Passive restoration of vegetation on gravel/sand bars in the city: a case study in Prague, Czech Republic

Dostálek, Jiří; Frantík, Tomáš; Pavlů, Lenka

doi:10.1007/s11252-022-01225-8

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 65 publications

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“…Instead of being dominated by quick-dispersing annual plant species as would be predicted and sometimes realized in the early stages of succession (Janssen et al 2022;Noon 1996;van der Valk 1981), the proportion of annual species in the flora of restored reaches was similar to or lower than that seen in unrestored reaches. Our results are similar to those of other studies in created or restored wetlands (DeBerry and Perry 2004;Reinartz and Warne 1993) and colonization of in-stream gravel bars (Dostálek et al 2022) that found early herbaceous colonizers are often perennial species. In these heavily disturbed settings, revegetation of newly created substrate may be a random process, highlighting the importance of seed dispersal into these sites from a variety of pathways (DeBerry and Perry 2012).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The Effects of Legacy Sediment Removal and Floodplain Reconnection on Riparian Plant Communities

Baltzer,

Moore,

Salice

et al. 2024

Wetlands

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Stream restoration includes a number of different approaches intended to reduce sediment and nutrient export. Legacy sediment removal (LSR) and floodplain reconnection (FR) involve removing anthropogenically derived sediment accumulated in valley bottoms to reconnect incised streams to their floodplains. These projects also present an opportunity to create high-quality riparian and wetland plant communities and provide information about the early stages of wetland vegetation development and succession. We surveyed vegetation immediately after restoration at three sites and at three additional sites 1–3 years post-restoration to determine how LSR/FR affects riparian plant communities. Restoration increased the prevalence of hydrophytic herbaceous species at all sites, suggesting these projects successfully reconnected the stream to the floodplain. Pronounced decreases in woody basal area and stem density likely also influenced an increase in native and graminoid species after restoration. Only 16% of the indicator species identified for restored reaches were planted as part of the restoration, suggesting the local seed bank and other seed sources may be important for vegetation recovery and preservation of regional beta diversity. Although vegetation quality increased after restoration in reaches with initially low-quality herbaceous vegetation, vegetation quality did not improve or decreased after restoration in reaches with higher-quality vegetation before restoration. The practice of LSR/FR has the potential to improve the quality of some riparian vegetation communities, but the preservation of high-quality forested areas, even if they are atop legacy sediment terraces, should be considered, particularly if reductions in nutrient export do not offset losses in tree canopy.

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