TY - JOUR
T1 - Patterns of forest succession and impacts of flood in the Upper Mississippi River floodplain ecosystem
AU - Yin, Yao
AU - Wu, Yegang
AU - Bartell, Steve M.
AU - Cosgriff, Robert J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded as an Additional Program Element of Fiscal Year 2008 of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program of the Upper Mississippi River System administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers and US Geological Survey Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center >. We thank Charles H. Theiling from US Army Corp of Engineering for his kind review and suggestion.
PY - 2009/12
Y1 - 2009/12
N2 - The widespread loss of oak-hickory forests and the impacts of flood have been major issues of ecological interest concerning forest succession in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) floodplain. The data analysis from two comprehensive field surveys indicated that Quercus was one of the dominant genera in the UMR floodplain ecosystem prior to the 1993 flood and constituted 14% of the total number of trees and 28% of the total basal area. During the post-flood recovery period through 2006, Quercus demonstrated slower recovery rates in both the number of trees (4%) and basal area (17%). In the same period, Carya recovered greatly from the 1993 flood in terms of the number of trees (11%) and basal area (2%), compared to its minor status before the flood. Further analyses suggested that different species responded to the 1993 flood with varying tolerance and different succession strategies. In this study, the relation of flood-caused mortality rates and DBH, fm(d), can be expressed in negative exponential functions for each species. The results of this research also indicate that the growth functions are different for each species and might also be different between pre- and post-flood time periods. These functions indicate different survival strategies and emergent properties in responding to flood impacts. This research enhances our understanding of forest succession patterns in space and time in the UPR floodplain. And such understanding might be used to predict long-term impacts of floods on UMR floodplain forest dynamics in support of management and restoration.
AB - The widespread loss of oak-hickory forests and the impacts of flood have been major issues of ecological interest concerning forest succession in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) floodplain. The data analysis from two comprehensive field surveys indicated that Quercus was one of the dominant genera in the UMR floodplain ecosystem prior to the 1993 flood and constituted 14% of the total number of trees and 28% of the total basal area. During the post-flood recovery period through 2006, Quercus demonstrated slower recovery rates in both the number of trees (4%) and basal area (17%). In the same period, Carya recovered greatly from the 1993 flood in terms of the number of trees (11%) and basal area (2%), compared to its minor status before the flood. Further analyses suggested that different species responded to the 1993 flood with varying tolerance and different succession strategies. In this study, the relation of flood-caused mortality rates and DBH, fm(d), can be expressed in negative exponential functions for each species. The results of this research also indicate that the growth functions are different for each species and might also be different between pre- and post-flood time periods. These functions indicate different survival strategies and emergent properties in responding to flood impacts. This research enhances our understanding of forest succession patterns in space and time in the UPR floodplain. And such understanding might be used to predict long-term impacts of floods on UMR floodplain forest dynamics in support of management and restoration.
KW - INHS
KW - Spatial and temporal patterns
KW - Oak-hickory forest succession
KW - Upper Mississippi River floodplain ecosystem
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecocom.2009.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ecocom.2009.08.004
M3 - Article
SN - 1476-945X
VL - 6
SP - 463
EP - 472
JO - Ecological Complexity
JF - Ecological Complexity
IS - 4
ER -