White Oak River

The White Oak River runs through a variety of habitats including swamps, hardwood forests, and salt marsh flats. A wide variety of wildlife can be found in and around the river and its smaller river feeders. These creeks provide safe havens for many small animals such as, fish, snakes, frogs and many more animal as well as plant life. Along the river, there are reports of bald cypress trees over one thousand years of age. Many alligators can be found along the river.

In 2016, scientists from Uppsala University reported a new class of archaean microbes with rare chemosynthetic properties, Hadesarchaea, living in hot, low-oxygen environments near White Oak River.^[1][2] In the same year, a University of Texas-led team discovered a new archaen phylum, Thorarchaeota, from samples taken from the White Oak River estuary.^[3]

• List of North Carolina rivers