Early vegetation development on an exposed reservoir: Implications for dam removal

Product Type: Journal Article

Year: 2007

Author(s): Auble, G.T., P.B. Shafroth, M.L. Scott, and J.E. Roelle

Suggested Citation:
Auble, G.T., P.B. Shafroth, M.L. Scott, and J.E. Roelle. 2007. Early vegetation development on an exposed reservoir: Implications for dam removal. Environmental Management 39(6): 806-818.

Abstract

The 4-year drawdown of Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado, for dam maintenance, provides a case study analog of vegetation response on sediment that might be exposed from removal of a tall dam. Early vegetation recovery on the exposed reservoir bottom was a combination of (1) vegetation colonization on bare, moist substrates typical of riparian zones and reservoir sediment of shallow dams and (2) a shift in moisture status from mesic to the xeric conditions associated with the pre-impoundment upland position of most of the drawdown zone. Plant communities changed rapidly during the first four years of exposure, but were still substantially different from the background upland plant community...