Origins, Patterns, and Importance of Heterogeneity in Riparian Systems

Naiman, Robert J.; Bechtold, J. Scott; Drake, Deanne C.; Latterell, J. J.; O’Keefe, Thomas C.; Balian, Estelle

doi:10.1007/0-387-24091-8_14

Cited by 78 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The presence of large wood increases available aquatic habitat for invertebrates and fish, and can facilitate seedling recruitment on floodplains by altering scouring flows as well as the rates of hyporheic water abduction (Stanford and Ward, 1993). Removal of large wood decreases habitat heterogeneity and further simplifies highly impaired temperate river corridors (Naiman et al, 2005). Gaps in our current knowledge of large wood dynamics include how large wood processing changes from headwaters to large river corridors (Nakamura et al, 2000), the comparative rates of local and watershed scale production (Tockner et al, 2000), and how these patterns impact described biological patterns of longitudinal structure (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watershed controls on the export of large wood from stream corridors

Fremier¹,

Seo²,

Nakamura³

2010

Geomorphology

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Large wood maintains in-channel and floodplain habitats by influencing the biophysical character of the river corridor. Large wood dynamics in a river corridor are a product of both watershed-wide processes but also of local recruitment, transport, and storage. This complexity of scales added to the logistical constraints in taking measurements limits our understanding of large wood dynamics through the watershed. To begin to unravel this issue, we compiled a dataset of the volume of large wood deposited annually into 131 reservoirs across Japan, and compared large wood export to both flow discharge and watershed characteristics (watershed size, latitude, channel slope, percent forest, and forest type). We found that large wood was predominately transported during peak flow events. Large wood export increased logarithmically with watershed area. The decreasing export rate of large wood per watershed area is interpreted as a combination of annual export variability in upper watersheds, a non-significant increase in large wood recruitment along the longitudinal gradient (potentially human influenced), the increase in long-term storage on adjacent large floodplains, and significant decay/fragmentation downstream. Watersheds <10-20 km 2 had a highly variable large wood export pattern, conforming generally to previously published work that suggest transport limitation in smaller watersheds. The data suggest that there is an export threshold (~75 km 2 ) where large wood export is no longer related to watershed size. Export across all watershed sizes was controlled by watershed characteristics (slope, percent forested, etc.) and peak discharge events. The connection with upstream watersheds and laterally with the floodplain increases the net flux of large wood through downstream transport and reFremier, Page 3 of 39 transport of buried logs. Identifying rates of large wood transport due to watershed connectivity as a potential key input process will improve our basic understanding of geomorphic and ecological patterns within the watershed. These results highlight the importance of understanding both the local and watershed scale dynamics of large wood in creating and maintaining more heterogeneous riparian and aquatic habitat along the river corridor.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watershed controls on the export of large wood from stream corridors

Fremier¹,

Seo²,

Nakamura³

2010

Geomorphology

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“…This affects riparian systems, which possess high biodiversity and provide environmental services, food and recreational resources for the local population. Riparian ecosystems are also highly vulnerable to natural disturbances, such as floods or fires (Naiman et al, 2005).Indices of biotic integrity (IBI) are useful tools for the estimation of current ecosystem condition, as they integrate information at multiple levels of biological organization and at different spatial scales (Karr, 1981). Therefore, IBI are complementary indicators to physical and chemical methods to estimate ecosystem health, although a serious drawback is the fact that they need to be tailored specifically almost for every basin, due to natural differences in biogeography and ecology.…”

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Land use and biotic integrity in shallow streams of the Hondo River basin, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Pacheco-Díaz

Schmitter‐Soto

Schmook

et al. 2017

RBT

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Aquatic environments face a variety of threats in the Hondo River basin, Southeastern Yucatán Peninsula. Some of these impacts, like pollution by pesticides, may depend on land use and cover. Our objective was to assess the effect of land use/cover using a previously published index of biotic integrity (IBI), based on fishes and designed for shallow streams in the Hondo River basin. Our hypothesis was that land uses that cause deforestation and pollution, such as urbanization, cattle breeding, or sugar cane fields, would be reflected in low IBI values, at least at some spatial scales. The 23 sites originally used in [2008][2009] to estimate by electrofishing the relative abundance and other characteristics of selected fish species and guilds to construct the IBI, were revisited in February 2010, to validate by direct inspection the type of land use/cover suggested by landscape information in digital databases. We analyzed the effect of seven types of land use/cover (agriculture, pasture, human settlements, water bodies, wetlands, forest, and secondary vegetation) on the IBI values, at four spatial scales, i.e., the percent of every land use/cover at progressively larger circles (125, 250, 500, and 1 000 m diameter) centered on the water body where the IBI value was measured. Correlations were established among the percent land/use cover by scale around 23 sites, and with their corresponding IBI values. Then, Student's t tests were calculated to examine significant differences in land use/cover between groups of localities above and below the median IBI value, and Mann-Whitney's U tests were applied to compare IBI values between localities with and without a given landscape cover. Agriculture, human settlements, and secondary vegetation correlated negatively with the IBI; forests positively. Differences were significant (p<0.05) for forest (higher in sites with higher IBI values) and human settlements (lower in sites with higher IBI). Of all the landscape categories located in the Hondo River basin, with the exception of pasture, those of anthropogenic origin tended to be detrimental to aquatic biotic integrity. Rev. Biol. Trop. 65 (4): 1448-1458. Epub 2017 December 01.Key words: human impact, fishes, environmental risk, landscape dynamics, index of biotic integrity, aquatic diversity.Along the Mexican-Belizean Hondo River basin, most human settlements used to subsist on forestry, agriculture, livestock, and tourism (although since the early 2000s most of them rely on government subsidies and remittances from the United States or from Cancún and Playa del Carmen: Castellanos, 2010). Some of these activities threaten freshwater systems due to creation of waste, such as organic matter and pesticides, among others. Agriculture, transport, and urban residual water are the main sources of pollution (Buenfil-Rojas, Álvarez-Legorreta, & Cedeño-Vázquez, 2014;Sánchez, Álvarez-Legorreta, Pacheco, Carrillo, & González, 2016). Additionally, the presence of invasive species in the region, like tilapia Oreochromis mo...

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“…According to the hypothesis of intermediate disturbance, those places with disturbances of intermediate intensity host a higher species richness because of a mix of species with different requirements . Therefore, a lower richness could be due to a more stable flow regime in the regulated sites, which could have led to a decrease in the fluvial heterogeneity and level of disturbances, and hence, a reduction of the fluvial biodiversity, as other studies have pointed out, for example Naiman et al (2006).…”

Section: Riparian Vegetation Composition and Zonationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Riparian vegetation patterns according to hydrogeomorphological factors at different spatial and temporal scales in Mediterranean rivers.

Garófano‐Gómez¹

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Origins, Patterns, and Importance of Heterogeneity in Riparian Systems

Cited by 78 publications

References 20 publications

Watershed controls on the export of large wood from stream corridors

Watershed controls on the export of large wood from stream corridors

Land use and biotic integrity in shallow streams of the Hondo River basin, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Riparian vegetation patterns according to hydrogeomorphological factors at different spatial and temporal scales in Mediterranean rivers.

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