Woody Vegetation of Floodplains and Swamps

Leuschner, Christoph; Ellenberg, Heinz

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43042-3_9

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Riparian vegetation growing on floodplains greatly affects the geomorphic functioning of river systems, for example, by increasing bank stability, mediating large wood dynamics during floods, and favouring overbank sediment deposition (Andreoli et al, 2020; Mao et al, 2020; Wohl et al, 2015). Despite these important roles, riparian areas of Alpine rivers have been strongly degraded by human activities (Comiti, 2012; González et al, 2015; Leuschner & Ellenberg, 2017), particularly since the 1950s–1960s. Gravel mining, erosion control works, and hydropower dams have led to widespread riverbed incision (Comiti & Scorpio, 2019), which in turn resulted in less frequent flood disturbances of the riparian ecosystems, as well as a lowering of riparian groundwater levels (Gurnell et al, 2016; Rinaldi et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do geomorphic characteristics affect the source of tree water uptake in restored river floodplains?

et al. 2022

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Alpine rivers and their floodplains have been highly modified by human activities during the last decades. River restoration projects aim to counteract these negative impacts and to restore ecosystem services provided by riparian habitats. We studied two recently restored river sites in the Ahr/Aurino and Mareit/Mareta Rivers (Italian Alps) to investigate how geomorphic conditions, soil moisture, and groundwater level affect the source of water used by grey alder (Alnus incana (L.) Moench). We compared the isotopic composition (δ2H) of tree sap at different locations (low terraces formed during bed incision and recent floodplains formed after restoration) with that of potential water sources, that is, groundwater, soil water, and rainfall. The monthly variation in the isotopic composition of rainfall was reflected in both shallow and deeper soil water, as well as in the isotopic composition of sap. The redistribution of precipitation and groundwater in the soil differed between the post‐restoration floodplain sites and the post‐incision terraces, leading to a different relation between the sap water, soil water, and groundwater isotopic composition. The results show that transpiration of A. incana trees growing on recent floodplains is mostly supported by stream‐fed soil water, whereas trees growing on terraces mainly use precipitation‐fed soil water. These marked, morphology‐related differences in the source of transpiration water of grey alder highlight how channel degradation still affects the ecohydrological processes in Alpine fluvial corridors. Nonetheless, large restoration interventions—in terms of channel widening—can enable the self‐formation of new floodplain areas characterized by stream water‐fed riparian ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do geomorphic characteristics affect the source of tree water uptake in restored river floodplains?

et al. 2022

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“…The high tree species richness of floodplain forests (Ward et al, 1999) makes them ideally suited for comparative studies of tree species reactions to consecutive droughts as they are one of the few systems where coexisting mature trees spanning an entire gradient of hydraulic behaviours can be found. Floodplain forests rank among the most rapidly disappearing ecosystems due to land conversion and drainage (Leuschner & Ellenberg, 2017;Mikac et al, 2018) and novel climatic conditions-like prolonged droughts-may amplify this trend through changing the hydrological regimes on which these forests depend. For instance, sinking groundwater levels may increase tree growth sensitivity to drought and susceptibility to drought-induced dieback (Mikac et al, 2018;Skiadaresis et al, 2019) and this might bring these forests, which are among the most dynamic, productive and diverse Central European habitats (Kowalska et al, 2020;Tockner & Stanford, 2002), closer to a tipping point.…”

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Cumulative growth and stress responses to the 2018–2019 drought in a European floodplain forest

Schnabel

Purrucker

Schmitt

et al. 2021

Global Change Biology

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The frequency and intensity of droughts and corresponding surges of forest dieback events around the globe are projected to increase in the 21st century (Allen et al., 2010;IPCC, 2014). This critically endangers the world's forests and the variety of ecosystem services they sustain, such as their potential to act as carbon sink (Anderegg et al., 2020) and as a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation (Griscom et al., 2017). Recent drought events, moreover, belong to a new category, so called 'hotter droughts', where low precipitation coincides with heat waves, which creates a positive feedback loop between soil water depletion through evapotranspiration and increased surface temperatures through reduced cooling by latent heat production (Allen et al., 2015;Buras et al., 2020). In 2018-2019, Central Europe was hit by two consecutive and hotter drought events, a phenomenon unprecedented at least in the last 250 years but likely to occur more frequently with intensifying climate change (Hari et al., 2020). The 2018 hotter drought alone had

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Woody Vegetation of Floodplains and Swamps

Cited by 2 publications

References 95 publications

How do geomorphic characteristics affect the source of tree water uptake in restored river floodplains?

How do geomorphic characteristics affect the source of tree water uptake in restored river floodplains?

Cumulative growth and stress responses to the 2018–2019 drought in a European floodplain forest

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