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Human alterations along stream channels and within catchments have affected fluvial geomorphic processes worldwide. Typically these alterations reduce the ecosystem services that functioning floodplains provide; in this paper we are concerned with the sediment and associated material trapping service. Similarly, these alterations may negatively impact the natural ecology of floodplains through reductions...
The back channels of islands on the Ohio River are assumed to provide habitat critical for several wildlife species. However, quantitative information on the wildlife value of back channels is needed by natural resource managers for the conservation of these forested islands and embayments in the face of increasing shoreline development and recreational boating. We compared the relative abundance...
Intensive management of wetlands to improve wildlife habitat typically includes the manipulation of water depth, duration, and timing to promote desired vegetation communities. Increased societal, industrial, and agricultural demands for water may encourage the use of alternative sources such as wastewater effluents in managed wetlands. However, water quality is commonly overlooked as an influence...
Lateral channel migration initiates complex and dynamic biogeomorphic responses that are fundamental to the creation and maintenance of riparian habitats along low-gradient, coastal plain rivers. This study examines the effects of lateral migration rates on the structure and composition of riparian forests along the Congaree River, Congaree National Park, in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, South Carolina...
We evaluated changes in wetland abundance, size, and classification between average (1979–1986) and above-average (1995–1999) precipitation periods for two physiographic regions in eastern South Dakota. Temporal shifts in wetland numbers, area, and class varied by topographic location. In high wetland density areas (> 8 wetlands/100 ha), our data suggests that larger, semipermanent wetlands expanded...
Alterations to the lower Mississippi River-floodplain ecosystem to facilitate commercial navigation and to reduce flooding of agricultural lands and communities in the historic floodplain have changed the hydrologic regime. As a result, the flood pulse usually has a lower water level, is of shorter duration, has colder water temperatures, and a smaller area of floodplain is inundated. Using average...
In the White River National Wildlife Refuge, we located and monitored 39 Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) nests during the 2004 and 2005 breeding seasons to examine reproductive success and causes of nesting failures. Nest failures were documented using five video recording systems. All kite nests not monitored with a video recording system were observed every 3 or 4 d. The apparent reproductive...
Channelization of rivers and streams threatens bottomland forest bird communities because it can lead to the formation of lateral gullies that connect streams to adjacent wetlands and unnaturally accelerate the draining of wetlands, potentially exposing some birds to high rates of nest predation. I studied how the hydrologic restoration of off-channel wetlands (plugging gullies that drain off-channel...
Economic and cultural values, the same forces that led people to alter floodplain ecosystems, will be the forces that determine the extent of their restoration. Landowner investment in agricultural production and forest and hydrologic restoration will reflect perceived economic returns from investments, as well as personal preferences for the environmental services each land use provides. Conservation...
Swamp rabbits (Sylvilagus aquaticus) are bottomland hardwood forest specialists that may serve as useful indicators of ecosystem health. However, no studies have assessed the influence of both microhabitat and macrohabitat variables on relative abundance of swamp rabbits. To address this gap in the literature, we assessed the influence of landscape- and stand-level habitat variables on relative abundance...
Ecosystem approaches to management require monitoring of processes and species indicative of the integrity of the system in order to understand the effects of management and other perturbations. We examined the effects of three timber harvest options (single-tree selection, patch cuts, no harvest) on the reproductive biology of a possible indicator of bottomland forest ecosystem integrity, the prothonotary...
Floodplain forests in the southeastern USA have recently been the focus of intensive restoration efforts after centuries of human-caused decline. Many of these restored forests appear to suffer from systemic problems arising from the altered disturbance regime in modern southeastern floodplains. Increasing evidence suggests that fire may be an occasional but important ecosystem component missing from...
The effects of sediment, ground-water, and surface-water processes on the timing, quantity, and mechanisms of N and P fluxes were investigated in the Wood River Wetland 5–7 years after agricultural practices ceased and seasonal and permanent wetland hydrologies were restored. Nutrient concentrations in standing water largely reflected ground water in winter, the largest annual water source in the...
Wetland rapid assessment has become popular in a variety of applications. Because rapid assessments rely on observable field indicators as surrogates for direct measures of condition, they must be validated against independent data. Here we present a case study of the validation of the riverine and estuarine modules of the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM). We evaluated responsiveness of the...
Aquatic herbaceous macrophytes contribute significantly to the input carbon for the Amazon floodplain. These plants have large seasonal variations in areal coverage and high productivity. The present study estimates annual net primary production (NPP) of aquatic herbaceous macrophytes in a large lake on the eastern Amazon floodplain, assesses the sources and amount of uncertainty associated with these...
Recent work has demonstrated the connection of seasonal pool-breeding amphibians to other local habitats such as forested wetlands and upland forests. However, the use of seasonal pools by facultative species is less well studied, particularly for highly aquatic species that breed in permanent waters such as American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). Although movement between breeding ponds has been documented,...
This report documents changes in forest structure and growth potential of dominant trees in salt-impacted tidal and non-tidal baldcypress wetlands of the southeastern United States. We inventoried basal area and tree height, and monitored incremental growth (in basal area) of codominant baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) trees monthly, for over four years, to examine the inter-relationships among growth,...
Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region of North America are vulnerable to climate change. Adaptation of farming practices to mitigate adverse impacts of climate change on wetland water levels is a potential watershed management option. We chose a modeling approach (WETSIM 3.2) to examine the effects of changes in climate and watershed cover on the water levels of a semi-permanent wetland in eastern...
Floodplain ecosystems in the southeastern United States provide critical resources for resident and migratory populations of North American wood ducks (Aix sponsa). We studied radiomarked wood duck ducklings and females that nested in artificial structures and used floodplain palustrine, riverine, and lacustrine wetlands at Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR) in Mississippi in 1996–1999 and the...
We combined literature reviews with an analysis of regional cartography, aerial photographs, and satellite images to identify the locations of heretofore-unknown salt marshes along the Patagonian coastline of Argentina. Subsequent ground surveys confirmed the presence of the marshes. While numerous sites still require verification, our surveys confirmed the existence of 27 large coastal salt marshes,...
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