Hydrological and geomorphological impacts on riparian plant communities

Riparian vegetation is affected by both flood processes and the characteris tics of landforms that are shaped by floods. In many instances, species occ urrence can be linked directly to specific fluvial landforms. These spatial relationships are largely due to the role of floods in the differential de struction of vegetation, in the determination of substrate characteristics, and in the transport of propagules. Major floods may, depending on the cli matic context, allow for the establishment of stands of vegetation, or rest art processes of plant community change. Disturbance by floods can also aff ect biodiversity: species richness in some watersheds is greatest where ste ep valley floor gradients allow for high-energy floods. The recognition and analysis of hydrogeomorphological influences on riparia n vegetation are complicated by multiple scales of environmental interactio ns, by the covariance of some environmental variables, and by feedbacks bet ween vegetation and flood regimes. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Lt d.