Influence of flooding duration and aeration on saplings of ten hardwood floodplain forest species.

PLoS One

Division of Landscape Ecology and Landscape Planning, Research Centre of Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition (IFZ), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.

Published: September 2020

AI Article Synopsis

  • Alluvial floodplain forests in Europe are facing significant reduction due to human activities such as deforestation and agricultural expansion, leading to a lack of effective management frameworks for these complex ecosystems.
  • The study focused on how flooding duration and oxygen supply affect the growth and foliar injury of ten woody species saplings, identifying six as flooding tolerant and four as intolerant.
  • Results indicated that flooding tolerant species improved growth with longer flooding durations, and incorporating a recovery period is crucial for evaluating their resilience to flooding stress.

Article Abstract

Alluvial floodplain forests have been reduced drastically in many parts of Europe, due to deforestation, the transformation to settlement and expansion of agricultural areas. Although they have been heavily modified for centuries, generalized frameworks for their management are scarce and the complex interactions between the physical environment and biological processes are often not fully understood. As the zonation of woody species in floodplains is mainly determined by hydrological conditions, flooding tolerance can be regarded as a key factor for the successful establishment of woody species. Furthermore, the oxygen level of the flooding water might affect the responses to flooding. We examined the influence of flooding duration in combination with oxygen supply by aeration on the foliar injury and growth of six-week-old saplings of ten woody species, under controlled common garden conditions. Six of them are considered to be flooding tolerant whereas four are intolerant. In addition, seven are native whereas three are non-native species. During the experiment, the saplings were exposed to partial flooding of different durations (k = 3; three, six and nine weeks) and oxygen levels (k = 2; aerated and not aerated). For comparison, we included an unflooded control. We recorded foliar injury, plant height, number of leaves and stem diameter. We also included a long-term recovery period. Whereas foliar injury decreased for most species with increasing flooding duration, the typical floodplain forest species, classified as flooding tolerant developed better. The differences in species response to flooding could be most likely explained by their ability to react to the resulting stress in morphological, physiological and metabolic terms irrespective whether they are native or not. In addition, the inclusion of a recovery period seems to be important for the assessment of flooding tolerance.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7326170PMC
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0234936PLOS

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

flooding duration
12
woody species
12
foliar injury
12
flooding
10
influence flooding
8
saplings ten
8
floodplain forest
8
species
8
forest species
8
flooding tolerance
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!