DACF Home → Bureaus & Programs → Maine Natural Areas Program → Communities, Plants, and Animals → Natural Communities and Ecosystems → Ecosystems in Maine → Coastal Plain Basin Swamp Ecosystem
Coastal Plain Basin Swamp Ecosystem
State Rank: S3Similar to the Appalachian - Acadian Basin Swamp Ecosystem type, but restricted to extreme southern Maine, where climatic influences and species affinities are allied with areas southward along the Atlantic coastal plain. These are topographic basins with only a small to mid-sized stream as an outlet, mostly to entirely forested, and with minimal peat accumulation. First-order or second-order streams may drain the swamp. Soils are hydric and usually saturated. Pockets without trees (shrub swamp or short graminoid marsh) may occur within the basin swamp.
Natural Communities Associated with Coastal Plain Basin Basin Swamp Ecosystem
- Alder Shrub Thicket
- Atlantic White Cedar Swamp
- Hemlock - Hardwood Pocket Swamp
- Mixed Graminoid - Shrub Marsh
- Pitch Pine Bog
- Red Maple - Sensitive Fern Swamp
- Spruce - Fir - Cinnamon Fern Forest
- Tussock Sedge Meadow