Hydroclimatic drivers of the growth of riparian cottonwoods at the prairie margin: River flows, river regulation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Philipsen, Laurens J.; Pearce, David; Rood, Stewart B.

doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2018.08.002

Cited by 11 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Tamarix chinensis and Elaeagnus angustifolia (McShane et al, 2015;Philipsen et al, 2018), but temperature changes also coincided with changes in stream flow. In our analysis, at flooding sites, plant cover for all groups except for herbaceous plants increased at sites and in years with warmer temperatures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Flood regime alters the abiotic correlates of riparian vegetation

Steinberg

Eichhorst

Rudgers

2021

Applied Vegetation Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Questions Predicting the influence of climate change on riparian plant communities improves management strategies. The sensitivity of riparian vegetation to climate and other abiotic factors depends on interactions between properties of the ecosystem, like flood regime, and plant characteristics. To explore these interactions, we addressed three questions: (a) does the composition and diversity of riparian vegetation vary with the flood regime; (b) do abiotic correlates of vegetation, including climate and groundwater, differ between sites that flood compared to locations that did not experience floods; and (c) which plant functional groups account for differential plant community sensitivity to abiotic factors between flood regimes? Location Middle Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico. Methods We used long‐term observations of plant community composition, groundwater depth, precipitation and interpolated temperature from 24 sites spanning 210 km of the Rio Grande riparian cottonwood–willow forest to explore the relative importance of climate and hydrologic correlates of riparian vegetation diversity and composition. Results Riparian plant diversity was higher at sites flooding compared to non‐flooding sites. Plant diversity positively tracked shallower groundwater depth at flooding sites, but was best predicted by intra‐annual groundwater variability at non‐flooding sites. Plant community composition correlated with groundwater depth and air temperature at all sites, but at non‐flooding sites, also with intra‐annual groundwater variability and precipitation. Relationships between native plant cover and potential environmental drivers diverged strongly between the two flood regimes; non‐native plant cover had only weak relationships with most environmental predictors. Conclusions The current flood regime of a site determined the climate and hydrologic factors that best predicted riparian plant community composition and diversity. Relationships between plant diversity or total cover and groundwater, temperature, precipitation, or groundwater variability can change in strength or direction depending on a site's flood history, highlighting the importance of flood regime to predicting the sensitivity of riparian woodlands to future environmental change.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Flood regime alters the abiotic correlates of riparian vegetation

Steinberg

Eichhorst

Rudgers

2021

Applied Vegetation Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thereafter, the radial growth rate tapered off (Figure 7). There were also a few even larger diameter solitary trees further away from the river channel (Philipsen, Pearce, & Rood, 2018) but aging was unsuccessful due to heart rot. Building upon the age versus size relationship for cored trees, these relict trees were probably slightly over 250 years old, similar in estimated age to relict plains cottonwoods along the nearby South Saskatchewan River (City of Medicine Hat, 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thereafter, the radial growth rate tapered off (Figure 7). There were also a few even larger diameter solitary trees further away from the river channel (Philipsen, Pearce, & Rood, 2018) There were often five to seven arcuate woodland bands extending laterally across the RDR meander lobes, although some bands were less discrete (Figures 1 and 8). On meander lobe 5, there were five extensive bands and two narrower bands towards the upstream end and farther from the river (Figure 8).…”

Section: Floodplain Woodland Development Over the Past 250 Yearsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study was undertaken to explore the associations between river floods, fluvial geomorphic disturbance, and floodplain forest patterns along a relatively natural dryland river system. We sought to analyse the longer‐term river and floodplain forest chronology, building upon prior analyses of the historical climate, hydrology and floodplain ecology of the Red Deer River (RDR; Marken, 1993; Cordes, Hughes, & Getty, 1997; Philipsen, Gill, Shepherd, & Rood, 2018; Philipsen, Pearce, & Rood, 2018). At the study onset we expected positive correspondences between floods, geomorphic disturbance and cottonwood colonization, and expected this to reveal the longer‐term chronology for floodplain dynamics along a dryland river (Cordes et al, 1997; Philipsen, Pearce, & Rood, 2018; Schook et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Floodplain forest dynamics: Half‐century floods enable pulses of geomorphic disturbance and cottonwood colonization along a prairie river

Philipsen

Romuld

Rood

2020

River Research & Apps

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In dry ecoregions, trees are restricted to river valley floodplains where river water supplements the limited local precipitation. Around the Northern Hemisphere, cottonwoods, riparian poplars, are often predominant trees in floodplain forests and these ecological specialists require floods that create and saturate sand and gravel bars, enabling seedling recruitment. By pairing the interpretation of aerial photographs at approximately decade intervals with dendrochronology, we explored the coordination between river floods, geomorphic disturbance and colonization of plains cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) over eight meanders along the Red Deer River in the semi‐arid prairie of western Canada. This river has a relatively natural flow regime and minimal human alteration through the World Heritage Site of Dinosaur Provincial Park. We found that the 50‐year flood of 1954 increased channel migration and produced extensive accretion with downstream expansion of meander lobes and some channel infilling, which was followed by prolific cottonwood colonization. Those processes accompanied the major flood, while bank erosion and cottonwood losses were more gradual and continuous over the past half‐century. Results indicated even greater floodplain and woodland development after an earlier 100‐year flood in 1915. Each flood produced an arcuate band of mature cottonwoods and there were five to seven progressively older woodland bands across the floodplain, with each cottonwood age grouping increasing by about a half‐century. The 700 m wide floodplain was progressively reworked by the river through pulses of channel movement and floodplain and woodland development over approximately 250 years and correspondingly, the oldest cottonwoods were about 250 years old.

show abstract

“…While the different species displayed generally similar responses to oiling, the likelihood of contamination could vary across riparian tree and shrub species. The elevational distribution of riparian poplars varies somewhat, with the narrowleaf cottonwood often occurring in lower positions closer to the river, while the plains cottonwoods can occur further away and at higher PLOS ONE elevations above the stream [5,49]. This elevational segregation could increase the likelihood of contamination of narrowleaf cottonwoods.…”

Section: Sensitivity Across Populus Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective impacts of oil spills on floodplain vegetation: Both crude oil and diluted bitumen increase foliar temperatures, senescence and abscission in three cottonwood (Populus) species

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Oil pipelines are vulnerable at river crossings since floods can expose and rupture pipes, releasing oil that floats and coats floodplain vegetation. This study investigated the consequences of oil coatings on leaves of cottonwoods (riparian poplars), the predominant trees in floodplain woodlands around the Northern Hemisphere. The study compared conventional crude oil (CO) versus diluted bitumen (dilbit, DB), heavy oil originating from the Alberta oil sands; with petroleum jelly (PJ) as a reference. The treatments increased leaf surface temperatures (T leaf) in narrowleaf and plains cottonwoods (Populus angustifolia, P. deltoides) and balsam poplars (P. balsamifera) (Control = 21.8˚C, PJ = 23.7˚C; CO = 26.2˚C; DB = 28.1˚C; T air = 25˚C). The leaf warming followed stomatal occlusion from the foliar coating, which would reduce transpiration and evaporative cooling, combined with increased solar warming with the darker oils. T leaf varied across the three cottonwood species, with cooler, narrow, narrowleaf cottonwood leaves; intermediate plains cottonwood leaves; and warmer, darker, balsam poplar leaves (average T leaf : narrowleaf = 23.8˚C, plains = 24.3˚C, and balsam = 26.7˚C), with similar warming in each species following the different treatments. Across species and treatments, T leaf was tightly correlated with foliar condition, which assessed turgor versus wilting of leaf blades and petioles, along with leaf necrosis and senescence (r 2 = 0.980, narrowleaf; 0.998, plains; 0.852, balsam). This tight association indicates validity of both T leaf and foliar condition as diagnostic measures. Crude oil and dilbit had similar foliar impacts, and for both, leaf abscission occurred within 2 to 3 weeks. Consequently, following an oil spill, remediation should commence quickly but extending vegetation removal beyond a few weeks would have limited benefit since the contaminated leaves would have abscised.

show abstract

Hydroclimatic drivers of the growth of riparian cottonwoods at the prairie margin: River flows, river regulation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Cited by 11 publications

References 68 publications

Flood regime alters the abiotic correlates of riparian vegetation

Flood regime alters the abiotic correlates of riparian vegetation

Floodplain forest dynamics: Half‐century floods enable pulses of geomorphic disturbance and cottonwood colonization along a prairie river

Prospective impacts of oil spills on floodplain vegetation: Both crude oil and diluted bitumen increase foliar temperatures, senescence and abscission in three cottonwood (Populus) species

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About