Floods, flood control, and bottomland vegetation

Product Type: Book, Pages in

Year: 2000

Author(s): Friedman, J.M. and G.T. Auble

Suggested Citation:
Friedman, J.M. and G.T. Auble. 2000. Floods, flood control, and bottomland vegetation. In: E.E. Wohl (ed.). Inland flood hazards: human, riparian and aquatic communities. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 219-237.

Abstract

Bottomland plant communities are typically dominated by the effects of floods. Floods create the surfaces on which plants become established, transport seeds and nutrients, and remove establish plants. Floods provide a moisture subsidy that allows development of bottomland forests in arid regions and produce anoxic soils, which can control bottomland plant distribution in humid regions. Repeated flooding produces a mosaic of patches of different age, sediment texture, and inundation duration; this mosaic fosters high species richness…