Longleaf pine ecosystem
Spanning pine savannas, sandhills and montane forests, it includes many rare plant and animal species, and is one of the most biodiverse in North America.
[1] Once one of the largest ecosystems in North America, from Virginia south to Florida and west to Texas, it now occupies less than a quarter of the original range.
During the Holocene, the ice retreated, the climate became warm and dry, and the longleaf pine ecosystem established itself in its historical range.
[2][3][4] The longleaf pine ecosystem was first described in the early 1500s by the Spaniard Hernando de Soto,[5][6]: 4 and in accounts by Native Americans recorded in journals of European explorers as well.
The ecosystem extended from southeastern Virginia down to northern Florida over to eastern Texas, forming the dominant land cover in the coastal plain of these states.
[8] There is, however, extensive literature from various explorers of southeastern North America dating as far back as 1608, when Captain John Smith recorded his accounts of the forest and the first exports of products from pines close to the new settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.
[7] Before Europeans established themselves in the area, Native Americans set fires regularly[10] in order to encourage the growth of plants eaten by game animals and to clear undergrowth for ease of occupation and movement in the forest.
Once lit by humans or lightning, fires burned across the landscape for days, weeks, and even months due to the lack of habitat fragmentation by roads, railroads, or cities.
[3][10] The longleaf pine ecosystem is one of the richest habitats in North America, and its forest floor is one of the most diverse of its kind in the world.
These wiregrass species play a key role in the reproduction and spread of the longleaf pine, as they help to carry fire across the land.
[12] The red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) was once a common inhabitant of this habitat, but since the decline of the ecosystem it has been placed on the federal endangered species list.
On a hill, escape of water from saturated areas can result in the formation of a seep and a type of bog called a seepage slope.
Downward pointing hairs and slippery walls make escape difficult and the insects are dissolved and digested by enzymes in the bottom of the pitcher.
In 2018, one of the world's largest salamanders, the reticulated siren, was described from wetlands in the longleaf pine ecosystem along the Gulf Coastal Plain.
[3] European settlers in turn gradually began using fire as a management tool, similar to existing traditions in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
To obtain the resin from the live longleaf pine, pioneers first cut and removed wood exposing a deep cavity, called a box at the base of the tree.
[6]: 7 Roads and railroads were constructed in various locations throughout the southeast beginning in the 1800s for transportation and forest harvesting, which together with settlement building caused habitat fragmentation in the ecosystem.
[5][6]: 11–12 So to compensate for loss, replanting of some clear-cut areas in the ecosystem was planted by land owners and Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees during the Great Depression era of the mid-1900s.
