The Mississippi lowland forests are a
temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These for ...
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
in the eastern
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, covering an area of .
Setting
Located on the
Mississippi Alluvial Plain
The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is an alluvial plain created by the Mississippi River on which lie parts of seven U.S. states, from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois (Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Lou ...
from
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
north to the southern edge of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, the original forest cover of the Mississippi lowland forests was primarily
bottomland hardwood forest
The bottomland hardwood forest is a type of deciduous and evergreen hardwood forest found in broad lowland floodplains along large rivers and lakes in the United States and elsewhere. They are occasionally flooded, which builds up the alluvial soi ...
s, often subject to seasonal
flooding
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...
which dictates the growth rate and composition. The forests historically occupied over 10,000,000 hectares of thick well-established forest of cypress (''
Taxodium
''Taxodium'' is a genus of one to three species (depending on taxonomic opinion) of extremely flood-tolerant conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. The generic name is derived from the Latin word ''taxus'', meaning " yew", and the Greek ...
'' spp.),
hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
,
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
and
cedars similar to that found in the
Middle Atlantic Coastal Forests
The Middle Atlantic coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forest mixed with patches of evergreen broadleaved forests (closer to the Atlantic coast) along the coast of the southeastern United States.
Setting
The Middle Atlantic coastal fore ...
region. However nearly all the original forest along the Mississippi has now been cleared.
The Mississippi floodplain is distinct from the surrounding countryside which is higher and drier.
Flora
The remaining woodlands are a mixture of oak, hickory and
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...
along with a rich mixture of other trees including bald cypress (''
Taxodium distichum
''Taxodium distichum'' (bald cypress, swamp cypress; french: cyprès chauve;
''cipre'' in Louisiana) is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide r ...
''), water tupelo (''
Nyssa aquatica
''Nyssa aquatica'', commonly called the water tupelo, cottongum, wild olive, large tupelo, tupelo-gum, or water-gum, is a large, long-lived tree in the tupelo genus ''(Nyssa)'' that grows in swamps and floodplains in the Southeastern United Stat ...
''), black willow (''
Salix nigra
''Salix nigra'', the black willow, is a species of willow native to eastern North America, from New Brunswick and southern Ontario west to Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and Texas.
Description
''Salix nigra'' is a medium-sized decid ...
''), water hickory (''
Carya aquatica
''Carya aquatica'', the bitter pecan or water hickory, is a large tree, that can grow over tall of the Juglandaceae or walnut family. In the American South it is a dominant plant species found on clay flats and backwater areas near streams and r ...
'') in the swampier areas. The
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
is an important pathway and many of these species would have been carried and dispersed by the river system.
Fauna
The forest was at one time host to forest interior species such as the
ivory-billed woodpecker
The ivory-billed woodpecker (''Campephilus principalis'') is a possibly extinct woodpecker that is native to the bottomland hardwood forests and temperate coniferous forests of the Southern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and hunting ...
and the Mississippi is still an important migration route for many birds, including large numbers of wintering
mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
ducks,
wood duck
The wood duck or Carolina duck (''Aix sponsa'') is a species of perching duck found in North America. The drake wood duck is one of the most colorful North American waterfowl.
Description
The wood duck is a medium-sized perching duck. A typi ...
s and
hooded merganser
The hooded merganser (''Lophodytes cucullatus'') is a species of merganser. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Lophodytes''. The genus name derives from the Greek language: ''lophos'' meaning 'crest', and ''dutes'' meaning 'diver'. The ...
s. Other birds of the area include many songbirds,
bald eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...
s,
heron
The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...
s and
egret
Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...
s.
Ecological services
These forests provide several functions such as
groundwater recharge
Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in ...
, water quality enhancement through reduced turbidity, and flood flow alteration. They also contain high degree of
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
. Estimates suggest aquatic food chains in bottomland forests can account for two to five times more wildlife species than upland forests. Flooded areas of the Mississippi lowland forest provide home to up to 40% of the continental
mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
duck population during the winter months.
Threats and preservation
![Wolf-River-swamp-North-Mississippi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Wolf-River-swamp-North-Mississippi.jpg)
Natural flooding is the primary form of
disturbance
Disturbance and its variants may refer to:
Math and science
* Disturbance (ecology), a temporary change in average environmental conditions that causes a pronounced change in an ecosystem
* Disturbance (geology), linear zone of faults and folds ...
in this ecoregion. Flood protection has reduced natural flooding by an estimated 50-90% degrading habitat for migratory birds.
From the 1940s to the 1970s large parts of the forest were converted to
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, primarily for
soybean
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...
production. Roughly 25% of the historically forested area remains.
Calculations made in 2002 estimate that the region consists of 86,938 forest patches with an average size of 42 hectares.
Fewer than 100 of these patches are thought to be large enough to support a self-sustaining population of forest breeding birds.
Significant natural areas in the ecoregion
The remaining unspoilt woodlands tend to be in the wettest areas such as the
Cache River Wetlands in Illinois;
Crowley's Ridge
Crowley's Ridge (also Crowleys Ridge) is a geological formation that rises 250 to above the alluvial plain of the Mississippi embayment in a line from southeastern Missouri to the Mississippi River near Helena, Arkansas. It is the most prom ...
and
Mingo National Wildlife Refuge
The Mingo National Wildlife Refuge is a 21,676-acre (87.7-km2) National Wildlife Refuge located in northwestern Stoddard and southeastern Wayne counties in Missouri. Its southwesternmost portion lies on the shores of Lake Wappapello. Named afte ...
in
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
;
White River National Wildlife Refuge
The White River National Wildlife Refuge (officially Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge) is a wildlife refuge located in Desha, Monroe, Phillips, and Arkansas counties in the U.S. state of Arkansas. The refuge is managed by the ...
in
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
; and
Atchafalaya Basin
The Atchafalaya Basin, or Atchafalaya Swamp (; Louisiana French: ''L'Atchafalaya'', ), is the largest wetland and swamp in the United States. Located in south central Louisiana, it is a combination of wetlands and river delta area where the Atc ...
and Big Woods Conservation Area in Louisiana.
See also
*
List of ecoregions in the United States (WWF)
The following is a list of ecoregions in the United States as identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The United States is a megadiverse country with a high level of endemism across a wide variety of ecosystems.
Terrestrial ecoregi ...
References
{{Reflist
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the United States
Ecoregions of the United States
Plant communities of Mississippi
Plant communities of Louisiana
Mississippi River