General information

Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.

MLRA notes

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 153A–Atlantic Coast Flatwoods

The MLRA notes section provides a brief description of the entire MLRA. This brief description of the entire MLRA is intended to provide some context about the MLRA that this ecological site resides within. A more complete description of the MLRA can be found in Ag Handbook 296 (USDA-NRCS, 2022).

This MLRA is found on the lower coastal plain and is known as the Atlantic Coast Flatwoods. This flat terrain is formed from marine terraces and fluviomarine sediments of Tertiary and Quaternary age. These marine terraces are younger to the east and are progressively older and higher inland to the west. Post formation these terraces have been crossed by widely meandering river and stream channels producing broad shallow valleys with many high order interfluves. All these factors combine to produce relatively flat landscapes that favor high water tables.

Many rivers and streams that flow through this area have headwaters that originate to the west in the upper coastal plain (MLRA 133A, Southern Coastal Plain) and piedmont (MLRA 136, Southern Piedmont) regions. Large river valleys are extremely flat and of great extent. Most surface water that originates from within the MLRA starts as blackwater in very low energy and subtle low-order channels. Most surface water emerges first as broad, very low energy, very low velocity sheet flow before accumulating in these very subtle channels. Local relief is generally less than 35 feet (10 meters), although some short, steep slopes border the stream valleys.

The dominant soil orders in MLRA 153A are Ultisols and Spodosols. The soils in this MLRA have a thermic temperature regime, an aquic or udic moisture regime, and generally have siliceous mineralogy. They are generally very deep, well drained to very poorly drained, and loamy or clayey. The major soil suborders of the MLRA include: 1) Alaquods, which formed in marine sediments on flats and terraces and in depressions, 2) Albaquults, which formed in mixed alluvium and marine sediments on flats and terraces, 3) Haplosaprists, which formed in organic deposits over mixed marine and fluvial deposits, 4) Paleaquults, which formed in marine sediments on flats and in depressions, and 5) Paleudults, which formed in marine sediments on uplands.

MLRA 153A has a lengthy north-south extent. It runs parallel to the Atlantic coast and has a width of approximately 10 to 30 miles. The MLRA extends from the northeastern corner of Florida to southern Virginia. Five states are intersected by the MLRA, including Georgia (30 percent), South Carolina (28 percent), North Carolina (28 percent), Florida (10 percent), and Virginia (4 percent). The MLRA extent makes up about 30,319 square miles (78,527 square kilometers).

Because of climatic differences between the northern and southern reaches of the MLRA, vegetative communities vary with latitude. Overall, the MLRA is dominated by pine-oak forest vegetation. Loblolly pine, longleaf pine, slash pine, sweetgum, red maple, red oak, and white oak are dominant in the uplands. Water tupelo, pond pine, swamp blackgum, laurel oak, swamp chestnut oak, bald cypress, and red maple are dominant on the bottomland. Herbaceous understory species common to the MLRA include cutover muhly, toothache grass, little bluestem, and various panicums.

Major wildlife species of the MLRA include alligator, white-tailed deer, black bear, gray fox, red fox, bobcat, raccoon, skunk, opossum, otter, rabbit, squirrel, turkey, and bobwhite quail. The threatened and endangered gopher tortoise inhabits the southern portion of this MLRA. This area provides crucial habitat for neotropical migrants, migratory waterfowl, and wading birds along the Atlantic Flyway.

(USDA-NRCS, 2022)

LRU notes

Currently, Ecological Site Descriptions (ESDs) for MLRA 153A cover the full north-south range of the MLRA. However, climate variation across the north-south extent warrants the future development of Land Resource Unit (LRU) classifications to support more precise Ecological Site Descriptions.

Classification relationships

MLRA 153A overlaps with two level III EPA ecoregion concepts: 63) the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain and 75) the Southern Coastal Plain. Under ecoregions 63 and 75 are a number of level IV concepts, of which several apply to MLRA 153A. These include: 63c) Swamps and Peatlands, 63e) Mid-Atlantic Flatwoods, 63h) Carolina Flatwoods, 63n) Mid-Atlantic Floodplains and Low Terraces, 75e) Okefenokee Plains, 75f) Sea Island Flatwoods, 75g) Okefenokee Swamp, and 75i) Floodplains and Low Terraces. (U.S. EPA, 2013)

MLRA 153A overlaps portions of the US Forest Service Outer Coastal Plain Mixed Forest province (232). The MLRA 153A concept roughly corresponds to the western portion of the Atlantic Coastal Flatwoods (232C) and the southcentral portion of the Northern Atlantic Coastal Flatwoods (232I) sections. In combination with MLRA 153B, these two MLRAs correspond very closely to the full extent of sections 232C and 232I. (Cleland et al., 2007)

Based on the USGS physiographic classification system, most of MLRA 153A is in the Sea Island section of the Coastal Plain province, in the Atlantic Plain division. The northern quarter is in the Embayed section of the same province and division. The embayed barrier islands extend from the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia to north of Charleston, South Carolina (Fenneman et al., 1946). The portion in North Carolina is referred to as the Outer Banks. Large bodies of brackish water, such as Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, are on the inland side of the barrier islands. The Sea Islands extend from north of Charleston, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida.

The reference community for this particularly site is approximately aligned with Mesic Pine Flatwoods (Schafale and Weakely, 1990) and Upland Mixed Woodland (FNAI, 2010).

Ecological site concept

This site is characterized by well drained and somewhat excessively drained, loamy soils (dominantly Ultisols) on coastal plain rises and flats. Across this broad flat landscape, this relatively dry site is typically found near the edges of interfluves and broad flats where local topography drives a local hydrologic gradient that enables better drainage.

This site has the potential to support a variety of vegetation communities including flatwoods, as well as drier oak-hickory and upland pine communities. Most of this site has been converted to alternative states. Historically, the vegetation communities on this site have been maintained by frequent low-intensity surface fires. Table 1 very briefly lists some of the most dominant vegetation on the reference community for this site. More detailed descriptions of community compositions are available in the State and Transition Model.

Associated sites

Similar sites

Table 1. Dominant plant species