Ecology of Red Maple Swamps in the Glaciated Northeast: A ...

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Table 1.4. Relaztive abundance of forested wetland and broacl-leaved deciduous (D) forested wetlad
in t h glaciated nodhasten United States (based on Nationnl Wetlands Inventory and New York
State Wetlamb Inventory data5).
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Total palustrine Forested BLD forested BLD forested
wetland wetland wetland wetland
State O.4 ("/) (O'9
- ~
Bode Island 23,12
New Jersey b 42,145 68 68 28,644
Massachusetts 188,714 71 64 121,067
Connecticut 61,454 €4 60 36,863
Maine" 76,802 64
firms ylvania d 90,900 56
New York 360,905 48 34 123,934
Vermont 88,514 55 27
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23,728
aN~tional Wetland Inventory (NWI) data were u rk. All NWI statistics except for Island
(Tiner 1989b), New Jersey (Tiner 1985), and Maine (Fefer 1980) are unpublist~ed and were providedby R. Tiner, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, Newton Corner, Mass. Statistics for New York were gent:mted by the New York State Wetlands Inventory
(Wonnor and Cole 1989).
'Data are from eight northern counties that are at least 50041 ylacinkd: Susscx, I'assaic, 13(:rye11, Essex, Iiudsor,, Warren, Morris,
and Union.
" Data are from 105-town coastal zone only (Fefer 1980).
d~ata are from glaciated regions of state only: Middle Western Upland Plain, Northern and Soutllern Poconos, and Other Glaciated
Northeast Pennsylvania. See Tiner (1989~) for region locatio~ks.
National Wetlands Inventory mapping has not
been completed in New York, but comparable statewide
wetland area statistics have been generated by
the New York State Wetlands Inventory, which was
conducted by the state's Department of Environmental
Conservation in the 1970's (Hardy and
Johnston 1975; Q'Connor and Cole 1989). Those
data have been used in this profde to estimate the
abundance of red maple swamps in New York.
Statewide wetland inventory statistics are currently
unavailable for New Hampshire and Maine.
In the six states for which statewide NWI statistics
are available, forested wetland constitutes
from 55% (Vermont) to 83% (Rhode Island) of all
palustrine wetland (Table 1.4). In New York, the
estimate is 48%, and in coastal Maine, 64%. Widoff
(1988) estimated an area of about 2 million hectares
of palustrine wetland in Maine as a whole, of
which 1.2 million (60%) are forested.
The broad-leaved deciduous subclass of forested
wetland predominates in all areas of the glaciated
Northeast except for the spruce-fir regions. In the
southern New England-northern New Jersey ma,
broad-leaved deciduous forested wetlands compose
fmm 60 to 77% of all palwtgine wetland Fable 1.4).
In the colder parts of the Northeast, particdarly in
northern New England and the Adirondacks, broadleaved
deciduous wetland forests decline in abun-
dance, while needle-leaved evergreen wetland forests
increase markedly. In Vermont, for example,
broad-leaved deciduous swamps constitute only
27% of all palustrine wetland; needle-leaved evergreen
swamps account for 24% of the total. According
to NWI statistics, the total area of broad-leaved
deciduous forested wetland ranges from 18,000 ha
in Rhode Island to 121,000 ha in Massachusetts
(Table 1.4). New York has at least 124,W ha
(O'Connor and Cole 1989).
Physiographic Variation in Wet land
The size and relative abundance of inland wetlands
(and red maple swamps) vary markedly from
one part of the glaciated Northeast to another, chiefly
as a result of differences in topographic relief, swcfxeial
geology, and related surface drainage. Wetlands are
especially abundant wherever togographic and geologic
conditions prevent water from freely ~ t s a ~
soils or flowing off the land surface. Ln central and
eastern Maine, where shallow soils ad a mllinrg,
bedrock-c0nfsoIIed Iandscape provide an abundance
of moisture at the surface year-round, weUands have
been esthat~d to cover 9-1F/o of the landscape
(Widoff 1988). In southeastern New England, broad
lowlands, high regional groundwater tables, and
generally congested surface &ahage also lead to a