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Influence of Flooding and Landform Properties on Riparian Plant Communities in an Old-Growth Northern Hardwood Watershed

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Abstract

In most forested landscapes, the organization of plant communities across stream valleys is thought to be regulated by a complex set of interactions including flooding, landform properties, and vegetation. However, few studies have directly examined the relative influence of frequent and infrequent flooding, as well as landform properties, on riparian plant community organization in moderately or deeply entrenched stream valleys where the magnitude and extent of frequent flooding may be constrained by local stream valley characteristics. Our approach, which we applied in an old-growth northern hardwood watershed, integrated detailed plant community surveys with a GIS and watershed surface hydrology model that allowed us to model water surface elevation associated with different flood magnitudes and recurrence intervals for specific locations across the old-growth watershed. Our results show that irrespective of stream valley geomorphology, the ground-flora exhibits a high rate of species replacement across the stream valley at low elevations, which are the most susceptible to frequent and more extreme infrequent flooding. However, over 50 % of the major shifts in ground-flora community composition and almost all of the shifts in overstory composition occur beyond the direct influence of flooding, especially in the high-gradient moderately and deeply entrenched stream valleys. In these areas, landform boundaries and changes in the environmental properties associated with these boundaries appear to be the primary factors controlling changes in vegetation across the stream valley.

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Acknowledgments

The USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station, School of Forestry and Wood Products, Michigan Technological University, and Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at The Ohio State University provided support for this study. We thank Anita Risch, Anitra Bennett, and Michelle Jarvi for assistance with data collection. Additionally, we appreciate the support of Jiquan Chen, Peg Gale, Robert Naiman, and two anonymous referees who reviewed earlier versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA

    P. Charles Goebel

  2. College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho, P.O. Box 441142, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA

    Kurt S. Pregitzer

  3. Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 1831 Highway 169 East, Grand Rapids, MN, 55744, USA

    Brian J. Palik

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  1. P. Charles Goebel
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  2. Kurt S. Pregitzer
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Correspondence to P. Charles Goebel.

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Goebel, P.C., Pregitzer, K.S. & Palik, B.J. Influence of Flooding and Landform Properties on Riparian Plant Communities in an Old-Growth Northern Hardwood Watershed. Wetlands 32, 679–691 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-012-0300-1

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