WETLAND RESOURCES OF COASTAL NORTH-CAROLINA

The wetlands of the 20 coastal counties in North Carolina were digitized from National Wetland Inventory (NWI) maps to determine the diversity and extent of wetland habitat in coastal North Carolina. The counties were divided into three geographical areas to examine wetland patterns from the northern to the southern portion of coastal North Carolina. The wetland community types were digitized as palustrine forest, palustrine shrub, palustrine emergent, partly drained, estuarine emergent, estuarine shrub, and other. The wetlands for the 20 coastal counties totaled 957,470 ha. Palustrine forest wetlands were the predominant wetland type, comprising 64.8 percent of total wetland area. Ten percent were palustrine shrub wetlands, 11 percent partly drained, and 11 percent estuarine wetlands. Deciduous forest wetlands accounted for 47 percent of palustrine forest wetlands; 32 percent were evergreen forests. Evergreen shrub wetlands accounted for 62 percent of palustrine shrub wetlands. A shift of deciduous wetlands in the northern coastal counties to evergreen or mixed community wetlands in the southern coastal counties was observed. Wetland losses were estimated to be 44 percent of the original wetland area in the 20 coastal counties using hydric soils as an historical baseline.