Floodplain
Floodplain Biogeomorphology
Floodplains support rich ecosystems and provide critically important benefits to people, including the largest freshwater fisheries in the world. Particularly in arid or semiarid regions, floodplains are important sites for agriculture with crops planted as floodwaters recede. By storing and conveying floodwaters, floodplains can also reduce flood risk to other areas. Owing to levees and water regulation from dams, floodplains are among the most converted and threatened ecosystems on Earth. Restoring floodplain functions, and the benefits they provide, requires hydrological connectivity, river flow patterns that include high-flow events, and sufficient spatial scale for benefits to accrue to meaningful levels.
The Multiple Benefits of River–Floodplain Connectivity for People and Biodiversity
Floodplain bio-geomorphology examines the ecological interactions between hydrology, geomorphology, and biology of floodplain environments. The different formation processes and variety of subunit landforms provide a template for promoting habitat heterogeneity that supports multiple bio-geomorphic interactions. Areas of research in this field vary widely, from studying the process-pattern dynamics of vegetation development on point bars or in abandoned meanders to examining the role of beavers in modifying floodplains both by altering flow paths and engineering wetlands, to quantifying the source and storage of coarse wood in floodplains to estimate carbon fluxes. These diverse fields of biogeomorphic inquiry similarly recognize the role of spatial heterogeneity in floodplain environments, and the importance of biogeomorphic interactions contributing to this heterogeneity.
Many floodplain-dependent species require certain habitat conditions provided by flood frequency, duration, and depth, associated with specific floodplain features to support their life-history strategies. For example in the arid southwestern United States, willow and cottonwood require spring high flows that inundate point and sidebar features of the floodplain, providing suitable moisture for their establishment. Numerous resident and migratory birds depend on these near-channel forests for nesting and foraging. In the Southeastern US, bald cypress trees release their buoyant seeds during the fall-winter flood season, using the high water to disperse their seeds throughout the floodplain. Bald cypress tolerates and prefer wetter conditions and will establish in meander scroll swales and abandoned channel features.
Benefits
Floodplains are dynamic natural systems characterized by processes such as periodic flooding, erosion and deposition. They provide a wide range of benefits to our local communities, including
- Natural flood and erosion control—reducing flood velocities, peak flows and erosion potential; providing flood storage and conveyance
- Water quality benefits—filtering polluted runoff and moderating temperature fluctuations
- Biological productivity—offering fertile, productive soils for agriculture and forestry
- Fish and wildlife habitat—creating habitat for many species, including waterfowl and endangered species
- Open space and scenic beauty—offering opportunities for recreation and tourism; contributing to quality of life and the economy
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