Boundaries

The ecoregion stretches from northern Georgia along the western border with Alabama to the Gulf Coast through the central part of the Florida panhandle. With the exception of the Mobile Bay drainage, the Apalachicola is the only northeastern Gulf drainage that extends above the Fall Line.

Topography

The Apalachicola’s two main tributaries, the Chattahoochee and Flint, arise in the Blue Ridge physiographic province of northern Georgia, and the Piedmont Plateau near Atlanta, respectively (Livingston 1992; Carr 1994). Elevations here reach above 1000 m. The Chattahoochee then flows through the Red Hills of the Piedmont province before entering the upper Coastal Plain where it meets the Flint to form the Apalachicola.

Freshwater habitats

Although the Apalachicola lies entirely within the coastal plain, the variety of habitats found in its two tributary rivers provide the foundation for a diverse freshwater fauna (Livingston 1992). Because reaches of the Apalachicola flow through shaded ravines with cool spring inputs, immigrant species that have found their way south via the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers find habitat that resembles that of more northerly regions (Livingston 1992; Carr 1994).

Terrestrial habitats

Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the northern part of the ecoregion are demarcated from the conifer forests in the south by the Fall Line of the Atlantic Piedmont. The conifer forests are fire-maintained systems dominated by long-leaf pine (Pinus palustris) (Ricketts et al. 1999).

Description of endemic fishes

Endemic fish species in this ecoregion are the broadstripe shiner (Pteronotropis euryzonus), bluestripe shiner (Cyprinella callitaenia),  greater jumprock (Scartomyzon lachneri), and shoal bass (Micropterus cataractae) (Swift et al. 1986; Page & Burr 1991).

Justification for delineation

Ecoregion boundaries are taken from Abell et al. (2000) and are based on subregions defined by Maxwell et al. (1995).