Fire and flood expand the floodplain shifting habitat mosaic concept

Kleindl, William; Rains, Mark C.; Marshall, Lucy; Hauer, F. Richard

doi:10.1086/684016

Cited by 32 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…, Kleindl et al. ). Besides the dams, human activities along the Elwha River have altered fire frequency (due to suppression efforts), large ungulate population size and behavior (due to predator control), and abundance of large conifers and woody debris (due to selective timber extraction), each with potential effects on riparian forest age structure and species composition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fire can be a driver of the shifting habitat mosaic in some riparian ecosystems (Kleindl et al. ). Fewer and smaller recent fires on the Elwha River may have resulted in older forest age structures and later‐successional species composition along all three river segments compared to historical conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our work was aimed at relating changes in riparian forests to fluvial dynamism and hydrogeomorphic changes associated with dams. However, differences in numerous environmental factors, including climate, soils, fire, herbivory, and land management, also may have affected successional trajectories, species composition, and the character of the shifting habitat mosaic along the Elwha River (Mouw et al 2013, Kleindl et al 2015. Besides the dams, human activities along the Elwha River have altered fire frequency (due to suppression efforts), large ungulate population size and behavior (due to predator control), and abundance of large conifers and woody debris (due to selective timber extraction), each with potential effects on riparian forest age structure and species composition.…”

Section: Other Factors Affecting Riparian Forest Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fire suppression since the 1920s has reduced fire frequency and area burned along the Elwha River, although a period when large fires were rare also occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries (Wendel and Zabowski 2010). Fire can be a driver of the shifting habitat mosaic in some riparian ecosystems (Kleindl et al 2015). Fewer and smaller recent fires on the Elwha River may have resulted in older forest age structures and later-successional species composition along all three river segments compared to historical conditions.…”

Section: Other Factors Affecting Riparian Forest Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of dams and geomorphic context on riparian forests of the Elwha River, Washington

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Understanding how dams affect the shifting habitat mosaic of river bottomlands is key for protecting the many ecological functions and related goods and services that riparian forests provide and for informing approaches to riparian ecosystem restoration. We examined the downstream effects of two large dams on patterns of forest composition, structure, and dynamics within different geomorphic contexts and compared them to upstream reference conditions along the Elwha River, Washington, USA. Patterns of riparian vegetation in river segments downstream of the dams were driven largely by channel and bottomland geomorphic responses to a dramatically reduced sediment supply. The river segment upstream of both dams was the most geomorphically dynamic, whereas the segment between the dams was the least dynamic due to substantial channel armoring, and the segment downstream of both dams was intermediate due to some local sediment supply. These geomorphic differences were linked to altered characteristics of the shifting habitat mosaic, including older forest age structure and fewer young Populus balsamifera subsp. trichocarpa stands in the relatively static segment between the dams compared to more extensive early-successional forests (dominated by Alnus rubra and Salix spp.) and pioneer seedling recruitment upstream of the dams. Species composition of later-successional forest communities varied among river segments as well, with greater Pseudotsuga menziesii and Tsuga heterophylla abundance upstream of both dams, Acer spp. abundance between the dams, and P. balsamifera subsp. trichocarpa and Thuja plicata abundance below both dams. Riparian forest responses to the recent removal of the two dams on the Elwha River will depend largely on channel and geomorphic adjustments to the release, transport, and deposition of the large volume of sediment formerly stored in the reservoirs, together with changes in large wood dynamics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Other Factors Affecting Riparian Forest Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Other Factors Affecting Riparian Forest Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of dams and geomorphic context on riparian forests of the Elwha River, Washington

et al. 2016

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“…The methodology of Kleindl et al (2015) was adapted to characterize the SHM in the wetlands of the EPABG. The focus of this work is the river-floodplain system and wetlands dynamics in the corridor between two major wetland areas, Banhado Grande and Pachecos, considering an 11-meter quota.…”

Section: Characterization Of the Shifting Habitat Mosaicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting habitat mosaic: identification and mapping

2019

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The Shifting Habitat Mosaic refers to temporal changes in the spatial pattern of habitats, through the flood and dry pulses. This work mapped the dynamics of a Shifting Mosaic associated with the flood and dry pulses in the Environmental Protection Area of the Banhado Grande (EPABG). The research was divided into four stages: i) acquisition of satellite images; ii) obtaining rainfall river basin data from the Gravataí River; iii) identification of the flood and dry pulses; and iv) mapping of the Shifting Mosaic in the wetlands of the EPABG. In large swaths of flooding, a shifting connectivity is established between the AUs of EPABG, providing several interactions among these wetlands, such as nutrient exchange, sediments and living organisms. It was found that in periods where the accumulation of precipitation in the last 30 days is greater than 200 mm, we have the presence of predominantly aquatic mosaic with the presence of predominantly aquatic animals and vegetation; In periods where the cumulative precipitation in the 30 days is less than 200 mm, a terrestrial mosaic predominates, with increase of ciliary vegetation.

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Quantifying floodplain heterogeneity with field observation, remote sensing, and landscape ecology: Methods and metrics

Iskin

Wohl

2023

River Research & Apps

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Floodplains provide numerous ecosystem services that depend on the spatial heterogeneity, or patchiness, of the floodplain. Direct and indirect human alterations of rivers can reduce floodplain heterogeneity and function, but relatively little is known of patterns of floodplain heterogeneity in natural, fully functional floodplains. We quantify floodplain heterogeneity at four sites in the United States with the objectives of (i) developing a method of combining field measurements and remote sensing data products to calculate integrative landscape-scale metrics of floodplain spatial heterogeneity and (ii) demonstrating which metrics from landscape ecology are likely to be useful for identifying qualities of natural floodplains, differentiating floodplains, and inferring processes, based on a case study of three prairie floodplains and one beaver-modified floodplain in the continental United States. We developed a new unsupervised classification workflow that combines field data, topography, and Sentinel-2A imagery to create classified floodplains for all four field sites that could be used to calculate heterogeneity metrics.We identified six heterogeneity metrics for characterizing natural floodplain heterogeneity: aggregation index, interspersion and juxtaposition index, largest patch index, patch density, percentage of like adjacencies, and Shannon's evenness index, and these metrics capture both intermetric (variation in spatial heterogeneity between the floodplains) and intrametric variation (variation in the patterns of the metrics). Results show that natural floodplains have high evenness and interspersion and juxtaposition of classes, and we attribute this to natural flow and sediment regimes driving channel migration, erosion, deposition, vegetation succession, and active beaver modifications. Colorado floodplains show higher aggregation and lower fragmentation than the Oklahoma floodplain. We attribute this to the greater incision and lower hydrologic variability at the Oklahoma site.

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Fire and flood expand the floodplain shifting habitat mosaic concept

Cited by 32 publications

References 68 publications

Effects of dams and geomorphic context on riparian forests of the Elwha River, Washington

Effects of dams and geomorphic context on riparian forests of the Elwha River, Washington

Shifting habitat mosaic: identification and mapping

Quantifying floodplain heterogeneity with field observation, remote sensing, and landscape ecology: Methods and metrics

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