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CORE THEMES

• Everything is connected• Nature is dynamic• Human values impact natural systems

Pennsylvania Master Naturalist

Understanding Ecoregions

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is

the story of the earth.”--Rachel Carson

Ecoregions bring order to something complex – the natural

landscape.

Classifying Ecoregions

Pennsylvania Level II Ecoregions

Pennsylvania Level III Ecoregions

Southeastern and Coastal Plains

Northern PiedmontPiedmont Upland, Piedmont Limestone/

Dolomite Lowland, Triassic Lowland

Northern PiedmontPiedmont Uplands

• Rounded hills, low ridges, high relief and narrow valleys.

• Substantially higher relief than neighboring ecoregions.

• Folded and faulted paleozoic and precambrian metamorphic rock.

• Deep Ultisols and Inceptisols are common soils. Chrome soils from serpentinite also occur.

• The Chrome soils support eastern serpentine barrens (Chester, Delaware, and Lancaster counties)

Northern PiedmontPiedmont Limestone/Dolomite Lowlands

• Nearly level, undulating terrain consisting of sink holes, caverns, and disappearing streams.

• Ordovician limestone predominates, dolomite and shale also occur.

• Soils are derived largely from carbonate rock and are very fertile.

• Soils support a natural vegetation of Appalachian Oak Forest (white and red oak), which has been almost entirely replaced by general farming.

Northern PiedmontTriassic Lowlands

• Wide undulating ridges, broad valleys, limited local relief.

• Underlain by sedimentary rock.

• Soils are derived triassic sandstone, shale, siltstone, and argillite.

• Soils support a natural vegetation of Appalachian Oak forest (dominated by red and white oaks).

• Supports a mosaic of dairy farms, houses, and woodland.

Natural Communities of theNorthern Piedmont

Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands

Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands

• Low, nearly level terraces.

• Ocean modified climate.

• Saline marsh deposits dominate; alluvial and estuarine sand and silt also widespread.

• Underlain by unconsolidated and easily eroded Quaternary gravels, sands and silts.

Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands

20071777

Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain:Delaware River Terraces & Uplands

Coastal Plain Leopard Frog Rana utricularia

Red-bellied TurtlePseudemys rubriventris

King RailRalas elegans elegans

Bog Turtle Clemmys muhlenbergii

Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus flammeus

PA Endangered Plants

swamp beggar-ticksBidens bidentoides

river bank quillwortIsoetes riparia

coast violet Viola brittoniana

ArrowheadSagittaria calycina

The Urban Ecosystem

Biological Social

Physical/Built