page_title: Mississippi Alluvial Plain (ecoregion)
section_title: Arkansas/Ouachita River Holocene Meander Belts (73h)
hierarchical_section_title: Mississippi Alluvial Plain (ecoregion) / Level IV ecoregions / Arkansas/Ouachita River Holocene Meander Belts (73h)
caption_attribution_description: Bayou Bartholomew near Pine Bluff, AR
context_page_description: The Mississippi Alluvial Plain is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency in seven U.S. states, though predominantly in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It parallels the Mississippi River from the Midwestern United States to the Gulf of Mexico.
  The Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregion has been subdivided into fifteen Level IV ecoregions.
context_section_description: The Arkansas/Ouachita River Holocene Meander Belts ecoregion is a flat to nearly flat floodplain containing the meander belts of the present and past courses of the lower Arkansas River and Ouachita Rivers. Point bars, natural levees, swales, and abandoned channels marked by meander scars and oxbow lakes are common and characteristic. Soils on natural levees are more coarse-textured, well-drained, and higher than those on levee back slopes and point bars. Soils grade to poorly-drained clays in abandoned channels and swales. Overall, soils have less organic matter than in the Northern Holocene Meander Belts (73a). Bayou Bartholomew inhabits the longest section of abandoned channels. It flows against the edge of the South Central Plains, receives drainage from it, and has sufficient habitat diversity to be one of the most species-rich streams in North America. Bayou Bartholomew supports over half of all known mussel species found in Louisiana. Within an abandoned course, bald cypress and/or water tupelo typically grow in the modern stream channel adjacent to a strip of wet bottomland hardwood forest dominated by overcup oak and water hickory. The remainder of the native forest has largely been cleared and drained for cropland and pastureland. Corn, cotton, and soybeans are the main crops.
caption: Bayou Bartholomew near Pine Bluff, Arkansas
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