Relationships between woody vegetation and geomorphological patterns in three gravel-bed rivers with different intensities of anthropogenic disturbance

Sitzia, Tommaso; Picco, Lorenzo; Ravazzolo, Diego; Comiti, Francesco; Mao, Luca; Lenzi, Mario Aristide

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2015.11.016

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…For example, in the unconfined reaches of the -almost unregulated -Tagliamento River (drainage area about 2500 km 2 , eastern Italian Alps), frequent ordinary events (RI < 2-3 years) are able to recruit considerable amounts of wood from the forested river corridor (floodplains and low terraces; Surian et al, 2015). In the climatically and morphologically similar, but highly regulated Piave River (Sitzia et al, 2016) …”

Section: Sources Of Large Wood During Floodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large wood recruitment and transport during large floods: A review

2016

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Section: Sources Of Large Wood During Floodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large wood recruitment and transport during large floods: A review

2016

Self Cite

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“…These morphological units are characterized by different vegetation density that influenced the number and volume of recruited trees. The differences are directly connected to their morphological development that permitted the generation and stabilization of different vegetated communities (Sitzia et al, 2015;Picco et al, 2016). Pioneer islands present the highest tree density (0.16 N m -2 ), and should be the morphological unit that provides the highest recruitment of trees but, since the erosion is the lowest (25 m 2 ), the effective recruitment of LW is quite negligible (0.14 m 3 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, the study reach contains several islands of different age and size, with a large complex established island in the middle part that is gradually merging with the adjacent floodplain. More information on the vegetation characteristics, floodplain settings and island dimensions can be found in Picco et al (2016) and Sitzia et al (2015).…”

Section: Study Site and Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bank erosion and large wood recruitment along a gravel bed river

Picco

Tonon

Rainato

et al. 2016

J Agricult Engineer

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Riverine environments can be very dynamic and complex systems, particularly because of the interaction between active channel and riparian land during flood events of different magnitude. In recent years increasing attention has been paid to large wood (LW), focusing on its role and impact along riverine systems and fluvial landscapes. This research aims to analyze the characteristics of LW recruitment as a consequence of a flood event along a reach of a gravel-bed river. The study was conducted on a 3 km-long reach located in the middle course of the Piave River (north-eastern Italian Alps). A 20 m-wide buffer zone was considered along the floodplains and islands. Every standing tree in this buffer with diameter ≥0.10 m was measured manually (diameter breast height; height), whereas shrubs were not considered. The most common species in the study area are: Populus sp., Salix sp., Alnus sp., Carpinus sp., Fraxinus sp., Pinus sylvestris and Robinia pseudoacacia. An over bankfull flood (Q=1329 m 3 s -1 ; recurrence interval=6 years) in November 2014 caused erosions along the floodplain (15,565.5 m 2 ), pioneer islands (25.2 m 2 ) and building islands (2085.6 m 2 ), recruiting 690 trees. Four of these trees were recruited from the pioneer islands (0.16 tree m -2 ), 79 from building islands (0.04 tree m -2 ) and 607 from floodplains (0.04 tree m -2 ). Accurate dendrometric measurements were used to define the input volume of LW from the floodplains (86.25 m 3 ), pioneer islands (0.14 m 3 ) and building islands (6.62 m 3 ). The maximum distance traveled by LW recruited from the floodplain, pioneer and building islands was 8927, 1021 and 3727 m, respectively. Statistical analysis showed no significant relationship between the displacement and LW characteristics considered (diameter, length, volume, density). These results demonstrate that the recruitment and subsequent transport of LW is a complex mechanism that requires further study. To better characterize these mechanisms, it appears clear that it is important to consider not only the LW characteristics but also the connection between LW, morphological settings, and flood event characteristics.

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“…Then, the age of islands was estimated (in years) as the time between the sampling year (2015) and the year in which the oldest bar was colonised by plants. The persistence of each oldest bar, from its colonisation to the sampling, was verified (Sitzia et al 2016). The six complementary sources of information used were: historical cartography (1847-1972) and…”

Section: Persistence Age Of the Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An emergent property that identifies the large fluvial systems of the planet is the high environmental heterogeneity which is a consequence of the interaction of geomorphological, hydrological and biological organization levels (Thorp et al 2006, Wheaton et al 2011, besides the increasing influence of anthropogenic factors (Sitzia et al 2016). This heterogeneity determines that their floodplains present a mosaic where landforms contrast in age and formation processes, and where plant com-munities of very variable diversity currently co-exist in similar hydro-sedimentological regimes (Kollmann et al 1999, Neiff 2004, Latrubesse 2008, Hupp & Osterkamp 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in forest diversity over a chronosequence of fluvial islands

Marchetti¹,

Pereira²

2019

iForest

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The high environmental heterogeneity of large fluvial systems is reflected by the co-existence of contrasting plant communities and landforms. The main objective of this study was to assess the forest diversity changes in islands of the Middle Paraná River (Argentina) in order to discuss an integrative question: how synchronized are the major changes in the features of islands and forests? Persistence age, elevation and flood regime of 11 main channel islands were determined. Variables related to the vascular plant community and the tree stand structure of forests were also measured in 400 m 2 plots. Islands were classified as young or old (YIs or OIs), according to their persistence age, which ranged from two to 108 years. Both island classes differed in their elevation but not in the proportion of low water phase. Only three out of nine tree species were dominant: Tessaria integrifolia and Croton urucurana (restricted to YIs and OIs, respectively), and Salix humboldtiana (distributed in both island classes). Alpha diversity was positively correlated with the age of the YIs and reach the highest value in the oldest island forest. Beta diversity was mainly due to processes of species replacement which differentiate floodplain forests. Gamma diversity reached 101 species, being the perennial herbs a clear majority. The stand structure and the complete floristic composition were significantly different between YIs and OIs, with three and seven indicator species of each island class, respectively. Considering integrative models of succession, our findings suggest that the biogeomorphic phase, recognised by the fluvial biogeomorphic model, prevailed in the whole range of island persistence ages. Therefore, it seems that the increase in forest diversity in a large river is restricted to spatial refugia defined by major hydrogeomorphic shifts.

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Relationships between woody vegetation and geomorphological patterns in three gravel-bed rivers with different intensities of anthropogenic disturbance

Cited by 19 publications

References 58 publications

Large wood recruitment and transport during large floods: A review

Large wood recruitment and transport during large floods: A review

Bank erosion and large wood recruitment along a gravel bed river

Changes in forest diversity over a chronosequence of fluvial islands

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