INTRODUCTION 



Bottomland hardwoods occupy the broad 

 floodplains that flank many of the major 

 rivers of the Southeastern United States 

 as they flow through the Piedmont and 

 Coastal Plain to the sea. These forests 

 and their fauna comprise remarkably pro- 

 ductive riverine communities adapted to a 

 "fluctuating water level ecosystem" (Odum 

 1969) characterized and maintained by a 

 natural hydrologic regime of alternating 

 annual wet and dry periods. 



The bottomland hardwood communities 

 support recognizably distinct assemblages 

 of plants and animals that are associated 

 with particular landforms, soils, and 

 hydrologic regimes. The fluctuating hydro- 

 logic regime dictating the ecologic func- 

 tioning of modern floodplains is rela- 

 tively recent, perhaps originating around 

 18,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene 

 period, when changes toward present strong 

 seasonal climates began (Martin 1980). 

 Many floodplain species are traceable to 

 Tertiary times, and others originated as 

 far back as the Mesozoic. Apparently, 

 rivers and their floodplains have served 

 as refugia for numerous relict life forms 

 which found the dynamic conditions there 

 suitable. Plants such as tupelo gums, and 

 animals such as alligators, turtles, gar, 

 bowfin, sturgeon, and amphibians ( Siren ) 

 survive essentially unchanged on modern 

 floodplains as relicts from the Age of 

 Dinosaurs. Ironically, in the face of 

 massive land use of surrounding uplands, 

 floodplains today remain some of the last 

 refuges not only for floodplain species 

 but also for upland species. 



Because the floodplains occupied by 

 bottomland hardwoods are transitional in 

 the aquatic continuum between permanent 

 water and terrestrial uplands, they are 

 elusive to classify. The scheme of Cow- 

 ardin et al. (1979) used here classifies 

 bottomland hardwoods as forested wetlands 

 in palustrine and estuarine ecosystems. 

 Other terms or categories which have been 

 used to classify this community include 



"seasonally flooded basins or flats" (Shaw 

 and Fredine 1956); "mixed bottomland hard- 

 woods and tupelo-cypress swamps" (Stubbs 

 1973); "oak-gum-cypress" and "elm-ash-cot- 

 tonwood" (Boyce and Cost 1974); and "deep 

 swamps," "narrow stream margins," and 

 "broad stream margins" (Forest Service Re- 

 source Bulletins 1970, 1972, 1974, 1978). 



The extent and distribution of bot- 

 tomland hardwoods in the Southeast are 

 indicated in Figure 1 and Table 1. Diverse 

 classification schemes and the inclusion 

 of other categories of forested wetlands 

 make difficult precise calculation of the 

 area! extent of the community; however, 

 acreages appear to be equal in the four 

 States (North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, and Florida) focused upon in this 

 profile. The latest U.S. Forest Service 

 Forest Surveys, standardized in 1930, have 

 been used in preparing Table 1, which 

 gives combined acreages of the two forest 

 types occurring in each of the Forest Sur- 

 vey's physiographic classes. Each forest 

 type, oak-gum-cypress or elm-ash-cotton- 

 wood, is dominated singly or in combina- 

 tion by these species (Boyce and Cost 

 1974). 



Table 1 also includes the acreage of 

 forested wetlands other than bottomland 

 hardwood floodplains. Cypress and willow 

 strands, where water spreads out and moves 

 downslope through a wide forest of cy- 

 press, are not included as bottomland 

 hardwoods; similarly, bays, pocosins, and 

 cypress ponds are excluded from this com- 

 munity profile. Small drains, defined as 

 poorly drained narrow strands lacking a 

 well defined stream, include many tiny 

 headwater branches and drainways. Although 

 not specifically floodplains, they are 

 certainly important in filtering drainage 

 from the uplands into the larger systems. 

 Their acreage is large but they are ex- 

 cluded from our calculation of bottomland 

 floodplain acreage. Large swamps such as 

 the Okefenokee and Dismal Swamp have been 

 excluded as well. 



