A Study on Floodplain Forest Regeneration

Описание: Background:
In the Southeastern United States, most floodplains are disconnected from their rivers due to levees. Many rivers have been straightened and deepened and have dams along them. This has resulted in a change in the rivers' historical flow patterns. Historically, rivers flooded into their floodplains every year, often multiple times. Today, most rivers do not flood at all, including the Mississippi River and many of its tributaries. In the lower Mississippi River floodplain (Mississippi Alluvial Valley) loss of flooding, and changes in flood patterns, are influencing the floodplain forests, known as bottomland hardwood forests. Additionally, most floodplains in the lower Mississippi River floodplain have been developed or converted to agriculture, leaving only 20% of the original 24 million acres of floodplain forest. The remaining 5 million acres are important for multiple reasons, including wildlife habitat, timber resources, recreation, nutrient reduction, groundwater recharge, flood protection, and carbon storage.

This video:
Many floodplain forests no longer experience flooding, but some still do, albeit the flooding duration, depth, and frequency is different due to river modifications. This video is about floodplain forests in Louisiana, which are part of the lower Mississippi River floodplain. Because of the disruption of flooding patterns, the floodplain forests are starting to change and many forest communities are transitioning to less flood tolerant trees. Even though we know this change is related to flooding, we do not know how it's related. One hypothesis is that this is due to changes in tree seedling survival (tree regeneration). Does flooding (or lack thereof) promote the establishment of some species and/or inhibit others?