4 Mary K. Clark, David S. Lee, John B. Funderburg, Jr. 



bay forests are successional stages of wetlands. Strict definition and 

 delimitation are further hampered by the fact that many pocosins are 

 situated within extensive palustrine systems and /or border estaurine 

 systems. Such mixed areas often provide a rich mosaic of wetland habi- 

 tats involving broad zones of transition and complex successional pat- 

 terns. Extensive areas called pocosins are, in fact, often composed of 

 swamp forest, hardwood forest, and marshes. There seems to be no pre- 

 cise botanical definition of pocosin, but the tongue-in-cheek description, 

 "any low, wet area so thick you can't walk through it", captures well the 

 nature of a pocosin. 



Pocosins 



Wells (1946) provided a general botanical analysis of pocosins in 

 Holly Shelter, Pender County, North Carolina, and Kologiski (1977) 

 investigated the vegetative communities of the Green Swamp, including 

 several types of pocosin, savanna and related successional communities. 

 Buell and Cain (1943) described the successional role and ecological 

 requirements of Atlantic White Cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides, forests 

 in southeastern North Carolina. White cedar forests and savannas are 

 both closely allied with pocosins. Additionally, Wells (1932), Woodwell 

 (1956), and Sharitz and Gibbons (1983) provided overviews of pocosin 

 vegetation, and Wells and Whitford (1976) presented a good outline of 

 the successional development and fate of stream-head swamp forests, 

 pocosins, and savanna communities. 



Carolina Bays 



Carolina bays vary in size from only a few to many hundreds of 

 hectares, and an exposed sand rim of varying width normally occurs 

 around a bay's perimeter. These depressions are naturally wetter at all 

 seasons than are most surrounding areas, contrasting markedly with the 

 dry sand rims, which support xeric plant communities. Most Carolina 

 bays house pocosin communities in various serai stages, but some also 

 contain sizable lakes, ponds, marshes, bogs, and swamps. In many bays, 

 natural fire has been suppressed so long that the plant communities in 

 them are now mature deciduous bay forests. The elliptical shape and the 

 tendency for the deepest portion of the depression to be southeast of 

 center often causes concentric vegetative zonation rings in the interior of 

 the bays as well as an ecotonal ring around the perimeter. This type of 

 vegetative zonation occasionally allows for considerable faunal diver- 

 sity, even in small areas. 



A vegetative profile of one Carolina bay near Jerome, Bladen 

 County, was provided by Buell (1946a,b). We found, however, that by 

 1983 the area had been drained and lumbered so extensively that this 

 bay no longer resembles Buell's description. This is unfortunate since it 



