Hydrological and geomorphological impacts on riparian plant communities

Riparian vegetation is affected by both flood processes and the characteristics of landforms that are shaped by floods. In many instances, species occurrence can be linked directly to specific fluvial landforms. These spatial relationships are largely due to the role of floods in the differential de...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrological processes 2000-11, Vol.14 (16-17), p.2977-2990
Main Authors: Bendix, Jacob, Hupp, Cliff R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climatology
disturbance
diversity
flood impacts
Floods
Geomorphology
Landforms
Plants (botany)
riparian vegetation
scale
Vegetation
Watersheds
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Riparian vegetation is affected by both flood processes and the characteristics of landforms that are shaped by floods. In many instances, species occurrence can be linked directly to specific fluvial landforms. These spatial relationships are largely due to the role of floods in the differential destruction of vegetation, in the determination of substrate characteristics, and in the transport of propagules. Major floods may, depending on the climatic context, allow for the establishment of stands of vegetation, or restart processes of plant community change. Disturbance by floods can also affect biodiversity: species richness in some watersheds is greatest where steep valley floor gradients allow for high‐energy floods. The recognition and analysis of hydrogeomorphological influences on riparian vegetation are complicated by multiple scales of environmental interactions, by the covariance of some environmental variables, and by feedbacks between vegetation and flood regimes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0885-6087
1099-1085
DOI:10.1002/1099-1085(200011/12)14:16/17<2977::AID-HYP130>3.0.CO;2-4