Wetlands of the Interior Southeastern United States

Wetlands are widely recognized for their important role in sustainable landscape functions and for societal values derived from wetland-dependent processes. The wetland resource in the southern United States is particularly important because it comprises approximately 50 percent of the total wetland area in the nation. Eight southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia) contain approximately 7.8 million hectares of wetlands, approximately 21 percent of the United States total. Wetlands in those areas include many different types ranging from coastal marshes, bottomland swamps, pocosins, riparian zones, and mountain bogs. Most wetland research in the southern United States has focused on the coastal plan region or on the Mississippi delta, encompassing wetland types such as bottomland swamps, pocosins and flatwoods. In September 1993, about 95 scientists gathered in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, for a conference on southeastern United States wetlands and to develop recommendations for future research programs. This text contains 20 papers that were presented at the conference and it is divided into six parts. Part I is a conference summary paper that reports major findings discussed at the conference. Parts II through VI contain papers divided into the topical areas of wetlands resources, biogeochemical processes of wetlands, wetland vegetation dynamics and ecology, managed wetlands, and wetland restoration and creation.