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LEVEL III AND IV ECOREGIONS OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Description:
Ecoregions denote areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources; they are designed to serve as a spatial framework for the research, assessment, management, and monitoring of ecosystems and ecosystem components. Ecoregions are directly applicable to the immediate needs of state agencies, including the selection of regional stream reference sites, the development of biological criteria and water quality standards, and the establishment of management goals for nonpoint-source pollution. They are also relevant to integrated ecosystem management, an ultimate goal of most federal and state resource management agencies. The approach used to compile this map of South Carolina is based on the premise that ecological regions can be identified through the analysis of the patterns of biotic and abiotic phenomena that reflect differences in ecosystem quality and integrity (Wiken 1986; Omernik 1987, 1995). These phenomena include hydrology. The relative importance of each characteristic varies from one ecological region to another regardless of the hierarchical level. A Roman numeral hierarchical scheme has been adopted for different levels of ecological regions. Level I and level II divide the North American continent into 15 and 52 regions, respectively (Commission for Environmental Cooperation Working Group subdivision of the level III ecoregions. Explanations of the methods used to define the U.S. EPA's ecoregions are given in Omernik (1995), Griffith and others (1994, 1997), and Gallant and others (1989). The Level III and IV Ecoregions of South Carolina map was compiled at a scale of 1:250,000; it depicts revisions and subdivisions of earlier level III ecoregions that were originally compiled at a smaller scale (U.S. EPA 1999; Omernik 1987). Compilation of this map is part of a collaborative project primarily between the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the U.S. EPA National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), U.S. EPA Region IV, and the South Carolina (USDA and others 1996). Reaching that objective requires recognition of the differences in the conceptual approaches and mapping methodologies that have been used to develop the most commonly used existing ecoregion-type frameworks, including those developed by the U.S. Forest Service (Bailey and others 1994), the U.S. EPA (Omernik 1987, 1995), and the NRCS (U.S. Department of Agriculture - Soil Conservation Service 1981). As each of these frameworks is further developed, the differences between them are becoming less. Regional collaborative projects such as this one in South Carolina, where agreement can be reached among multiple resource management agencies, is a step in the direction of attaining commonality and consistency in ecoregion frameworks for the entire nation. Comments and questions regarding the Level III and IV Ecoregions of South Carolina map should be addressed to Glenn Griffith, USDA-NRCS, 200 SW 35th glenn@mail.cor.epa.gov, or to James Omernik, U.S. EPA - NHEERL, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, (541) 754-4458, email: omernik@mail.cor.epa.gov.