Keyword: riparian areas

Potential effects of climate change on riparian areas, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems in the Blue Mountains, Oregon, USA

Riparian areas, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which are found at all elevations throughout the Blue Mountains, comprise a small portion of the landscape but have high conservation value because they provide habitat for diverse flora and fauna. The effects of climate change on these special habitats may be especially profound, due to altered snowpack and hydrologic regimes predicted to occur in the near future.

Climate change and special habitats in the Blue Mountains: Riparian areas, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems [Chapter 7]

In the Blue Mountains, climate change is likely to have significant, long-term implications for freshwater resources, including riparian areas, wetlands (box 7.1), and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs, box 7.2). Climate change is expected to cause a transition from snow to rain, resulting in diminished snowpack and shifts in streamflow to earlier in the season (Leibowitz et al. 2014, Luce et al. 2012; see chapter 3).

Understorey plant community dynamics following a large, mixed severity wildfire in a Pinus ponderosa-Pseudotsuga menziesii forest, Colorado, USA

In 2002, the Hayman Fire burned across 55 800 ha of Colorado Front Range P. ponderosa-P. menziesii forest. Also burned in the fire were 20 upland and five riparian plots within a 400-ha study area. These plots had been surveyed for understorey plant composition and cover 5-6 yrs prior. We re-measured all plots annually from 2003 to 2007, 1-5 yrs post-fire.

Burning questions for managers: Fuels management practices in riparian areas

Vegetation treatment projects for fuel reduction in riparian areas can pose distinct challenges to resource managers. Riparian areas are protected by administrative regulations, many of which are largely custodial and restrict active management. Like uplands, however, riparian areas have been affected by fire suppression, land use, and multiple types of disturbance.

Water quality, biodiversity, and codes of practice in relation to harvesting forest plantations in streamside management zones

Streamside management zones (SMZs) are special landscape units that include riparian areas and adjacent lands that mitigate the movement of sediment, nutrients and other chemicals from upland forest and agricultural management areas into streams. The size, shape, and management of SMZs are governed by various combinations of economic, ecological, and regulatory factors.

Meadow management and treatment options [chapter 8]

Restoration and management objectives and approaches are most effective when based on an understanding of ecosystem processes and the long- and short-term causes of disturbance (Wohl and others 2005). As detailed in previous chapters, several factors are critical in developing effective management strategies for streams and their associated meadow ecosystems in the central Great Basin.

Charcterization of meadow ecosystems based on watershed and valley segment/reach scale characteristics [chapter 7]

Great Basin riparian meadows are highly sensitive to both natural and anthropogenic disturbance. As detailed in earlier chapters, streams in the central Great Basin have a natural tendency to incise due to their geomorphic history (Miller and others 2001, 2004).

Meadow-stream processes and aquatic invertebrate community structure [chapter 6]

Riparian areas make up less than 1 percent of the total area of the Great Basin, yet they provide many critical ecosystem services, and they support a disproportionately large percentage of the regional biodiversity (Hubbard 1977; Saab and Groves 1992).

Meadow sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic disturbance [chapter 5]

Investigations of geomorphic responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbances have revealed marked differences in the rate, magnitude, and nature by which different watersheds, or components of a given watershed, adjust to perturbations. These differences in response are often characterized using the concept of landform sensitivity. The term sensitivity has been defined by different investigators in different ways.