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Dams, Floodplain Land Use, and Riparian Forest Conservation in the Semiarid Upper Colorado River Basin, USA

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Abstract

Land and water resource development can independently eliminate riparian plant communities, including Fremont cottonwood forest (CF), a major contributor to ecosystem structure and functioning in semiarid portions of the American Southwest. We tested whether floodplain development was linked to river regulation in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) by relating the extent of five developed land-cover categories as well as CF and other natural vegetation to catchment reservoir capacity, changes in total annual and annual peak discharge, and overall level of mainstem hydrologic alteration (small, moderate, or large) in 26 fourth-order subbasins. We also asked whether CF appeared to be in jeopardy at a regional level. We classified 51% of the 57,000 ha of alluvial floodplain examined along >2600 km of mainstem rivers as CF and 36% as developed. The proportion developed was unrelated to the level of mainstem hydrologic alteration. The proportion classified as CF was also independent of the level of hydrologic alteration, a result we attribute to confounding effects from development, the presence of time lags, and contrasting effects from flow alteration in different subbasins. Most CF (68% by area) had a sparse canopy (≤5% cover), and stands with >50% canopy cover occupied <1% of the floodplain in 15 subbasins. We suggest that CF extent in the UCRB will decline markedly in the future, when the old trees on floodplains now disconnected from the river die and large areas change from CF to non-CF categories. Attention at a basinwide scale to the multiple factors affecting cottonwood patch dynamics is needed to assure conservation of these riparian forests.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the US Geological Survey and the US Bureau of Reclamation. We thank Dave Eckhardt of the USBR’s Technical Service Center for providing DOQQs and logistical help and Pat Shafroth, Mark Nelson, and three anonymous reviewers for comments that helped us improve the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Krista Northcott

    Present address: SWCA Environmental Consultants, 295 Interlocken Boulevard, Suite 300, Broomfield, CO, 80021, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. United States Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, c/o USBR, 86-68220, P.O. Box 25007, Denver, CO, 80225, USA

    Douglas C. Andersen

  2. Department of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    David J. Cooper & Krista Northcott

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  1. Douglas C. Andersen
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Correspondence to Douglas C. Andersen.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Appendix 1 Sources and datasets for historic (predevelopment) mean total annual discharge from and historic mean peak flow of the mainstem in each of the 26 subbasins as listed in Table 2
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Appendix 2

Appendix 2 Sources of data for recent mean total annual discharge and mean annual peak discharge for the mainstem river in each of the 26 subbasins examined in the study
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Appendix 3 Dams and diversion structures affecting the flow regime of the mainstem river in each of 26 subbasins in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Subbasin numbers correspond to numbers and names in Appendices 1 and 2. A “Y” in a subbasin column indicates that the flow regime is altered by the structure identified in the corresponding row. Diversions capacities (in cfs) are in brackets in the reservoir capacity column; a question mark indicates uncertainty regarding the value. A large number of small- to moderate-sized diversions are not listed.
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Andersen, D.C., Cooper, D.J. & Northcott, K. Dams, Floodplain Land Use, and Riparian Forest Conservation in the Semiarid Upper Colorado River Basin, USA. Environmental Management 40, 453–475 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-006-0294-7

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