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(Statewide)
The cabbage palms and alligators of Baldhead Island and the spruce-fur forests and red squirrels on North Carolina's highest peaks (43 of which are over 6,000 feet in altitude) have something in common: both of these groups of plants and animals mark ecological boundaries. North Carolina is the northern border for cabbage palms, alligators and red-cockaded woodpeckers, and the southern extension of spruce-fur forests, red squirrels, and numerous birds including the giant tundra swan. The long list of both plants and animals with northern or southern ranges ending in North Carolina makes our state a place of unique ecological diversity.
In this episode, Exploring North Carolina will attempt to answer the question, why does so much natural diversity occur in the Carolinas and Virginia? ENC will look at the many factors affecting our climate, including ocean currents, elevation differences, placement on the globe (as the Earth's axis tilts), and rainfall. This episode will highlight climate variations in the region (ranging from sub-tropical to sub-arctic) and its effect on plant and animals like no other ever offered on television.
ENC will look at many "north/south border" plants and creatures that are either permanent or seasonal residents. We will also examine living things such as the Venus' Fly-trap, which are endemic (found only in this region). With experts from coastal beaches to the highest mountains, ENC viewers will visit with birds, fish, mammals, and insects living on their northern or southern ecological boundary. Many of these "border species," including two salamanders from North Carolina, reach over two feet in length. Viewers will visit plant communities featuring trees, flowers and other plants that will demonstrate that North Carolina is truly eastern America's natural boundary.
Finally, since this region is the North/South border for many living organisms, will North Carolina (and portions of her sister states to the north and south) be the "litmus state" where affects of global warming, or cooling, can be more readily observed? When, global climate changes occur, whether caused by the hand of humans or nature, North Carolina will be an early warning zone. Scientists will most likely see changes in our "border" plant and animal communities before they occur elsewhere. |
