The Golden sedge Potential Habitat dataset is a polygon layer depicting high, moderate and low potential habitat locations for Golden sedge in NC counties that have a USFWS "current" status listing.

Golden sedge(Carex lutes) a very rare endemic of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, grows in sandy soils overlying calcareous deposits of coquina limestone, where the soil pH, typically between 5.5 and 7.2, is unusually high for this region. The perennial prefers the ecotone between the pine savanna and adjacent wet hardwood or hardwood/conifer forest. Most plants occur in the partially shaded savanna/swamp where occasional to frequent fires favor an herbaceous ground layer and suppress shrub dominance. Soils supporting the species are very wet to periodically shallowly inundated. Other occurrences may occur on disturbed areas such as roadside and drainage ditches or power line rights-of-way, where mowing and/or very wet conditions suppress woody plants. Poorly viable occurrences may occur in significantly disturbed areas where ditching activities that lower the water table and/or some evidence of fire suppression threatens the species. USFWS Critical habitat for golden sedge is found in eight separate units totaling approximately 202 acres in Onslow and Pender Counties.

The three levels are: Low, Moderate, and High Probability of Potential Habitat (based on similarity of environmental conditions to those found at known occurrence locations). These levels represent the fact that given limited knowledge of species biology, continuously changing environments, and potential for gaps and error in both species and environment data, a model prediction dependent on remotely-sensed data can never predict species occurrence or habitat with absolute accuracy and precision. Thus, “Low” probability habitat represents regions and sites where biologists would be very surprised to find this species and its habitat (occurrence here should be extremely rare). In “High” probability habitat, biologists expect to frequently encounter areas that look like potential habitat based on visible environmental and vegetation community characteristics. The thresholds for this species are: Low-Moderate (0.12) and ModerateHigh (0.32).

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Datasets developed under Project ATLAS do not replace any NRTR work for future projects and may not be used as a replacement for site visits / field surveys by qualified professionals and hence should be used only as a supporting platform for decision making. Use of this dataset for project scoping or screening is merely pre-decisional.