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517 results for “Floodplain”
Drivers of metacommunity dynamics in river-floodplain fish: A path modeling approach
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Data from: Environmental filtering of macroinvertebrate traits influences ecosystem functioning in a large river floodplain
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Floods connect tropical river-floodplain food webs but shrink fish community isotopic trophic niches
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Soil Moisture (Tensiometer) Measurements at LTER Floodplain Moisture Exclusion Treatment Plots: 1991-2003 (weekly)
Soil moisture measurements taken with tensiometers in both the control and rainout treatment plots at floodplain sites (FP3A, FP3B and FP3C); performed weekly during summer from 1991-2003.
Soil Moisture Tension Measurements at LTER Floodplain Successional Sites (FP1A,FP2A,FP4A): 1985-2003 (hourly)
Soil moisture tension readings were collected hourly during summer months at LTER Floodplain Successional Sites (FP1A, FP2A and FP4A) with a Campbell data logger from 1985 until 2003.
Fine root respiration on the floodplain in Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest
This dataset comtains soil temperature, Root Respiration, and root nitrogen.
Supporting data for "Quantifying fluid retention due to natural vegetation in a forest floodplain analogue using the Aggregated Dead Zone (ADZ) dilution approach"
<p>Raw fluorescence data and derived flow metrics from experimental work undertaken in a hydraulic flume facility in support of the publication:</p> <p>"<strong>Quantifying fluid retention due to natural vegetation in a forest floodplain analogue using the Aggregated Dead Zone (ADZ) dilution approach"</strong></p> <p>Water Resources Research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027070">https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027070</a> </p>
Data from: Contribution of small isolated habitats in creating refuges from biological invasions along a geomorphological gradient of floodplain waterbodies
<p>1. Habitat fragmentation, which involves habitat size reduction and isolation, is a major cause of biodiversity decline. However, interest in small isolated habitats has increased among ecosystem managers because these fragments can serve as remnant refuges for unique and/or endangered species in human-altered landscapes.</p> <p>2. In a fragmented floodplain of northern Japan, we demonstrate how habitat fragmentation and habitat quality shape the refuges for a unique endangered minnow (Rhynchocypris percnurus sachalinensis) from biological invasions. We focused on two invasive minnows, topmouth gudgeon (Pseudorasbora parva) and rosy bitterling (Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus), which are the dominant invasive species. By using a graph theoretical approach and structural equation modeling, we elucidated the relationships among habitat fragmentation, habitat quality and the abundance of invasive minnows with the endangered swamp minnow.</p> <p>3. We found that the invasion of topmouth gudgeon, which has a high mobility and environmental tolerance, negatively affected swamp minnow populations. The invasive species may outcompete the native species in their overlapping trophic niche.</p> <p>4. Analyses indicated that habitat fragmentation (decreasing habitat size and connectivity) indirectly and positively affected the population abundance of swamp minnow by reducing the potential for invasion by topmouth gudgeon. We further found an interaction between the indirect effects of habitat fragmentation and local habitat quality: the indirect effects became more apparent in the relatively deeper habitats that were of better quality for natives. This result was likely attributed to the strong control effect of the abiotic stressor. Interspecific competition between the two minnows would be masked in shallow ponds because the native populations are primarily restricted by the abiotic factor, and its abundance is inherently limited regardless of pressure by invaders.</p> <p>5. In fragmented landscapes, evenly conserving all small fragments within a limited budget is difficult. The change in importance of small isolated ponds across a pond-depth gradient suggests that conservation priorities for small fragments should be established by considering local habitat quality. Our findings do not justify habitat fragmentation but suggest that both landscape-scale and local-scale perspectives synergistically aid in the management of biological invasions in modified habitat networks.</p>
Habitat selection of foraging male Great Snipes on floodplain meadows: importance of proximity to the lek, vegetation cover and bare ground
<p>Drainage of wetlands and agricultural intensification has resulted in serious biodiversity loss in Europe, not least in grasslands. Consequently, many meadow birds have drastically declined, and the habitats they select for breeding currently rely on land management. However, the selection of habitats maintained by agriculture may contribute to reduced fitness and thus remain maladaptive for individuals, which makes conservation challenging. An understanding of the relationships between species' habitat selection, food supply and land management in the context of species' behaviour is therefore crucial for conservation. Lowland populations of Great Snipe Gallinago media are currently declining at a moderate rate, causing a conservation concern. We examined the daytime site selection (assumed as foraging sites) and food supply of radiotracked Great Snipe males breeding on a floodplain in NE Poland. Foraging sites were classified at micro- and macro-scale levels using the logistic regression in a use–availability design. On the microscale level, males selected moderate sward height and density, and a large amount of bare ground patches, and the importance of these increased as the breeding season progressed. On the macro-scale level, these conditions were associated with (1) meadows mown twice per season and grazed thereafter (associated with the most abundant food resources – earthworms) and (2) extensively managed pastures, suggesting the importance of grazing. Abandoned or late-mown meadows under agri-environmental schemes (AES) were avoided by foraging males. However, parcels with delayed mowing offer safe breeding sites for females nesting close to leks, unlike land-use types preferred by foraging males, which may act as an ecological trap. Effective conservation of Great Snipes on floodplain meadows requires precisely targeted AES schemes that will provide a mosaic of intensive and extensive land-use patches in the vicinity of identified leks.</p>
Data from: Adaptation services of floodplains and wetlands under transformational climate change
Adaptation services are the ecosystem processes and services that benefit people by increasing their ability to adapt to change. Benefits may accrue from existing but newly-used services where ecosystems persist, or from novel services supplied following ecosystem transformation. Ecosystem properties that enable persistence or transformation are important adaptation services because they support future options. The adaptation services approach can be applied to decisions on trade-offs between currently valued services and benefits from maintaining future options. For example, ecosystem functions and services of floodplains depend on river flows. In those regions of the world where climate change projections are for hotter, drier conditions, floods will be less frequent and floodplains will either persist, though with modified structure and function, or transform to terrestrial (flood-independent) ecosystems. Many currently valued ecosystem services will reduce in supply or become unavailable, but new options are provided by adaptation services. We present a case study from the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, for operationalizing the adaptation services concept for floodplains and wetlands. We found large changes in flow and flood regimes are likely under a scenario of +1.6°C by 2030, even with additional water restored to rivers under the proposed Murray-Darling Basin Plan. We predict major changes to floodplain ecosystems, including contraction of riparian forests and woodlands and expansion of terrestrial, drought-tolerant vegetation communities. Examples of adaptation services under this scenario include substitution of irrigated agriculture with dryland cropping and floodplain grazing; mitigation of damage from rarer, extreme floods; and increased tourism, recreational and cultural values derived from fewer, smaller wetlands that can be maintained with environmental flows. Management for adaptation services will require decisions on where intervention can enable ecosystem persistence and where transformation is inevitable. New ways of managing water that includes consideration of the increasing importance of adaptation services requires major changes to decision-making that better account for landscape heterogeneity and large-scale change, rather than attempting to maintain ecosystems in fixed states.
Data from: Quantifying flooding regime in floodplain forests to guide river restoration
Determining the flooding regime needed to support distinctive floodplain forests is essential for effective river conservation under the ubiquitous human alteration of river flows characteristic of the Anthropocene Era. At over 100 sites throughout the Connecticut River basin, the largest river system in New England, we characterized species composition, valley and channel morphology, and hydrologic regime to define conditions promoting distinct floodplain forest assemblages. Species assemblages were dominated by floodplain-associated trees on surfaces experiencing flood durations between 4.5 and 91 days/year, which were generally well below the stage of the two-year recurrence interval flood, a widely-used benchmark for floodplain restoration. These tree species rarely occurred on surfaces that flooded less than 1 day/year. By contrast abundance of most woody invasive species decreased with flooding. Such flood-prone surfaces were jointly determined by characteristics of the hydrograph (high discharges of long duration) and topography (low gradient and reduced valley constraint), resulting in increased availability of floodplain habitat with increasing watershed area and/or decreasing stream gradient. Downstream mainstem reaches provided the most floodplain habitat, largely associated with low-energy features such as back swamps and point bars, and were dominated by silver maple (Acer saccharinum). However, we were able to identify a number of suitable sites in the upper part of the basin and in large tributaries, often associated with in-channel islands and bars and frequently dominated by sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) and flood disturbance-dependent species. Our results imply that restoring flows by modifying dam operations to benefit floodplain forests on existing surfaces need not conflict with flood protection in some regional settings. These results underscore the need to understand how flow, geomorphology, and species traits interact to produce characteristic patterns of floodplain vegetation, and that these interactions should form the basis of effective river restoration and conservation.
Data from: Functional responses of multi-taxa communities to disturbance and stress gradients in a restored floodplain
1. Trait-based approaches can reveal the mechanisms through which disturbances or stress impact communities, allowing comparisons of the role of different mechanisms in shaping communities among taxonomic groups. Such information can lead to higher comparability, transferability and predictability of the outcome of restoration projects. However, multitaxa trait-based approaches were rarely used in the context of ecosystem restoration. 2. We investigated the responses to environmental gradients of seven taxa (vascular plants, staphylinid and carabid beetles, spiders, isopods, diplopods and earthworms) in a restored floodplain using a species traits approach. We assessed the impact of flood disturbances and soil hydric stress on the functional diversity (FD) and community-weighted mean (CWM) response of traits for each taxon. 3. Ordination of hydrological variables revealed two main gradients. The first was related to the spatiotemporal dynamics of flood disturbances and the second to the average changes in soil hydric conditions. 4. The analysis of CWM revealed that larger, poorly mobile species with narrow ecological tolerances were filtered by regular floods and/or changes in soil hydric conditions. 5. Functional diversity patterns differed between the two gradients: decreasing with increasing flood disturbance, but increasing along the soil hydric stress gradient. This suggests that the mechanisms shaping community composition differ between the two gradients with environmental filtering being dominant with increasing flood disturbances and competition decreasing with more soil hydric stress. 6. Synthesis and applications. Our study shows that the impact of restored flood disturbances and soil hydric stress on plant and invertebrate functional diversity and community-weighted mean can be positive, negative or more complex depending on the taxonomic group and environmental gradient considered. The patterns can to some extent be explained by the specific characteristics of each group. Larger, poorly mobile species with narrow ecological tolerances were particularly vulnerable to changes in disturbance and stress regime following floodplain restoration. These species may therefore be lost in the initial phases of restoration projects, but other more characteristic species of dynamic floodplains will be favoured. Understanding the consequences of these contrasted responses for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning constitutes the next challenge for ecosystem restoration.
Data from: Massive structural redundancies in species composition patterns of floodplain forest moths
Terrestrial arthropod communities usually consist of very large species numbers. Data from experiments or long time-series would be required to ascertain the functional significance of individual species. Both are largely unavailable for species-rich natural communities. Recognising structural redundancies in species composition allows for an alternative approach to address how strong functional redundancy might be in natural assemblages, if structural and functional redundancies are related to each other. Determining structural redundancies is a regular topic in aquatic ecology, but has rarely been applied to terrestrial communities. We explored the extent of structural redundancy in species-rich terrestrial insect assemblages and whether structural redundancies are contingent to species abundances or functional group affiliations. We used the BVSTEP algorithm to determine structural redundancies in a large data set of moth species (32 181 individuals; 448 species) that had been sampled with light-traps in three different floodplain forests in eastern Austria. We partitioned the moth species into 12 functional types based on larval host-plant affiliations to test if moth species included in reduced subsets represent functional groups in the same proportions as they occur in the entire fauna. We observed far more massive structural redundancies in moth assemblages than previously found in aquatic communities. Subsets containing only 8–15 species (1.8–3.3% of all recorded species) were still highly representative for the overall data. Subsets selected by the BVSTEP procedure performed better than equally small subsets that were defined solely by species abundances or by functional group affiliations. Effective 'surrogate' subsets contained only 6–9 of the 12 functional moth types. High abundance only loosely corresponded with the frequency at which a moth species was included in the subsets. Thus, certain uncommon species contribute importantly to species composition patterns. Our results show unexpectedly extensive structural redundancies in complex floodplain forest moth communities, which may also indicate strong functional redundancies.
Data from: A bust but no boom: responses of floodplain bird assemblages during and after prolonged drought
1. Climate change alters the frequency and severity of extreme events, such as drought. Such events will be increasingly important in shaping communities as climate change intensifies. The ability of species to withstand extreme events (resistance) and to recover once adverse conditions abate (resilience) will determine their persistence. 2. We estimated the resistance and resilience of bird species during and after a 13-year drought (the 'Big Dry') in floodplain forests in south-eastern Australia. 3. We conducted bird surveys at the beginning and end of the Big Dry, and after the abrupt end to the drought (the 'Big Wet'), to evaluate species-specific changes in reporting rates among the three periods. We assessed changes in bird-breeding activity before and after the Big Wet to estimate demographic resilience based on breeding. 4. Between the start and the end of the Big Dry (1998 vs. 2009), 37 of 67 species declined substantially. Of those, only two had increased reporting rates after the Big Wet (2009 vs. 2013) that were equal to or larger than their declines, while three partially recovered. All other declining species showed low resilience: 25 showed no change in reporting rates and seven declined further. The number of breeding species and total breeding activity of all species declined after the Big Wet, and there was no change in the number of young produced. 5. The Big Dry caused widespread declines in the floodplain avifauna. Despite the drought being broken by 2 years of well-above-average rainfall and subsequent near-average rainfall, most species showed low resilience and there was little indication that overall breeding had increased. The effects of drought appeared to be pervasive for much of the floodplain avifauna, regardless of species traits (species body mass, fecundity, mobility or diet). Ecosystems such as these are likely to require active management and restoration, including reinstatement of natural flooding regimes, to improve ecological condition, to enhance resistance and resilience to extreme climate events.
Data from: Floodplains provide important amphibian habitat despite multiple ecological threats
Floodplain ponds and wetlands are productive and biodiverse ecosystems, yet they face multiple threats including altered hydrology, land use change, and non-native species. Protecting and restoring important floodplain ecosystems requires understanding how organisms use these habitats and respond to altered environmental conditions. We developed Bayesian models to evaluate occupancy of six amphibian species across 103 off-channel aquatic habitats in the Chehalis River floodplain, Washington State, USA. The basin has been altered by changes in land use, reduced river-wetland connections, and the establishment of non-native American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana = Lithobates catesbeianus) and centrarchid fishes, all of which we hypothesized could influence native amphibian occupancy. Despite potential threats, the floodplain habitats had relatively high rates of native amphibian occupancy, particularly when compared to studies from non-floodplain habitats within the species' native ranges. The biggest challenge for native amphibians appears to be non-native centrarchid fishes, which strongly reduced occupancy of two native amphibians: the northern red-legged frog (Rana aurora) and the northwestern salamander (Ambystoma gracile). Emergent vegetative cover increased occupancy probability for all five native amphibian species, indicating that plant-management may offer a strategy to counter the negative effect of centrarchids by providing refuge from predation. We found that temporary and permanent hydroperiod sites supported different species, hence both should be conserved on the landscape. Lastly, human-created and natural ponds had similar amphibian occupancy patterns, suggesting that pond construction offers a viable strategy for adding habitats to the floodplain landscape. Overall, floodplain ponds and wetlands provide important amphibian habitat, and we offer management strategies that will bolster amphibian occupancy in an altered floodplain landscape.
Data from: Passive microwave observations of inundation area and the area/stage relation in the Amazon River floodplain
Inundation patterns in Amazon River floodplains are revealed by analysis of the 37 GHz polarization difference observed by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer on the Nimbus-7 satellite. Flooded area is estimated at monthly intervals for January 1979 through August 1987 using mixing models that account for the major landscape units with distinctive microwave emission characteristics. Results are presented separately for 12 longitudinal reaches along the Amazon River main stem in Brazil as well as for three major tributaries (the Jurua, Purus and Madeira rivers). The total area along the Amazon River main stem that was flooded (including both floodplain and open water) varied between 19000 and 91 000km2. The correlation between flooded area and river stage is used to develop a predictive relationship and reconstruct regional inundation patterns in the floodplain of the Amazon River main stem over the past 94 years of stage records (1903-1996). The mean flooded area along the Amazon River during this 94-year period was 46800km2, of which the openwater surfaces of river channels and floodplain lakes comprised about 20 700km2.
Data from: Pulsing hydrology determines top-down control of basal resources in a tropical river-floodplain ecosystem
Variable hydrology of rivers strongly affects biophysical factors that influence primary production and population densities, thereby affecting the relative influence of bottom-up and top-down processes in trophic networks. Many tropical floodplain rivers have sustained seasonal flood pulses driven by precipitation patterns of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. These changes in flow alter concentrations of dissolved nutrients, aquatic primary productivity, and per-unit-area densities of aquatic organisms. Therefore, one would predict that the strength of top-down effects of animals on basal resources should shift as the annual flood pulse progresses. We conducted a series of field experiments in a Neotropical lowland river to test for effects of hydrologic phase, habitat (in-channel vs. floodplain aquatic habitat), and benthic feeding fish and meiofauna on particulate organic matter, chlorophyll, and benthic microalgae. Net ecosystem productivity of this oligotrophic river is higher during the low phase of the annual flood cycle, which is also when resident fishes are at highest densities and there is a seasonal influx of migratory benthic feeding fish. We therefore hypothesized that top-down effects of benthic-feeding fish would fluctuate temporally, with strongest effects during low water levels. We found that fish controlled the abundance of particulate organic matter and algae on solid substrates, but not on sand, during falling- and low-water phases within both channel and floodplain habitats. Except for diatom assemblages, which responded to fish exclusion, the taxonomic structure of algal and meiofauna assemblages was not significantly influenced by fish exclusion treatments, but varied in relation to habitat type and hydrologic phase. Meiofauna densities were highest during the low-water period; experimental exclusion of meiofauna during this period had a significant effect on accumulation of particulate organic matter in sand. By controlling abundance of important basal resources, fishes and meiofauna have large potential to influence other components of this tropical ecosystem. Our findings emphasize the predictable, gradual, changes in consumer-resource interactions associated with the seasonal flood pulse in tropical river systems.
Data from: A test of the umbrella species approach in restored floodplain ponds.
1.The umbrella species approach, where conservation actions targeted for one or a group of species should benefit the broader community, may provide an effective framework to guide habitat restoration. This requires congruence in the response of umbrella and co-occurring species to environmental stress and recovery, and the identification of potential mechanisms by which co-occurring species benefit from conservation of an umbrella species. 2.Past evaluations of this approach have considered only the presence/absence of umbrella species. In addition to presence/absence, we quantified abundance and biomass of both umbrella and co-occurring species to support a more quantitative evaluation of species co-occurrence. Floodplain ponds are restored in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest to benefit coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch, a presumptive umbrella species. To test its effectiveness as an umbrella species, we assessed the relationships between species richness, abundance and biomass of aquatic vertebrates, including vertebrates of conservation concern ("listed"), and benthic invertebrates and the abundance and biomass of juvenile coho. We used ordination to evaluate relationships between species' abundance and biomass and environmental attributes. 3.Positive relationships were identified between coho abundance and biomass and species richness, abundance and biomass of fish and listed species. These relationships were negative for benthic invertebrates. Listed species were located close to coho in ordinations, suggesting they respond to similar environmental features while benthic invertebrates clustered away from coho. 4.Synthesis and applications. We found that where our umbrella species coho is most productive, so are other listed species and fish in general, a relationship that would not have been evident had we evaluated species richness alone. We also reported strong relationships between some environmental features manipulated in the habitat restoration and the presence and productivity of coho and co-occurring species. Our study demonstrates the umbrella species approach has potential to guide habitat restoration when there is congruence in the response of umbrella and co-occurring species to environmental attributes that can be manipulated in the restoration. Where this is possible, one can use restoration designed for one or several umbrella species and successfully restore habitats that are viable for other species, including listed species.
FIGURE 2. Simpsonichthys suzarti, UFRJ 5810 in Simpsonichthys suzarti sp. n. (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae): a new annual fish from the Rio Pardo floodplains, northeastern Brazil
FIGURE 2. Simpsonichthys suzarti, UFRJ 5810, female, paratype, 28.3 mm SL (about one month after collection); Brazil: Bahia: Canavieiras.
FIGURE 1. Simpsonichthys suzarti, MCP 34088 in Simpsonichthys suzarti sp. n. (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae): a new annual fish from the Rio Pardo floodplains, northeastern Brazil
FIGURE 1. Simpsonichthys suzarti, MCP 34088, male, holotype, 28.6 mm SL (about one month after collection); Brazil: Bahia: Canavieiras.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
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The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
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