Vegetation recruitment in an enhanced floodplain: Ancillary benefits of salmonid habitat enhancement

Abstract

Widespread loss and degradation of riverine habitats due to dams, diversions, levees, and human development have led to an increase in river habitat enhancement projects in recent decades. These projects typically focus on improving either terrestrial (e.g., riparian vegetation) or aquatic (e.g., fish spawning and rearing) habitats, and do not commonly address the relationship between the two systems. However, there is abundant evidence that fundamental linkages exist between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and anthropogenic impacts such as urban expansion, agricultural activities, and river impoundment can synergistically degrade both systems. This study examines the effects of adult and juvenile salmonid habitat restoration on recruitment, density, and composition of riparian vegetation in an area heavily impacted by mining and flow regulation. For a year following in-channel coarse sediment placement and floodplain construction in an area previously covered with coarse mine tailings, we compared the abundance, richness and diversity of vegetation across four treatments: the newly constructed floodplain, isolated mine tailings, mine tailings near an access road, and a remnant riparian area that was less impacted by mining. Richness and diversity were higher in the floodplain than in any of the other treatments; we identified a total of 15 plant families in the floodplain treatments, as compared to three to five families in the other treatments. We observed significant differences in plant assemblage composition between treatments, with higher richness of primarily obligate or facultative wetland plant taxa in the floodplain treatment. This study demonstrates that restoring hydrological linkages between aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and redistribution of sediment size classes altered by mining, can create conditions that promote rapid wetland plant colonization, enhancing biodiversity and improving ecosystem function.