Impact of a 100-year flood on vegetation, benthic invertebrates, riparian fauna and large woody debris standing stock in an alpine floodplain

verfasst von

Daniel Hering, Marc Gerhard, Randolf Manderbach, Michael Reich

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of a 100-year flood in May 1999 on community composition and large woody debris standing stock in an alpine floodplain (Isar, Germany). Detailed pre-flood data sampled from 1993 to 1998 are compared with the situation directly after the flood. In those parts of the Isar floodplain mainly covered with pioneer vegetation prior to flooding, the coverage of unvegetated gravel bars increased by 22% following the flood. However, the flood did not remove larger amounts of older successional vegetation stages (willow thickets, floodplain forest). No significant changes in the benthic invertebrate fauna were recorded. The lowest densities of riparian ground beetles (Carabidae) within the study were recorded one month after the flood. Two months later, the ground beetle densities increased to the highest values ever recorded, indicating the ground beetle's high potential for recolonization. These results highlight the degree of resilience of both the aquatic and the riparian invertebrate fauna. The flood also caused a significant increase in large woody debris standing stock; in one section the number of logs increased tenfold and the volume increased by a factor of 20, leading to the assumption that most woody debris in alluvial flood-plains is provided by catastrophic events.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Umweltplanung

Externe Organisation(en)

Universität Duisburg-Essen
Philipps-Universität Marburg

Typ

Artikel

Journal

River research and applications

Band

20

Seiten

445-457

Anzahl der Seiten

13

ISSN

1535-1459

Publikationsdatum

07.2004

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Umweltchemie, Gewässerkunde und -technologie, Umweltwissenschaften (insg.)

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.759 (Zugang: Geschlossen)