Abstract
Riparian forest stands are subjected to a variety of hydrological stresses as a result of annual fluctuations in water levels during the growing season. Spring floods create additional water-related stress as a result of a major inflow of water that floods riverside land. This exploratory study assesses the impacts of successive floods on tree dynamics and regeneration in an active sedimentation area, while determining the age of the stands using the recruitment rates, tree structure and tree rings based on dendrochronological analysis. Environmental data were also recorded for each vegetation quadrat. In total, 2633 tree stems were tallied throughout the quadrats (200 m2), and tree specimens were analyzed based on the various flood zones. A total of 720 specimens were counted (100 m2 strip) to measure natural regeneration. Higher recruitment rates are noted for the no-flood zones and lower rates in active floodplains. During the period of the establishment of tree species, the survival rates are comparable between the flood zones and the no-flood zones. Tree diameter distribution reveals a strong predominance of young trees in flooded areas. Different factors appear to come into play in the dynamics of riparian forest stands, including the disruptions associated with successive flooding.
Highlights
For riparian forest stands, variations in the water balance is an important factor that acts on tree growth [1,2]
Floods can strip surface litter and uproot young shrubs and tree saplings not able to withstand the strong currents associated with high stream flows [5,6]. All of these factors associated with successive floods necessarily create a long-term change in tree composition and the structure of riparian forest stands affected by such special water conditions [7,8,9]
By grouping the data based on the flood recurrence zones, it can be seen that regeneration is lower in the high-flood zone (FFz) than in the other two zones (MFz and no-flood zones (NFz))
Summary
For riparian forest stands, variations in the water balance (e.g., floods, low and high stream flows) is an important factor that acts on tree growth [1,2]. Floods can strip surface litter and uproot young shrubs and tree saplings not able to withstand the strong currents associated with high stream flows [5,6] All of these factors associated with successive floods necessarily create a long-term change in tree composition and the structure of riparian forest stands affected by such special water conditions [7,8,9]. Tree age-class structure and distribution are the most commonly used parameters for describing forest stands and assessing changes in individuals from the same tree species [12,13,14] These measurements may sometimes be carried over or extrapolated to smaller-scale wooded areas in order to obtain an overview of changes in the forest cover. It is known that environmental conditions and various disturbances (allogenic or autogenic) can induce marked differences between the stands, in particular with respect to the composition, structure, tree diameter and age of the individuals [15,16,17]
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