DACF Home → Bureaus & Programs → Maine Natural Areas Program → Communities, Plants, and Animals → Natural Communities and Ecosystems → Ecosystems in Maine → Streamshore Ecosystem
Streamshore Ecosystem
State Rank: S4This is the group of communities bordering and directly influenced by the open-water portion of a stream (first-order through third or fourth-order). It includes vegetated aquatic communities as well as the emergent and bordering communities. Most communities are palustrine; streams are generally too small to exert many disturbance effects on adjacent terrestrial areas. Terrestrial forests bordering streams are included under forested upland ecosystems.
Natural Communities Associated with Streamshore Ecosystem
- Alder Shrub Thicket
- Bluejoint Meadow
- Bulrush Bed
- Cattail Marsh
- Mixed Graminoid - Shrub Marsh
- Mixed Tall Sedge Fen
- Northern White Cedar Swamp
- Pickerelweed - Macrophyte Aquatic Bed
- Red Maple - Sensitive Fern Swamp
- Silver Maple Floodplain Forest
- Sweetgale Mixed Shrub Fen
- Tussock Sedge Meadow
- Water-lily - Macrophyte Aquatic Bed