Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations

A blackwater river from sea to source · By Dirk Frankenberg

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The White Oak River basin. Click to see a larger map.

Figure 1. Ocean section of Bogue inlet: the mouth of the White Oak River

Figure 2. Central section of Bogue inlet: sand bar without vegetation

Figure 3. Pioneer salt marsh plants colonizing bare sand habitat

Figure 4. Salt marsh behind Bogue Bank just east of Bogue inlet

Figure 5. Salt marsh behind Bear Island west of Bogue Inlet

Figure 6. Patches of salt marsh in the high salinity section of the estuary

Figure 7. Salt marsh along the flanks of the high salinity section

Figure 8. Typical salt marsh plant zonation pattern

Figure 9. Salt marsh in a mid-salinity area; changed plant zonation

Figure 10. Salt marsh invading a forest, a sign of rising sea level

Figure 11. Freshwater marsh with salt marsh fringe at low salinity area

Figure 12. Freshwater marsh and pioneer forest trees; fresh/salt transition

Figure 13. Freshwater marsh and swamp forest in tidal freshwater section

Figure 14. Swamp forest in the tidal freshwater section

Figure 15. Bottomland hardwood forest inland from the swamp forest

Figure 16. Upstream section of the White Oak, twenty miles from the sea

Figure 17. Pocosin wetland: source of the White Oak, thirty miles inland