Study

Vegetation, invertebrate, and fish community response to past and current flow regulation in floodplains of the Savannah River, southeastern USA

  • Published source details Lee L.S., Garnett J.A., Bright E.G., Sharitz R.R. & Batzer D.P. (2016) Vegetation, invertebrate, and fish community response to past and current flow regulation in floodplains of the Savannah River, southeastern USA. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 24, 443-455.

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

Action Category

Actively manage water level: freshwater swamps

Action Link
Marsh and Swamp Conservation
  1. Actively manage water level: freshwater swamps

    A site comparison study in 2006–2007 of two forested floodplains in South Carolina and Georgia, USA (Lee et al. 2016) found that an artificial flood pulse increased the number of tree seedlings in one of two forest types, but had no significant effect in the other. No data were reported for these results. The Savannah River floodplain was artificially flooded in spring 2006 by releasing water from an upstream reservoir, but was not flooded in spring 2007. In cypress-tupelo swamp forest, the number of tree seedlings/plot did not significantly differ between years. In bottomland hardwood forest (higher up on the floodplain), the number of tree seedlings/plot was greater in summer 2006 than summer 2007. The nearby Altamaha River floodplain experienced natural floods in spring 2006 and 2007. Here, the overall number of tree seedlings/plot did not significantly differ between years for both forest types. Methods: Tree seedlings were counted in July–September 2006 and 2007, in around 50 permanent 30-m2 plots/river/year.

    (Summarised by: Nigel Taylor)

Output references
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