When people think of diversity, lush forests, and winding river systems the Amazon in South America comes to mind. The Amazon has been subject to many documentaries and conservation efforts, but what most people don’t know is America has its very own Amazon. One that rivals its counterpart and deserves just as much attention.
This second Amazon in question is hidden away in my home state of Alabama. I am talking about the Mobile River Basin. The basin starts at the top of the state and drains into the Gulf of Mexico. It is home to over 250 different rivers and creeks making it the richest river complex in all North America. It encompasses over 6 million acres of forest habitat.
This wide range of habitats allows great diversity. The freshwater habitats are home to many different species. So many that Alabama is the most biodiverse state for aquatic organisms. For example, the Mobile Basin is home to 350 different species of fish. That is approximately one-third of all fish species known in the United States. Just the Cahaba River, which resides in the Basin, has more species of fish in it than the entire state of California.
The diversity in aquatic ecosystems doesn’t stop with fish. The Basin is home to more crawfish species than anywhere else in the world. Currently, there are 97 different crawfish species found in the Mobile Basin. That means you can find nearly one-fourth of all the known crawfish species in the world just in Alabama. The only state to come even remotely close is Tennessee with 78 crawfish species, but a part of that is the border they share with the Mobile Basin. In terms of other aquatic invertebrates, Alabama beats all other states in freshwater mollusks and snails at 180 different species. 10% of all known freshwater mussels in the entire world.
All that diversity is great, but Alabama’s Amazon truly shines when it comes to freshwater turtles. In the many rivers hides 18 different species of turtles. You can find map turtles, musk turtles, snapping turtles, and pretty much any turtle you can imagine besides a sea turtle. Now 18 species may not seem impressive, but it doesn’t just beat all other states with that number it also beats any place in the entire world. That includes the Amazon and Nile River.
Plants succeed just as much there. The different habitats of swamps, bogs, forests, and valleys are home to many plant species that are endemic to Alabama. You can see miles of carnivorous pitcher plants in the bogs along the Basin with common ones being the sweet pitcher plant and the Alabama pitcher plant (Sarracenia rubra and Sarracenia alabamensis).
When it comes to trees Alabama is one of the most diverse states in species richness only rivaled by Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. There are hillsides in Alabama where you will find more oak species than other states even natively have. This is just a drop in the bucket because there are 4,000 different species of plants in the Basin. If you are interested in Alabama’s native flora this is a good website to see just how diverse it is.
The Alabama Amazon has something else in common with its southern counterpart. They both are on the cusp of collapse. Years of human interaction have devasted this ecosystem. Dams built on the riverways have broken species populations apart and drove them into extinction. Agricultural runoff pollutes into the streams causing some areas to become inhabitable.
The spread of industry has cleared thousands of acres of forests to make way for housing. As a result, more and more of the diversity in the Basin has started going extinct. Alabama might lead in diversity, but it also leads in extinction. Over half of all extinctions in the United States since the 1800s have been recorded in the Mobile River Basin. If it continues America’s hidden amazon could be gone before most people even knows it exists.
There is hope though, but it involves making systematic changes. The main one is simply making more people aware of the diversity that sits in our backyard. The river systems haven’t been destroyed because people purposely want them gone, but mainly because most people don’t realize just how extraordinary they are. If we can convey just how rich with life the area is, we might just be able to preserve it for generations to come. Some organizations to support in this effort are Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Mobile Baykeeper, Alabama Rivers Alliance, and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
