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Downeast Coast

Ecoregion in ME

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The Downeast Coast ecoregion includes an island-bay coastal type east of Penobscot Bay and a mostly cliffed coastal margin east of Machias Bay. Rocky headlands and islands are abundant with few isolated pocket beaches. Some gravel beaches and coarse-grained tidal flats occur. The region has very few large tidal marshes. Granitic plutons are common, with less resistent, low-grade metamorphic rock occurring in the deeply embayed areas. Fine and coarse-loamy, frigid Inceptisols and Spodosols are typical. For Maine coastal regions to the east of Penobscot Bay, most forests contain a large percentage of spruce and fir. The Downeast Coast has more fog and precipitation than other coastal regions, and the wet, cool, foggy climate supports these spruce-fir forests of a more northern character. The boreal features include rocky woodlands of patchy black spruce and heaths, as well as some boreal plant species that are otherwise restricted to alpine and subalpine areas of Maine, such as black crowberry, baked appleberry, and roseroot. Coastal raised peat bogs occur. There are also some areas of jack pine woodland, near its southern range limit, on the dry, rocky ridges of Mount Desert Island. The unique area around Acadia National Park also has some transitional features to mid- and south-coast flora, including areas of pitch pine and some oak woodlands. A variety of vegetation types and rare plants occur on Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak along the eastern coast of the United States. Tidal amplitudes of the Downeast Coast are great, and the offshore waters are nutritionally richer and cooler than those offshore of ecoregions 82f and 59f to the south.

— EPA

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