. The Mississippi river sys-
tem is predominant in the central plains states
but also the primacy drainage for the state of
Ohio and western Pennsylvania. It also serves
states as far north as Wisconsin and as far west
as Montana.
• Yet the Mississippi is not large when compared
to South America’s Amazon River, which has a
flow rate over 10 times the Mississippi’s. The
Amazon River drains South America’s tropical
rain forests, which feed its massive flow rate.
• Water is at a premium in other parts of the world.
Where water is scarce and temperatures are
hot, massive deserts like the Sahara in Africa
form. The Sahara is 3 times as large as the
Arabian Desert, and almost 10 times as large as
the state of South Carolina.

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Water
Ocean currents play an important role in moderating
global temperatures.
Ocean currents transfer heat from one part of the
planet to another. By doing so, they stabilize the
climate, providing conditions for abundant ecologi-
cal diversity. The rotation of the earth sets ocean
currents in motion. Following the laws of thermody-
namics, the currents are further propelled as warm
tropical waters near the equator exchange with cold
water at the poles.
The regular flow of powerful ocean currents like the
Gulf Stream, form a vital part of the Natural Sys-
tem. The Gulf Stream brings warm water to the
cold North Sea from the equator and which brings a
moderate climate to the United Kingdom and parts
of Europe. This circulation is critical to maintaining
global temperatures suitable for human civilization.
For example, if the global climate continues to warm
and large areas of Greenland melt, massive flows of
fresh water would enter the North Atlantic and stop
the circulation of the gulf stream.
Ocean Currents

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Climate
• Climate is the characteristic condition of the
atmosphere near the Earth’s surface at a certain
place on earth. It is the long-term weather of that
area. This includes the region’s general pattern
of weather conditions, seasons and weather
extremes like hurricanes, droughts, or rainy
periods. Two of the most important factors deter-
mining an area’s climate are air temperature and
precipitation.
• World biomes are controlled by climate. The
climate of a region will determine what plants will
grow there, and what animals will inhabit it. All
three components, climate, plants and animals,
are interwoven to create the fabric of a biome.
• Latitude provides the location of a place north or
south of the equator and is expressed by angu-
lar measurements ranging from 0° at the equator
to 90° at the poles. Different latitudes on Earth
receive different amounts of sunlight, and are a
key factor in determining a region’s climate.
• The Earth’s axis is tilted 23.5° to the perpen-
dicular, meaning that the amount of sunlight that
a particular latitude receives changes with the
seasons. From April to September, the Northern
Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, where it
receives more energy; the Southern Hemisphere
receives this additional energy between October
and March, when it is tilted toward the Sun.
Koppen Climate Zones

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Climate
The prevailing winds are the trends in speed and di-
rection of wind over a particular point on the earth’s
surface. A region’s prevailing winds often show
global patterns of movement in the earth’s atmo-
sphere. Prevailing winds cause ocean waves as they
push over the water.
The prevailing surface winds are calm at the equa-
tor. Just north of the equator, they blow from the
northeast. Just south of the equator, they blow from
the southeast. These are called the trade winds.
Between 30 and 35 degrees north and south, near
the tropics, the winds calm again in what are called
the “horse latitudes.”
Air pressure and temperature cause most of these
patterns. At the equator, heat causes air to rise,
creating the belt of low pressure in the doldrums, 5
degrees north and south. After the air rises, it flows
north and south, high in the atmosphere, until it
cools enough to subside and fall, creating belts of
high pressure in the horse latitudes. All of that extra
air has to go somewhere, so it blows towards the
equator as the trade winds, and towards the middle
latitudes as the prevailing westerlies.
Prevailing Winds

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Flora and Fauna
Ecoregions are relatively large areas of land or water
that encompass a geographically distinct assem-
blage of natural communities. These communities
share a large majority of their species, biological
dynamics, and environmental conditions. They func-
tion effectively as a natural unit.
At the Global scale, ecoregions are ecological units
are recognized by differences in continental and
regional climatic regimes as well as physical geog-
raphy. Climate governs temperature and moisture,
thus acting as the primary control over ecological
processes. Physical barriers like mountains or
oceans not only affect temperature and moisture,
they also create borders between ecological zones.
At the Global scale, ecoregion geographers sub-
divide the Earth’s landcover into large “Domains.”
These sub-continental divisions take in broad
climate categories, like the Polar or Tropical do-
mains, which include many ecoregions. According to
Bailey’s methodology, these domains are then bro-
ken up into “Divisions,” like North America’s prairie
and eastern forests. These divisions include several
ecoregions.
There are five major sources of ecoregion maps
available in the United States: the US Forest Ser-
vice (Robert Bailey et. al.), the US Environmental
Protection Agency, the US Geological Survey, the
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
• The WWF Global maps recognize 15 global ter-
restrial ecoregions.
Global Ecoregions

Original Forest Cover
The Earth’s forested areas covered a large portion
of the land 8,000 years ago. Tree cover evolved to
fit the natural cycles of air, water, and temperature in
the various Domains of the world. While permanent
human settlements were established about 10,000
years ago, forestland did not start to decline notice-
ably until after the establishment of global trading
networks approximately 2,000 years ago. The great
majority of the forest loss has occurred in the last
200 years—since the beginning of the Industrial
Age. An astonishing 80 percent of the world’s forests
have been destroyed or degraded.
So, compared to today, the original forest cover
extended across vast areas. The tree cover and
animal life that occupied these forests can be further
understood by comparing the original forest cover
maps to the ecoregion maps that appear later in this
report.

Current Forest Cover
Compared to their original footprints, forests today
cover a greatly reduced area. The loss in forest
cover is closely linked to the growth of the human
network, which began approximately 2,000 years
ago with first global trade route, the Silk Road that
connected China to the Mediterranean. Thus, a map
of the global forest cover 2,000 years ago would look
similar to the original forest cover map.
In the last two millennia, some forest loss occurred
as a result of development in various parts of the
world as cultures used trees to heat kilns, to smelt
metal and to build cities. In China, deforestation
became a regional problem even as early as 500
BCE,. European deforestation started in the late
Middle Ages. The most dramatic losses began with
the beginning of the early Modern Age in the 1700s,
and accelerated through the 1800s as Industrial Age
inventors developed machinery for mass production
that required vast amounts of materials.
Forest loss has been accelerating in recent decades.
Of the 80 percent of the world’s forests that have
been destroyed or degraded, half were felled in the
last three decades.
Forest loss is directly related to ecological collapse.

Major Flyways Migratory Birds
• The migratory patterns of birds tell a valuable
story about the Global natural system. These
birds seek seasonal habitats that allow them to
survive and thrive as a species. Their move-
ment tends to be north and south, matching the
natural ebb and flow of the climate. The migra-
tory movement of birds is north and south, while
the Global trade routes are east and west.
• Bird Migration is the seasonal journey under-
taken by many species of birds.
• Migratory birds are of great ecological and
economic value to the countries of the world.
They contribute to biological diversity and bring
tremendous enjoyment to people. The United
States has recognized the critical importance of
this shared resource by ratifying international,
bilateral conventions for the conservation of
migratory birds.

Vegetation
• The vegetation of the world varies from lush
forests to dry deserts.
• The image to the right was created by mosaick-
ing hundreds of individual 2001 NASA Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (NODIS)
satellite images.
• Vegetation is shown in green. The darker the
green, the lusher the vegetation.
• Deserts are shown in tan to brown colors. The
lighter the color the dryer the area.
• Ice covered land is shown in white.

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Global | Natural System
Global Natural System
The Natural System results from several subcompo-
nents—land, water, climate, flora and fauna— func-
tioning together to form a larger system. Taken as
a whole, the Earth’s Natural System is complex and
difficult to understand, because of the interactions
between all the subsystems. It is therefore useful to
break down the larger system into its subsystems
and then put the system back together as an inte-
grated whole. This map shows the complex move-
ment of the various systems that function together
to form the Natural System, the Blue planet. It is
the movement of these sub-systems that circulate
energy and maintain climatic conditions. Life on the
planet is dictated by the climate and there ecological
conditions have been especially favorable to hu-
mans the last 10,000 years.

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Land
• Topography: description or representation of
the features and configuration of land surfaces.
Topographic maps use symbols and coloring,
with particular attention given to the shape and
elevations of terrain.
• North America has two continental divides: the
Western divide at the Rocky Mountains and the
Eastern divide at the Appalachians.
• The northern New England coast is rocky, along
the rest of the eastern seaboard, the Atlantic
Coastal Plain rises gradually from the shoreline.
The Appalachians extend from southwest Maine
into central Alabama. Few of their summits rise
much above 1,100 m (3,500 ft), although the
highest, Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina, reaches
2,037 m (6,684 ft).
• Between the Appalachians and the Rocky Moun-
tains lies the vast interior plain of the United
States. The great interior plain consists of two
major subregions: the fertile Central Plains and
the Great Plains.
• The Rockies and the ranges to the west are
parts of the great system of young, rugged
mountains, shaped like a gigantic spinal column.
• The most extensive lowland near the west coast
is the Great Valley of California, lying between
the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges.
Topography

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Land
Soil Groups
• The surface soils of the continental US have
been classified into four types by soil scientists:
A - Sand, loamy sand or sandy loam
B - Silt loam or loam
C - Sandy clay loam
D - Clay loam or silty clay loam
The A to D rating provides a description of the soil
structure and therefore of its potential uses. The A
soils will allow water to drain quickly after a storm,
but hold weaker nutrients than the D soils. Farmers,
road builders and forest landowners tend to seek out
different soil types. A and B soil classes are consid-
ered the most desirable for farming.

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Water
• There are 11 major drainage basins in the US:
The Mississippi Basin
The Great Lakes
New England
Chesapeake
South Atlantic Coast
Texas Gulf Coast
Rio Grand
Colorado
Great Basin
California Coast
Pacific North West
• All of these rivers flow south with the exception
of Souris-Red Rainy that flows north from Min-
nesota into Canada.
• The Mississippi River forms the country’s largest
watershed. This river drains two-thirds of the
country, pulling water from Montana to the west,
Pennsylvania to the east and Louisiana to the
south. From the source of the Missouri River,
the longest of the Mississippi’s tributaries, the
water flowing though this watershed travels al-
most 6,450 km (4,000 mi.) to the Gulf of Mexico.
• The Great Lakes contain approximately half the
world’s total supply of fresh water.
• The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most biologi-
cally rich estuaries in the world.
• In the Southeast more than a dozen river sys-
tems flow from the Appalachian Mountains to the
Atlantic Ocean. Many of these rivers cross more
than one state.
Major Drainage Basins

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Water
The Hydraulic Unit is the technical term for a water-
shed. Watersheds have been classified by hydrolo-
gists into classes based on their size. Major water-
sheds are assigned the biggest unit. Each smaller
unit is given a “digit” code: the higher the digit code,
the smaller the Hydraulic Unit.
• The 11 major watersheds are further subdivided
to become the 2-digit Hydraulic Units of HUCs.
• The Mississippi Basin, which drains two-thirds of
the US, can be subdivided into six major seg-
ments or rivers:
Upper Mississippi
Lower Mississippi
Missouri
Ohio
Tennessee
Arkansas Red-White
Waterways / 2-Digit Watersheds

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Climate
• The climate zones of North America are perhaps
best represented in the plant hardiness zone
developed by the USDA.
• The USDA climate zone map is the fastest and
easiest way to find out what species of trees,
shrubs or flowers will grow well in your geo-
graphic area. These charts predict if a given
plant will grow in your garden.
• This 1990 version of the Climate zone map
shows in the lowest temperatures that can be
expected each year in a specific geographic
area for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
These temperatures are referred to as “average
annual minimum temperatures” and are based
on the lowest temperatures recorded for each of
the years from 1974 to 1986 in the United States
and Canada and from 1971 to 1984 in Mexico.
The map shows 10 different zones, each of
which represents an area of winter hardiness for
vegetation. It also introduces zone 11 to repre-
sent areas that have average annual minimum
temperatures above 40 F (4.4 C) and that are
therefore essentially frost free.
Climate Zones

• The prevailing winds in North America blow from
the west.
• The westerly winds occur in the upper levels of
atmosphere.
• The prevailing winds tend to be moderate or
weak upper level winds, which blow from the
West to the East. The prevailing winds are fre-
quently dominated by stronger lower level winds
that result from regional landscapes and storms.
Examples of strong dominant winds are Santa
Ana winds in Southern California, Nor’easters
in Massachusetts the summer winds that move
from the Gulf of Mexico toward Maine.
Prevailing Summer Winds

The US Forest Service fire data in the map at the
right was generated by the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite, which
scans every point on Earth every 24 to 48 hours.
These fire information products were compiled at the
US Forest Service (USFS) Remote Sensing Appli-
cations Center in cooperation with NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, the University of Maryland, the
National Interagency Fire Center, and the USFS Mis-
soula Fire Sciences Lab.
The location of the fires has been grouped according
to their geographic and ecologic location. Eight digit
watersheds were used for this grouping.

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Flora and Fauna
If you looked at the Global-scale ecoregion map
through a magnifying glass, you would see the North
America map to the right. This map shows only the
larger subsets of the continental ecology—Domains
(large-scale climatic regions) and Divisions (groups
of ecoregions). It allows a quick assessment of the
continent’s ecological diversity. It also allows quick
comparison with other parts of the world.
• The US has 13 of the 15 ecoregions within its
borders, making it the most ecologically diverse
country in the world.
• China has nine ecoregions and Russia has
eight.
• Even without the lush landscapes of Alaska
and Hawaii, the continental 48 states house 10
ecosystems, making the central land mass of
the US more ecologically diverse than any other
country in the world.
• China and Russia have much larger land areas
then the US.
Global Scale Ecoregions

North America Ecoregions
To understand the functioning continental ecosys-
tems, the large-scale Domains and Divisions subdi-
vide into smaller units: ecoregions.
There are 116 ecoregions in North America, ac-
cording to the system used by World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) in the reference book Terrestrial Eco-regions
of North America, which is available online as digital
data. The WWF map at this scale is very similar to
the maps produced by the USFS, EPA, USGS and
NOAA, although the WWF team developed their
map with “conservation targets” as a central goal
in their project. The map they produced is based
on three established ecoregion mapping projects:
Omernik (1995b) for the contiguous United States,
the Ecological Stratification Group (ESWG 1995) for
Canada, and Gallant et al. (1995) for Alaska. These
mapping systems approximate well-documented pat-
terns of biodiversity in North America and Mexico.
The WWF method also groups the 116 North Ameri-
can ecoregions into 10 Major Habitat Types (MHT).
These are: Dry Tropics, Moist Tropics, Temperate
Broadleaf, Temperate Conifer, Temperate Grassland,
Flooded Grassland, Mediterranean Scrub and Sa-
vanna, Xeric Scrubland/deserts, Boreal Forest/Taiga,
and Tundra.

Globally Outstanding Ecoregions
The Biological Diversity Index (BDI) elevates 32
North American terrestrial ecoregions (Twenty-eight
percent (28%) of Global total) to a Globally Out-
standing status. These globally outstanding ecore-
gions lie across much of the southeastern United
States (including the project area), along the west
coast and near the border of the US and Mexico.
Biological Diversity provides a way to index the ef-
ficiency of a natural system. Species develop to fill
a niche, and a species fills a niche because it is well
matched to the available habitat.

• Species richness is a measure of the number of
species that occupy a specific ecoregion habi-
tat and provide an index for determining specie
richness.
• The species richness maps for mammals, birds
and butterflies are similar.
• North American is rich in mammals, birds, and
butterflies.
• All three display similar east-west pattern of rich-
ness. They decrease northward to the edge of
the boreal forest, with richness centered in the
Southwest part of the country.
Ecoregion Mammal Richness

• Vascular plants have vascular tissue which
circulate resources through the plant. This fea-
ture allows vascular plants to evolve to a larger
size than non-vascular plants, which lack these
specialized conducting tissues and are therefore
restricted to smaller sizes.
• The southern Piedmont project area houses the
richest ecoregion in North America with over
3,000 species.
Ecoregion Vascular Plant Richness

NATURAL SYSTEMS | North America | Natural System
• The natural system of North America is repre-
sented in the map to the right. It was created by
combining the data from the ecoregions, climate
and water sources.
• The system includes ten ecological regions, with
the prevailing winds out of the west, a robust
system of rivers draining the interior, oceans
to the west and east, the Gulf of Mexico to the
south and the Great Lakes to the north.
North America Natural System

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Land
• The Appalachians dominate the eastern United
States and separate the Eastern Seaboard from
the interior with a belt of subdued uplands that
extends nearly 1,500 miles from northeastern
Alabama to the Canadian border.
• The Piedmont region is a plateau between the
Appalachian mountains and the Atlantic Coastal
Plain.
• Southeast is divided into several physiographic
divisions, including the Coastal Plain Prov-
ince, Piedmont Province, Blue Ridge Province,
the Southern Section of the Ridge and Valley
Province, the Cumberland Plateau (part of the
Appalachian Plateau), the Interior Low Plateau
and other areas to the west..
• The physiographic provinces that we see today
are a result of climatic effects on the past and
present geologic environment; the interrelation
of wind, frost, heat, rain and snow and the dif-
ferent kinds of rocks in the area. Over time, and
depending on the geologic structures, hogback
ridges, gently rolling plains, sinkhole topography,
sand hills, broad uplands and other features of
the landscape have been formed.
Natural Features

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Land
• Soil scientists classify Piedmont soils as pre-
dominantly B hydraulic soil group, also called
“silt loam” by non-agronomists. The B clas-
sification means that the soil is productive,
well-drained and has a good combination of soil
elements.
• The rich soils of the Southern Piedmont result
from one billion years of wind and water erosion
of the Appalachian Mountains.
• These well-drained soils allow surface water
to percolate into the ground and to recharge
ground water. This is good when the surface
water is clean, but dangerous when the water is
polluted by sewage effluent, runoff from urban
infrastructure, and other contaminants.
• This region has been subject to erosion resulting
in a rolling upland topography. Much of the top
soil in this region has been eroded away leaving
the heavier reddish clay subsoil.
Soil Groups

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Water
The 4-digit Hydraulic Unit identifies watersheds or
the drainage basins for middle-sized rivers. This
designation is especially useful in this project for
identifying the watersheds that house the river sys-
tems that start in the Appalachian mountains, pass
through the Piedmont Crescent project area and
continue to the Atlantic ocean. These river systems
drain significant areas of human development, pass
through more than one state, and provide a frame-
work for the Natural System.
• There are thirteen 4-digit watersheds in the
Piedmont Crescent project area.
• Of these, three drain into the Mississippi Basin
and 10 drain into the Atlantic Ocean.
The 8-digit HUCs create a more fine-grained under-
standing of the region’s drainage basins.
• There are about 70 8-digit sub-watersheds in the
study area.
• Most (about 45) of the total join the 10 4-digit
HUCs draining into the Atlantic Ocean.
• These 45 sub-watersheds not only drain the
majority of the area but also join major rivers on
their way to the Atlantic Ocean. Also, the vast
majority of them flow through the developing ur-
ban network and through the already developed
metropolitan areas.
• The movement of this water through the sub-wa-
tersheds, watersheds and into the river systems
provides a powerful benchmark for the quality of
the environment.
4-Digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)

• While the region’s natural system is distin-
guished by a rich framework of waterways,
almost all of them have been altered by humans.
Rivers are altered when they are used to cre-
ate reservoirs or when they are straightened to
improve drainage. Alteration degrades natural
functions that are important for clean water. One
well known example of this problem is the loss
of wetlands.
• Wetlands, which provide an essential function
for maintaining the quality of water in a natural
system, have been lost and are also being lost
or degraded because landowners are generally
unaware that wetlands include seasonally wa-
terlogged and inundated areas as well as water
bodies permanently filled with water.
• However, you can see from the map on the right
that main rivers and streams have also been
extensively altered in this region.
Altered Waterways

Much of the water people get for drinking and
operating their daily lives comes from underground
aquifers. The water is obtained from wells.
• The primary aquifer in the Piedmont Crescent
project area is the crystalline rock Piedmont and
Blue Ridge aquifer.
• Crystalline rock aquifers consists of a quartz-
type rock. The rock formation has cracks or
splits that allow water to percolate up to the
ground water level or for water wells to penetrate
the aquifer from the surface
• Surface water drains slowly through this type of
aquifer.
Aquifers

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Climate
• The Piedmont crescent project area contains 3
climate or plant hardiness zones as classified
by the USDA. The coldest is in the mountains
where the average minimum temperatures range
from -10° to 0°F and the warmest is on the
Atlantic side of the Piedmont where the average
minimum temperatures are 10° - 20°F.
• Climate is the characteristic condition of the
atmosphere near the Earth’s surface at a certain
place on earth. It is the long-term weather of that
area. This includes the region’s general pattern
of weather conditions, seasons and weather
extremes like hurricanes, droughts, or rainy
periods. Two of the most important factors deter-
mining an area’s climate are air temperature and
precipitation.
USDA Classified Climate Zones

• Temperatures in the project area vary widely
because of latitude and altitude. The Piedmont
Crescent area stretches about 600 miles, with
elevation changes of up to 2,500 feet.
• The average annual temperatures for the project
area range from 45 degrees to 70 degrees
Fahrenheit.
• The cooler average annual temperatures are di-
rectly related to elevation and northern latitude.
• The temperature data is depicted according to
the 12 digit watershed units which geographi-
cally occupies the temperature data.
Average Annual Temperature

• The average annual rainfall varies widely across
the project area.
• Average annual precipitation in the project area
ranged from 35 inches to over 100 inches.
• The highest rainfall was located in the mountains
around Asheville. The lowest rainfall was in the
lower elevations along the eastern and northern
section of the project area.
• Precipitation is recorded according to the 12
digit hydraulic unit in which it falls.
Average Annual Precipitation 1961 – 1990

• Summer winds provide the Piedmont Crescent
area with challenging conditions for connecting
the Human Network with the Natural System
because they bring pollution north from industrial
facilities in the south. In the summer, the winds
from the Gulf of Mexico tend to dominate the
airflow. The upper level prevailing winds, which
are generally westerlies, are weaker than the
low level winds that blow from the southwest to
the northeast. When these two wind patterns
meet, eddies of circulation are created which
slow the movement of the wind and allow pol-
lutants to settle in on a 15 county area centered
around Charlotte and Kannapolis, NC.
• The Upper level prevailing winds are from the
West and become cooler and dryer as they
cross over the Appalachians.
• The prevailing surface level winds in the Sum-
mer are from the southwest and accumulate
pollutants as they travel north in the Summer.
Prominent Summer Wind Patterns

• The EPA has set standards for air quality. When
a community does not meet the standards they
are classified non-attainment.
• The map at the right shows counties in the Pied-
mont Crescent project area that were classified
as non-attainment in 2001 and in 2007.
• The number of counties in the non-attainment
category has gone from less than 20 in 2001 to
about 70 in 2007.
• While political boundaries are often used to
document this air quality problem this map uses
the ecological feature of the 12 digit watershed
to show this issue.
Air Quality Non-attainment

• This fire data, generated from the MODIS satel-
lite sensor, was acquired from the USDA Forest
Service for the years 2005 - 2007. This dataset
consists of fire densities and does not reflect
size of fires or intensity. The geographic data
was originally acquired in point format and was
interpolated to a raster surface as shown.
• These fire information products were compiled
at the USDA Forest Service (USFS) Remote
Sensing Applications Center in cooperation with
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Univer-
sity of Maryland, the National Interagency Fire
Center, and the USFS Missoula Fire Sciences
Lab.
• The fire density data is divided into 12 digit eco-
logical units.

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Flora and Fauna
The extraordinary forests of southeastern North
America represent relics of ancient mesic, or mod-
erately moist, forests that once covered much of the
temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. To-
day, examples of these forests can be found only in
the southeast region of North America and in eastern
and central China. The Piedmont Crescent project
area consists of three ecoregions: The Appalachian
Mixed Mesophytic Forests; the Appalachian Blue
Ridge Forests; and the Southeastern Mixed Forests.
The Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic
Forests
The Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forests ecore-
gion encompasses the moist broadleaf forests that
cover the plateaus and rolling hills west of the Ap-
palachian Mountains. The long evolutionary history
of the region and wide range of topographic and soil
conditions have contributed to the development of
the rich biota and abundance of endemic species,
particularly in freshwater systems.
The Mixed Mesophytic Forest ecoregion represents
one of the most biologically diverse temperate zones
of the world. Forest communities often support more
than thirty canopy tree species at a single site, as
well as rich understories of ferns, fungi, perennial
and annual herbaceous plants, shrubs, small trees,
and diverse animal communities. Songbirds, sala-
manders, land snails, and beetles are examples of
some particularly diverse taxa. Indeed, the ecore-
gion harbors some of the richest and most endemic
land snail, amphibian, and herbaceous plant biotas
in the United States and Canada. The ecoregion’s
freshwater systems are the richest temperate fresh-
water ecosystems in the world.
Ecoregions
The Appalachian Blue Ridge Forests
The Appalachian/Blue Ridge Forests ecoregion
takes in major portions of the Blue Ridge, as well as
the Ridge and Valley geographic provinces of the
central-southern Appalachians.
The large variety of landforms, climate, soils and
geology coupled with the long evolutionary history of
this area, has led to one of the most diverse assem-
blages of plants and animals found in the world’s
temperate deciduous forests.
The Appalachian Mountains form a fertile seedbed
for a diverse ecological system. One billion years of
erosion has reduced the size of the mountain peaks
so elevation does not create a “tree line,” above
which plants cannot grow. Long erosion of the bed-
rock has produced a rich soil foundation to support a
diverse community of flora and fauna.
Latitude and elevation differences result in consider-
able climate variations across the region. During
glacial periods, the Appalachians were a mesic and
thermal refuge for many plant and animal com-
munities. When the Glaciers retreated, many cold
adapted plant/animal communities remained, adding
to the region’s diversity.
The Southeastern Mixed Forests
The Southeastern Mixed Forests skirt the Appala-
chian/Blue Ridge Mountains, occupying the pied-
mont plateau. This ecoregion is by far the largest
within the Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests
major habitat type (MHT), crossing nine states and
running northeast to southwest from Maryland to
Louisiana. The fall line of the Atlantic piedmont de-
marcates the Southeastern Mixed Forests from the
Southeastern Conifer Forests to the south.
The Southeastern Mixed Forests are famous as the
center of gastropod diversity for North America, and
perhaps the world. Even so, many of the endemic
taxa are extinct. This ecoregion’s freshwater eco-
systems rank among the richest in the temperate
latitudes. The Southeastern Mixed Forests rank
among the top 10 ecoregions in richness of amphib-
ians, reptiles, and birds as well as among the top 10
ecoregions in number of endemic reptiles, amphib-
ians, butterflies, and mammals.
Oak-hickory-pine forests dominate the natural
vegetation. At the time of European settlement, this
ecoregion was covered by stands of pure pines and
stands of pure hardwoods, with mixtures of each
between these extremes. Hardwoods were much
more prevalent than they are today. Prior to Euro-
pean settlement, fire was the most dominant ecologi-
cal force shaping the composition and structure of
the Southeastern Mixed Forests. Fire disturbance
provided good seedbeds for pines and consequently
maintained pine stands. Low-intensity frequent fires
in hardwood stands favored oak regeneration over
competing hardwoods.

When Europeans settled the ecoregion, they signifi-
cantly altered the natural vegetation pattern, convert-
ing forests to shifting agriculture. After World War II,
many of the farms were abandoned. Pines out-com-
peted hardwoods for sun and nutrients and survived
better in the extreme environmental conditions of
the abandoned fields. Common pine species of this
ecoregion include shortleaf pine, loblolly pine, and
longleaf pine. Hardwood species grew in after the
pines and established themselves prominently in the
understory. Since the mid-1960s, pine stands have
been harvested. Hardwoods stands have taken their
place, out-competing juvenile pines for dominance in
the overstory. In addition, the suppression of natural
fire regimes, which favored pines, has shifted veg-
etation to hardwood forests.

• The land cover images collected by the Land-
sat satellite provide a continuous record of land
cover since 1972. The National Data Center in
South Dakota collects these images and ana-
lyzes them with specialized computer software
tools.
• The USGS created a second NLCD series for
the entire US in 2001.
• In addition to providing a snapshot of the condi-
tion of the land cover in 2001, the 2001 series
can be compared to the 1992 series to measure
change in forest and other land cover.
2001 National Landcover Data (NLCD)

• Forests are the ideal landcover in the Piedmont
Crescent project area.
• In this region, forests cover is a measure of
“natural system efficiency.” The more dense the
forest the more efficient the land in processing
the natural elements that make up the climate
i.e. energy from the sun and precipitation from
the atmosphere.
• This map depicts forest density in natural group-
ings (small watersheds). These are plant com-
munity niches. Technically the units of measure
are 12 digit Hydraulic Unit Codes or HUCs.
• The landcover data for these maps is a product
of image analysis using data collected by the
Landsat satellite segmented into watershed
polygons. These polygons are defined by the
USGS.
• The percent forest cover is computed from
image analysis of Natuional Land Cover data
(NLCD) divided into 10 categories. The darkest
color represents the highest tree cover percent-
age and the lightest the lowest percentage.
• While percent forest cover is a commonly used
landcover measurement, it is usually represent-
ed by political boundaries rather than natural
boundaries. Watersheds are natural boundar-
ies and provide a more relevant measure of the
natural system efficiency.
Percent Forest Landcover by Watersheds

• Ihe Piedmont region houses about 70 species
of mammals. The average ecoregion in North
America houses about 50 species.
• Species richness is a measure of the number of
species that occupy a specific ecoregion habi-
tat and provide an index for determining specie
richness
• The species richness maps for mammals, birds
and butterflies are similar.
• North American is rich in mammals, birds, and
butterflies.
• All three display similar east-west pattern of
richness. They decrease northward to the edge
of the boreal forest, with richness centered in the
Southwest part of the country.
Mammal Richness

• Across North America, native vascular plants
form the most diverse taxa.
• And in North America, the Southeastern Mixed
Forests of the Piedmont Crescent have given
rise to the richest assemblage of vascular plants
(more than 3,300 species).
• Many of these vascular plant species occur only
in protected areas. In these oases, the Natural
System has been less damaged and more eco-
logical niches exist, allowing different species to
thrive.
• While there is no way to know exactly how many
vascular plants lived in the Piedmont Crescent
before human development accelerated, it was
likely many more than live there today.
Ecoregion Vascular Plant Richness

• The USFS produced a Forest Type map for the
Piedmont Crescent area.
• Forest Cover Type is defined here as “a descrip-
tive classification of forestland based on present
occupancy of an area by tree species.” The
classification is based on existing tree cover and
the classification coding highlights the predomi-
nant species.
• The forest cover types are one of the ecological
characteristics used in creating ecoregion clas-
sifications.
• The data has been organized by the occurrence
of a cover type within a 12 digit HUC.
Forest Cover Types

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Ownership
• The USFS land is shown in the solid green poly-
gons.
• Tree cover throughout the Piedmont Crescent
project area is indicated in a slightly lighter green
and mostly separated by white areas.
State and private forest owners are:
State government
Local Government
Industry
Forest Products
Non-Forest
Private Individuals
Rural
Urban
• Data is organized by 12 digit HUC.
Ownership – 2001 USGS Land Cover and USFS Land

NATURAL SYSTEMS | Piedmont Crescent | Natural System
• The graphic to the right represents the frame-
work of the Piedmont Crescent natural system.
• Nature can only function successfully as a con-
nected system, it can not function successfully
as fragmented parts even when those parts are
special places.
• One of the fundamental goals of this project was
to identify the natural system that formed the
framework for the Piedmont Crescent region.
• The structure of the natural system is represent-
ed on the map at right. It includes the following
components:
• Major rivers, lakes and thirteen 4-digit
watersheds which encompass each of the
river corridors.
ecoregions
• The topographical features the Appalachian
mountains. They provide the soil for the rich
ecology as well as the elevation which
provides the climate variations which effects
precipitation and ultimately produces the
framework of rivers that dominate the region
as they move water from the mountains to
the Atlantic ocean.
Piedmont Crescent Natural System

natural_system_piedmont

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (18)

Similar to natural_system_piedmont

Similar to natural_system_piedmont (20)

More from Kenneth Kay

More from Kenneth Kay (8)

natural_system_piedmont