Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain
Stretching from Cape Cod south through Florida and west to the Texas Gulf Coast, the Coastal Plain includes such prominent features as the Chesapeake Bay, long chains of Atlantic and Gulf barrier islands, and the lower Mississippi River with its fragile delta. Much of the southeastern Coastal Plain was once covered by a vast longleaf pine forest, long since transformed by logging and agriculture.
Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Ecoregions
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East Gulf Coastal Plain
The East Gulf Coastal Plain ecoregion encompasses portions of five states (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) and over 42 million acres from the southwestern portion of Georgia across the Florida Panhandle and west to the southeastern portion of Louisiana.
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Florida Peninsula
Although it is fragmented by three Interstate highways and the prominent, sprawling metropolitan areas of Orlando and Tampa, the Florida Peninsula also features several large managed areas that form a basis for natural resource conservation.
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Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain
The Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain occupies 26 million acres east of the fall line between the Piedmont and Atlantic Coastal Plain, south of the James River in Virginia and north of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.
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Mississippi River Alluvial Plain Ecoregion
The most defining feature of the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain, which sprawls across parts of seven states from southern Louisiana to southern Illinois, is the Mississippi River itself.
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North Atlantic Coast Ecoregion
The North Atlantic Coast Ecoregion (NAC) consists of parts of nine states (DE, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, ME) and their near shore marine waters. The land and freshwater component of the ecoregion encompasses 12.7 million acres in a narrow band from the southwestern shore of Delaware Bay north to Pemaquid Point in Maine.
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South Atlantic Coastal Plain Ecoregion
The South Atlantic Coastal Plain ecoregion encompasses more than 23 million acres across three states, including the southern portion of South Carolina, southeastern Georgia and northeastern Florida.
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Upper East Gulf Coastal Plain Ecoregion
Encompassing some 52,908 square miles, the Ipper East Gulf Coastal Plain has been worked and reworked by coastal and fluvial processes - and sculpted by wind-deposited silt called loess.