91° 90° 89° 88° 87° 86° 85° 84° 83° 82° 81° 80° 79° 78° 77° 76°
75°
92° 91° 90° 89° 88° 87° 86° 85° 84° 83° 82° 81° 80° 79°
26°
27°
28°
29°
30°
31°
32°
33°
34°
35°
36°
37°
38°
39°
24°
25°
26°
27°
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29°
30°
31°
32°
33°
34°
35°
36°
37°
65
45
64
67
66
69
70
55
55
71
71
71
66
66
63
637272
54
39
73
73
73
73
35
65
74
75
40
37
75k
65e
68b
68c
68d
68a71g
71h
71f
67f
68d71j
67f
68d68e
67g
65i
67f
67h
45d
68f
67g
67h
67h
45a
67h
45b
65p
65a65a
65i
65b 65b 65a
65b
65b 65a65b
65f
65f
45b
45i
45a
45c
65c
65l45c
65p65l
63h
45c
63n
63h
65p
63n
65c
63h
65l 65l
45b63n
65l
63h
65p 63h
63n
65l
67g
67g67f
45a
67h
67h
45b
67f
67g
45c
45c
65p
65p
75f
65p
45d
75i
75i
65k65p
65h
75h
75i
75f
66e
66f
67g
67f
67g
67f
67h 67h
67h
68a
66d
68c
71g71e
71h
67i
71f
66d
74b
74b
65e
71i
74a73a
66g
66g
66g
66e
67i74a
66e67g
74a
75j
75j
75j
75j
65h
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75d
65f
75c
75c
75c
75c
75c
75b
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76a 76c
65p
66f
63b
63c63d
63e63n
65m
63d
63e
45f
63g65p
45c
45e
45b
45g
63c
63b
63n
65p63e
66d
66d
66c
45g
66m
66d
66k 66d
63n
63e66l
45g
65p
66i
66i
63b
66e63c
63n
66g
63h
63c
65p66j66l
65c
63b 63c63c
66g
63c
65l
63g
63g
66j
66j
45g
45a
45c 63h
65p
66i
66i
66i
66i
63c
65p
63c
65l63n
63c
66j 63n
63n
63c
63g
45f
63g
63g
63g
70b
65b
65b
65d
65p65p
75i
75i
65f
75a 75i
75k
75k
75k
71d
71k 70d
70h
70f
71d
70g
69d
71l
71c
71b
71a
71a72a
72c72h
68c
71g
69e
71e
72a
74b
73a
45f
65c
65c
65j
65a65b
45b
73d
73b 74a
65k
65d
65l
63h73b 73d
45h65k
73b 73d
65l
74a
73d
73d
65d65l
65d
65b
65k65r
65g
65g
65q
75f
65d73a
74c
74a65q
75e
65q
65f
75g
65o
73m
74a
75i
75i
65p
65p
65p
65p
65p
75a
75a
75i
75a
75a
75i
75a
75l
75l
75k
76b
76d
73k
73k
73b
Baton Rouge
Charleston
Columbia
Frankfort
Jackson
Montgomery
Nashville
Raleigh
Richmond
Tallahassee
Aiken
Albany
Asheville
Athens
AtlantaAugusta
Birmingham
Boone
Bowling Green
Camden
Charleston
Charlotte
Chattanooga
Cincinnati
Clarksville
Crossville
Dothan
Durham
Fayetteville
Wilmington
Gainesville
Georgetown
Greensboro
Greenville
Greenville
Greenville
Hattiesburg
Hopkinsville
Huntsville
Jacksonville
Knoxville
Lancaster
Lawrenceburg
LexingtonLouisville
Macon
McMinnville
Memphis
Miami
Mobile
Orangeburg
Orlando
Rome
Saluda
Savannah
Spartanburg
Tampa
Tupelo
Tuscaloosa
West Point
Winston-Salem
Norfolk
G u l f o f M e x i c o
A t l a n t i c O c e a n
20
20 10
0
0
40 40
40
80
80
120
SCALE 1:2 000 000
Albers Equal Area Projection
Level III BoundaryLevel IV Boundary State BoundaryCounty
Boundary
45 Piedmont45a Southern Inner Piedmont45b Southern Outer
Piedmont45c Carolina Slate Belt45d Talladega Upland45e Northern
Inner Piedmont45f Northern Outer Piedmont45g Triassic Basins45h
Pine Mountain Ridges45i Kings Mountain
63 Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain63b Chesapeake-Pamlico Lowlands
and Tidal Marshes63c Swamps and Peatlands63d Virginian Barrier
Islands and Coastal Marshes63e Mid-Atlantic Flatwoods63g Carolinian
Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes63h Carolina Flatwoods63n
Mid-Atlantic Floodplains and Low Terraces
65 Southeastern Plains65a Blackland Prairie65b
Flatwoods/Blackland Prairie Margins65c Sand Hills65d Southern Hilly
Gulf Coastal Plain65e Northern Hilly Gulf Coastal Plain65f Southern
Pine Plains and Hills65g Dougherty Plain65h Tifton Upland65i Fall
Line Hills65j Transition Hills65k Coastal Plain Red Uplands65l
Atlantic Southern Loam Plains65m Rolling Coastal Plain65o
Tallahassee Hills/Valdosta Limesink65p Southeastern Floodplains and
Low Terraces65q Buhrstone/Lime Hills65r Jackson Prairie
66 Blue Ridge66c New River Plateau66d Southern Crystalline
Ridges and Mountains66e Southern Sedimentary Ridges66f Limestone
Valleys and Coves66g Southern Metasedimentary Mountains66i High
Mountains66j Broad Basins66k Amphibolite Mountains66l Eastern Blue
Ridge Foothills66m Sauratown Mountains
67 Ridge and Valley67f Southern Limestone/Dolomite Valleys and
Low Rolling Hills67g Southern Shale Valleys67h Southern Sandstone
Ridges67i Southern Dissected Ridges and Knobs
68 Southwestern Appalachians68a Cumberland Plateau68b Sequatchie
Valley68c Plateau Escarpment68d Southern Table Plateaus68e
Dissected Plateau68f Shale Hills
69 Central Appalachians69d Dissected Appalachian Plateau69e
Cumberland Mountain Thrust Block
70 Western Allegheny Plateau70b Monongahela Transition Zone70d
Knobs-Lower Scioto Dissected Plateau70f Ohio/Kentucky Carboniferous
Plateau70g Northern Forested Plateau Escarpment70h Carter Hills
71 Interior Plateau71a Crawford-Mammoth Cave Uplands71b Mitchell
Plain71c Knobs-Norman Upland71d Outer Bluegrass71e Western
Pennyroyal Karst Plain71f Western Highland Rim71g Eastern Highland
Rim71h Outer Nashville Basin71i Inner Nashville Basin71j Little
Mountain71k Hills of the Bluegrass71l Inner Bluegrass
72 Interior River Lowland72a Wabash-Ohio Bottomlands72c Green
River-Southern Wabash Lowlands72h Caseyville Hills
73 Mississippi Alluvial Plain73a Northern Holocene Meander
Belts73b Northern Pleistocene Valley Trains73d Northern
Backswamps73k Southern Holocene Meander Belts73m Southern
Backswamps
74 Mississippi Valley Loess Plains74a Bluff Hills74b Loess
Plains74c Southern Rolling Plains
75 Southern Coastal Plain75a Gulf Coast Flatwoods75b
Southwestern Florida Flatwoods75c Central Florida Ridges and
Uplands75d Eastern Florida Flatwoods75e Okefenokee Plains75f Sea
Island Flatwoods75g Okefenokee Swamps75h Bacon Terraces75i
Floodplains and Low Terraces75j Sea Islands/Coastal Marsh75k Gulf
Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes75l Big Bend Coastal Marsh
76 Southern Florida Coastal Plain76a Everglades76b Big
Cypress76c Miami Ridge/Atlantic Coastal Strip76d Southern Coast and
Islands
Map Source: USEPA, 2002
2 77
1
1
4
9
3
1117
78
50
18 47
535217
5756 62
13
67
67
19
6
5
25
6244
21
5754
7
64
55 70
69
63
27
27
72
20 40
40
1
4526
71
65
28
2239
6668
8
73
73
74
63
29
6 38
25
3736
35
23
32
75
3075
34
76
49
46
48
5051
23
24
79
33
31
1015 41
58
42
43
5983
58
60
42
17
82
58
84
65
66
61
16
81
12
14
80
1 Coast Range 2 Puget Lowland 3 Willamette Valley 4 Cascades 5
Sierra Nevada 6 Southern and Central California Chaparral and Oak
Woodlands 7 Central California Valley 8 Southern California
Mountains 9 Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills10 Columbia
Plateau11 Blue Mountains12 Snake River Plain13 Central Basin and
Range14 Mojave Basin and Range15 Northern Rockies16 Idaho
Batholith17 Middle Rockies18 Wyoming Basin19 Wasatch and Uinta
Mountains20 Colorado Plateaus21 Southern Rockies22 Arizona/New
Mexico Plateau23 Arizona/New Mexico Mountains24 Chihuahuan
Deserts25 High Plains26 Southwestern Tablelands27 Central Great
Plains28 Flint Hills
29 Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains30 Edwards Plateau31 Southern
Texas Plains32 Texas Blackland Prairies33 East Central Texas
Plains34 Western Gulf Coastal Plain35 South Central Plains36
Ouachita Mountains37 Arkansas Valley38 Boston Mountains39 Ozark
Highlands40 Central Irregular Plains41 Canadian Rockies42
Northwestern Glaciated Plains43 Northwestern Great Plains44
Nebraska Sand Hills45 Piedmont46 Northern Glaciated Plains47
Western Corn Belt Plains48 Lake Agassiz Plain49 Northern Minnesota
Wetlands50 Northern Lakes and Forests51 North Central Hardwood
Forests52 Driftless Area53 Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains54
Central Corn Belt Plains55 Eastern Corn Belt Plains56 Southern
Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains
57 Huron/Erie Lake Plains58 Northeastern Highlands59
Northeastern Coastal Zone60 Northern Appalachian Plateau and
Uplands61 Erie Drift Plain62 North Central Appalachians63 Middle
Atlantic Coastal Plain64 Northern Piedmont65 Southeastern Plains66
Blue Ridge67 Ridge and Valley68 Southwestern Appalachians69 Central
Appalachians70 Western Allegheny Plateau71 Interior Plateau72
Interior River Valleys and Hills73 Mississippi Alluvial Plain74
Mississippi Valley Loess Plains75 Southern Coastal Plain76 Southern
Florida Coastal Plain77 North Cascades78 Klamath Mountains79
Madrean Archipelago80 Northern Basin and Range81 Sonoran Basin and
Range82 Laurentian Plains and Hills83 Eastern Great Lakes and
Hudson Lowlands84 Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens
Level III Ecoregions of the Conterminous United States
Status of EcoregionRevision and Subdivision
Projects as of December 2004
CompleteDraftIn progressPlanned
LEVEL II
6.16.1
7.1
LEVEL I
ECOLOGICAL REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA
6
6
2
The names and identification numbers for level I and II
ecological regions are given in CEC 1997.
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 environmental
resource management. 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
many federal and state resource management agencies. This map
depicts revisions and subdivisions of ecoregions, compiled
originally at a relatively small scale (USEPA 2003, Omernik 1987).
Compilation of this map, performed at the larger 1:250,000-scale,
is part of several collaborative projects primarily between the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Health and
Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS), U.S. EPA Region IV, and state environmental resource
agencies (Chapman et al. 2004, Griffith et al. 1994, 1998, 2001,
2002, Woods et al. 2002). Collaboration and consultation also
occurred with other state and federal agencies, including the U.S.
Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey, in an effort to obtain
consensus regarding alignments of ecological regions.
The approach used to compile this map is based on the premise
that ecological regions can be identified through the analysis of
the patterns and the composition of biotic and abiotic phenomena
that affect or reflect differences in ecosystem quality and
integrity. These phenomena include geology, physiography,
vegetation, climate, soils, land use, wildlife, and 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 1997). At Level III, the continental
United States contains 104 regions and the conterminous U.S. has 84
ecoregions (U.S. EPA 2003). Level IV is a further subdivision of
the Level III ecoregions. Explanation of the methods used to define
the ecoregions are given in Griffith et al. (1994, 1997, 2001),
Omernik (1995, 2000), and Gallant et al. (1989).
Regional collaborative projects such as these state efforts,
where the goal is to reach consensus among resource management
agencies, comprise a step in the direction of reaching the
objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding for developing a
common framework of ecological regions (McMahon et al. 2001). A
common spatial framework would allow integrated ecosystem-type
resource management across agencies having different
responsibilities and interests for the same geographic areas.
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. Collaborative projects
at the state and regional level, where some agreement has been
reached among multiple resource management agencies, are a step
toward attaining consensus and consistency in ecoregion frameworks
for the entire nation.
The purpose of this map of Level III and IV Ecoregions of EPA
Region 4 is to: 1) highlight the current status and progress of
ecoregion projects in the Southeast; 2) illustrate the hierarchical
nature of the ecoregions; and 3) promote discussion and debate
about the location of boundaries, level of consistency from state
to state, and areas in need of revision. Some states, such as
Florida, that had ecoregions delineated many years ago, are in need
of further revisions to be consistent with more recent state
projects in Region 4 and other parts of the U.S. Comments and
suggestions should be addressed to Glenn Griffith, Dynamac Inc.,
c/o U.S. EPA, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, (541)
754-4465, email: [email protected]., or to James Omernik,
USGS, c/o U.S. EPA - NHEERL, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR
97333, (541) 754-4458, email: [email protected].
Literature Cited:
Bailey, R.G., P.E. Avers, T. King, and W.H. McNab (eds.). 1994.
Ecoregions and subregions of the United States (map) (supplementary
table of map unit descriptions compiled and edited by W.H. McNab,
and R.G. Bailey). U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service,
Washington, D.C., scale 1:7,500,000.
Chapman, S.S., G.E. Griffith, J.M. Omernik, J.A. Comstock, M.C.
Beiser, and D. Johnson. 2004. Ecoregions of Mississippi. (2 sided
color poster with map, descriptive text, summary tables, and
photographs). U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. Scale
1:1,000,000.
Commission for Environmental Cooperation. 1997. Ecological
regions of North America: toward a common perspective. Commission
for Environmental Cooperation, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 71p.
Gallant, A.L., T.R. Whittier, D.P. Larsen, J.M. Omernik, and
R.M. Hughes. 1989. Regionalization as a tool for managing
environmental resources. EPA/600/3-89/060. U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis,
OR. 152p.
Griffith, G.E., J.M. Omernik, C.M. Rohm, and S.M. Pierson. 1994.
Florida regionalization project. EPA/600/Q-95-002. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Research Laboratory,
Corvallis, OR. 83p.
Griffith, G.E, J.M. Omernik, T.F. Wilton, and S.M. Pierson.
1994. Ecoregions and subregions of Iowa: A framework for water
quality assessment and management. The Journal of the Iowa Academy
of Sciences 101(1):5-13.
Griffith, G.E., J.M. Omernik, and S.H. Azevedo. 1997. Ecoregions
of Tennessee. EPA/600/R-97/022. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research
Laboratory, Corvallis, OR. 51p.
Griffith, G.E., J.M. Omernik, and S.H. Azevedo. 1998. Ecoregions
of Tennessee. (2 sided color poster with map, descriptive text,
summary tables, and photographs). U.S. Geological Survey, Reston,
VA. Scale 1:940,000.
Griffith, G.E., J.M. Omernik, J.A. Comstock, and T. Foster.
2001. Ecoregions Georgia. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory,
Corvallis, OR. 48p.
Griffith, G.E., J.M. Omernik, J.A. Comstock, S. Lawrence, G.
Martin, A. Goddard, V.J. Hulcher, and T. Foster. 2001. Ecoregions
of Alabama and Georgia. (2 sided color poster with map, descriptive
text, summary tables, and photographs). U.S. Geological Survey,
Reston, VA. Scale 1:1,700,000.
Griffith, G.E., J.M. Omernik, J.A. Comstock, M.P. Shafale, W.H.
McNab, D.R. Lenat, J.B. Glover, and V.B. Shelburne. 2002.
Ecoregions of North Carolina and South Carolina. (2 sided color
poster with map, descriptive text, summary tables, and
photographs). U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. Scale
1:1,500,000.
McMahon, G., S.M. Gregonis, S.W. Waltman, J.M. Omernik, T.D.
Thorson, J.A. Freeouf, A.H. Rorick, and J.E. Keys. 2001. Developing
a spatial framework of common ecological regions for the
conterminous United States. Environmental Management
28(3):293-316.
Omernik, J.M. 1987. Ecoregions of the conterminous United
States. Map Supplement (scale 1:7,500,000). Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 77(1):118-125.
Omernik, J.M. 1995. Ecoregions: A spatial framework for
environmental management. In: Biological Assessment and Criteria:
Tools for Water Resource Planning and Decision Making. W.S. Davis
and T.P. Simon (eds.). Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL. pp.
49-62.
Omernik, J.M., S.S. Chapman, R.A. Lillie, and R.T. Dumke. 2000.
Ecoregions of Wisconsin. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of
Science, Arts and Letters 88(2000):77-103.
U.S. Department of Agriculture-Soil Conservation Service. 1981.
Land resource regions and major land resource areas of the United
States. Agriculture Handbook 296, 156 p.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2003. Level III Ecoregions
of the Continental United States, Map M-1 (revision of Omernik,
1987). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and
Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Corvallis, OR
Woods, A.J., J.M. Omernik, W.H. Martin, G.J. Pond, W.M. Andrews,
S.M. Call, J.A. Comstock, and D.D. Taylor. 2002. Ecoregions of
Kentucky. (2 sided color poster with map, descriptive text, summary
tables, and photographs). U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. Scale
1:1,000,000.
reg4_eco_ggDec04.ai 12/15/2004
Level III and IV Ecoregions of EPA Region 4
