tailieunhanh - Estuarine Research, Monitoring, and Resource Protection - Chapter 5

Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto (ACE) lưu vực sông của Nam Carolina đã được chỉ định là trang web một chương trình nghiên cứu quốc gia cửa sông dự trữ (NERR) vào năm 1992. ACE lưu vực NERR bao gồm một diện tích hơn ha ở đồng bằng ven biển Nam Carolina, nằm ở các bộ phận của Colleton, Charleston, Beaufort, và các quận Hampton. Các trang web dự trữ được bao bọc dọc theo lề phía đông nam Đại Tây Dương, và xu hướng hướng tây bắc (nội địa) cho 35 ~ km (hình ). Các dòng sông Ashepoo, Combahee, và Edisto. | Case Study 4 Copyright 2004 CRC Press LLC 5 Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve INTRODUCTION The Ashepoo-Combahee-Edisto ACE Basin of South Carolina was designated as a National Estuarine Research Reserve NERR program site in 1992. The ACE Basin NERR encompasses an area of more than 56 000 ha in the lower coastal plain of South Carolina located in parts of Colleton Charleston Beaufort and Hampton counties. The reserve site is bounded along the southeast margin by the Atlantic Ocean and it trends northwestward inland for 35 km Figure . The Ashepoo Combahee and Edisto rivers are the principal river systems in the basin although numerous smaller streams also flow through the region. They drain into St. Helena Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. A wide range of habitats supporting numerous biotic communities exists in the ACE Basin such as upland pine-mixed hardwoods maritime forests freshwater marshes brackish marshes salt marshes tidal flats tidal creeks and channels open estuarine waters and barrier islands. Salt marshes tidelands and open channels water habitat cover the greatest area SCDNR and NOAA 2001 . Characteristic of coastal plain environments the topography of the ACE Basin NERR consists primarily of flat low-lying terrain Colquhoun 1969 Soller and Mills 1991 . Drainage is to the southeast with stream gradients varying from 20 to 375 cm km Bloxham 1979 1981 . The Edisto River is the longest river in the region originating in the middle coastal plain of South Carolina by the confluence of the North and South Fork Edisto Rivers and diverging into the North Edisto River and South Edisto River near the coast. In contrast the Ashepoo and Combahee Rivers both originate in swamps of the lower coastal plain and therefore are much less extensive. These rivers and their tributaries transport sediments seaward from the Piedmont and the sediments are deposited downstream in the lower coastal plain as well as along the coast. .