Abstract
Many people find it surprising that the flood of 1993 had both positive and negative effects on the Upper Mississippi, the Illinois, and the Lower Missouri River-floodplain ecosystems. Many mobile organisms have adapted to exploit seasonal floods. This chapter aims to define rivers and their floodpiains as ecosystems that are created and maintained by floodpulses, and then describes the effects of the 1993 flood on selected biota and biological processes in these flood-adapted ecosystems. It summarizes the key findings, identifies lessons learned, and recommends research to improve our understanding of river-floodplain ecosystems and policies that will maintain and restore the valuable ecological services these ecosystems provide. Submergent aquatic plants and emergent aquatic plants provide important services in river-floodplain ecosystems. The combination of the flood-adapted animals and plants, the seasonal floodpulses and great floods, the river and its channels, and the complex patchwork of floodplain habitats constitute the dynamic and phenomenonally productive river-floodplain ecosystem.
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