The Chesapeake Bay supports an amazing variety of life. Deeper waters are home to many species of fish, shellfish, and, on occasion, visiting ocean fish and aquatic mammals. Vast meadows of submerged aquatic vegetation, great banks of clams and oysters, sizable populations of blue crabs, young fish not ready for the open water, migratory waterfowl, clouds of diatoms, dinoflagellates, and other plankton, and numerous species of fish, mammals, and birds make their homes in shallower Bay waters.

The coastal plain consists of beaches, saltwater and brackish marshes, freshwater swamps, a forests. The region straddles an environmental borderland marking the southernmost extent of many northern species and the most northerly limit of many southern plants and animals. Tidewater beaches support distinct communities of shellfish, insects, and migratory birds. Plants that are resistant to salt spray, including salt grass, saltmeadow cordgrass, and American holly provide food and shelter to a wide variety of insects, mammals, and birds and stabilize dunes and bluffs above the high tide mark, keeping them from eroding quickly into the Bay. Areas closest to the Bay are also home to lowlying salt marshes, which are flooded twice daily by tides. Plant communities dominated by saltmarsh cordgrass and other species able to withstand extended periods of immersion live in these areas. In contrast, areas of salt marsh that only get covered by water at high tide are dominated by salt meadow cordgrass and other less water tolerant species. Just inland, common reeds, white perch, common snapping turtles, northern water snakes, great blue herons and other waterfowl, rice rats, and raccoons are among the many plants and animals making their homes in tidewater swamps and other brackish water wetlands.

Moving inland, we find freshwater marshes and swamps in places such as Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp that are homes to bald cypress, red maple, green ash, sweet gum, loblolly pine, poison ivy, giant water bugs, north black racers, bullfrogs, eastern mud turtle, barred owls, wood ducks, marsh rabbits, Virginia opossums, muskrats, river otters, beavers, and many other species. Farther in, coastal plain uplands are populated by diverse mixed hardwood and softwood forests. Each community reflects variations in local weather, water, and soil conditions.

The Chesapeake Piedmont is also a transition zone where species most commonly found in southern softwood forests blend in with plants that flourish in more northerly mixed softwood-hardwood forests. Three types of environment may be found in this area. Well drained mesosere zones located on level and mildly sloping terrain cover 85 percent of all Piedmont lands. Dry xerosere eroded and hilltop environments comprise ten percent of the land area. The remaining five percent of Piedmont land is made up of wet bottomland hydrosere habitats.

White oaks, beeches, hickories, tulip trees, and, until decimated by blight, chestnuts, dominate mature mesosere forest communities. Red oaks prosper in more northerly parts of the region; black oaks tend to be more common in southern sections. American hornbeam, flowering dogwood, blueberries, shadbush, and mapleleaf viburnum live in lower forest canopies. A wide variety of insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals also make their homes in these forests.

Chestnut oak, red oak, flowering dogwood, dwarf chinquapin oak, and Virginia pine are the dominant trees in dry xerosere forests. Blackjack oak and, more rarely, arbor vitae, are found in extremely dry Piedmont barrenlands. Blueberries, mountain laurel, and a variety of shrubs and grass grow in upland xeric habitats. A relatively small number of animal species adapted to drier and harsher conditions make their homes in this zone.

Silver maple, sycamore, bitternut hickory, swamp white oak, hornbeam, box elder, hackberry, sweet gum, green ash, river birch, and, formerly, the American elm, dominate forests growing along the banks of Piedmont swamps and streams. Paw paw, poison ivy, wild grape, wild azalea, witch hazel, and spicebush thrive on the forest floors in this zone. In contrast to its other habitats, Piedmont wetlands support some of the largest communities of insects, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals in the Chesapeake region.