Data from: Beyond the case study: Characterizing natural floodplain heterogeneity in the United States

<p>As river channels move across the valley floor, they create diverse topography including natural levees, cutoff meanders, secondary channels, and floodplain wetlands. These features increase the spatial heterogeneity of the floodplain. Many studies indicate that this heterogeneity strongly influences habitat abundance and diversity, storage of flood waters and excess nitrate or phosphate, and other floodplain functions. However, no one has systematically measured floodplain heterogeneity across multiple rivers and different geographic regions. We measured the heterogeneity of natural floodplains at 14 sites in the continental United States using metrics developed by landscape ecologists. We find that natural floodplains have distinctive heterogeneity signatures that relate to drainage area, the size of the floodplain, and other characteristics. The data included here are the original field data associated with 14 of the field sites, including GPS locations of floodplain transects, floodplain patches, sediment cores, and large wood; and delineated floodplain shapefiles.</p>