1. Soil Type 

• FM - wet site - lilium catesbaei, Sarracenia - Organic material - Most diverse 
• FM - transition site - clethra alnifolia - least diverse 
• FM - dry site - sandy soil - Plants that are adapted - Quercus pumila, Helianthus etc 
• Different soils have different species - clay soils - CAW CAW - bottomland - etc etc

2. Landscape position - Sun exposure, wind, tides, erosion 

• Pinus palustris - shade intolerant
• Salt, brackish, fresh water 
• Water drainage creates wet and dry 

3. Disturbance History

• Fire, Hurricane, Rice fields  

1. Coastal Plain 
2. Peidmont
3. Blue Ridge 
4. Newer Appalachian
5. Appalachian plateau 
6. Interior Lowlands 

• Sea Level dropped in pulses from fall line froming barrier island / salt marsh complexes
• This created terraces that overlie older sediments to form flat with the pulses. 
• Dry sandy ridges where barrier islands were 
• Low savannas, pocosins, ponds, and creeks where the saltmarsh had been 
• therefore, Soils are young, sandy, acidic, and infertile. 

• Crystalline basement rocks emerge from underneath the blanket of coastal plain sediments
• Sloped up to the west due mostly to tectonic forces
• Downwarping to the east, as Pangaea pulled apart
• ORIGIN
• Some very old crust
• Some terraces that awere pushed on to the old shores of Laurasia – now eastern coast – as dondwanna approached during the formation of Pangaea
• Some volcanic intrusions

•  

  Most rocks are crystalline  - what makes CP basement. 
• Clay particles – 800 m²/gram suface area
• Clay becomes negatively charged bonding with water and other cations
•  Piedmont soils have high native fertility but are highly erodible
•  From virgina to alambama the southern piedmont has the same type of high fertile soils.
• As SP became colonized it became apart of slave based cotton and tobacco – soil was thought to be endless – no preservation – pretty much the entire piedmont lost almost its entire topsoil

Have very eroded soils. soils were 8 foot deep

·      Newer appalachians = the ridge and valley province

·      Force of the pangea impact carried further inland though with less force

• forming fan like ridges behind new appalations
• Rounded mountains

Less force just pushed up gently. Mainly limestone erosion is how it is formed. 

Entire basin was a shallow sea during the Carboniferous period – forced into sedimentary rock which is what the middle America is based on

Erosion 

flat 

1. The Beach - No species here, mangrove some places
2. The Wrackline - Salsola kali & Cakile harperi 
3. Front Dunes - Grasses -  Uniola paniculata &  Panicum amarum
4. Back Dunes - Grasses and Forbs anchor the dunes 
   
• Yucca spp. and Morning Glory's 
• Opuntia compressa 
• Sweet Grass - 
5. Maritime Shrub Thicket -  Baccharis halmifolia &  Smilax auriculata 
6. Maritime Forest - Dense evergreen canopy 
7. Salt Scrub - Borrichia and Iva Frutescens 
• Salt hay / Quercus virginicus 
8. Salt Marsh - Spartina alterniflora and Juncus right on edge. 
9. Hypersaline Salt Flats         

1. The Beach - Too dynamic!
2. The Wrackline - OM from Salt Marshes washes over Spartina pieces through Tidal Creeks. Tide must be out for sea rocket to germinate. 
3. Front Dunes  - More or less permanent though very dynamic caused from blowing sand. 
4. Back Dunes - Less Salt - Fresh water rinsing - More OM accumulating between swales - Andropogon 
5. Maritime Shrub Thicket - Supported by Increasing stability - very dense - Fresh water leaching out, OM accumulating - Waxy Myrtle, Southern red cedar

Soil type 

• Clayey soils high in pH, Calcium, Phosphorus, and magnesium 
• High Fertility supports wide variety of plants.
• Geomorphology 
• Hawthorne Formation
•  Santee Limestone Formation – calcium and magnesium
• Ancient shell beds along back bay creeks
• Piedmont erosion sediments – because of cotton
• Mostly a fragmented habitat mostly found in bands along some drainage
•  Hawthorne supports beech community other formations support other rare plants
• Soils are rare 

Landscape Position - Affects soil type

• Ridge tops and side slopers are well drained
• Toe slopes anaerobic and gleying
• Plant community is rich bottomland fores
• With this you will get a well banked creek

No fire