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Piedmont

Area GA

Summary

Considered the nonmountainous portion of the old Appalachians Highland by physiographers, the northeast-southwest trending Piedmont ecoregion comprises a transitional area between the mostly mountainous ecoregions of the Appalachians to the northwest and the relatively flat coastal plain to the southeast. It is a complex mosaic of Precambrian and Paleozoic metamorphic and igneous rocks, with moderately dissected irregular plains and some hills. The soils tend to be finer-textured than in coastal plain regions (63, 65). Once largely cultivated, much of this region has reverted to successional pine and hardwood woodlands, with an increasing conversion to an urban and suburban land cover.

Attached Files 

Related External Resources

Type: Web Link

Locate information online about an ongoing ecosystem restoration project within your ecoregion.

· Find a project using an internet search engine; you might search by ecoregion name, or by other geographic label such as a nearby city, river, forest, and so on.

· Consider the following about your project:

· Who owns the land or is leading the restoration work? What is involved? What is the anticipated outcome of the project? Where exactly is the site? (If possible, include a locator map in your paper.) When will the restoration likely be completed? Why is the restoration being done? How is the project being carried out? Finally, is there a way that residents of the area can help? If so, how?

ow, you are ready to write a paper about ecosystem restoration where you live. In your essay,

· Describe your ecoregion and its characteristics. Be sure to address the following:

· What is the name of your ecoregion, and why does it have that name?

· Where is the ecoregion located?

· What is or are the major ecosystem type(s) within that ecoregion?

· What is the topography of the ecoregion? Flat? Rolling hills? Mountainous?

· What are the major land uses in the ecoregion? Is most of it forested? Farmed? Paved over?

· How much of the ecoregion is undisturbed habitat?

· What are a few of the important native species in the ecoregion?

· Discuss the environmental damage to your ecoregion.

· Are any threatened or endangered species present in your ecoregion? If so, identify a couple of them and discuss why they have become threatened or endangered.

· What are the major threats to the ecological health of the ecoregion (e.g., urban sprawl, clearing for agriculture, water pollution, etc.)? Provide specific examples of how these threats have impacted your ecoregion. For example, you might mention how a city in your ecoregion has nearly doubled in size due to sprawl and population growth in the last decade. Or you might note how a common water pollution issue in your ecoregion is fertilizer runoff from corn and soybean production.

· Summarize the restoration project you found; in your summary, be sure to cover these questions:

· Who (what organizations, government entities, etc.) is overseeing the project?

· Where is the project taking place?

· What does the project entail?

· Detail the restoration process goal.

· How is the project being carried out? (What are the major steps involved?)

· When will the project be completed?

· Does the project accept community volunteers? If so, how can the volunteers help?

The Restoration Ecology Laboratory Follow-up assignment,

· must be 2 to 4 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to

· must utilize academic voice.

· resource for additional guidance.

· must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph.

· Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.

· must use at least 1 scholarly source, one credible source, and the course text, for three sources