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Floodplain water bodies
Under natural conditions, floodplains can contain a wide range of freshwater ecosystems including permanently flowing and temporal channels, oxbow lakes, spring brooks, tributaries and temporary wetlands. They are found along a gradient of decreasing hydrological connectivity from permanent to temporary links with the main channel of the river (Paillex, et al., 2007). The degree of hydrological connectivity influences major habitat components such as water physicochemical properties, its nutrient content, substrata and the morphology, which are the main drivers of biodiversity in floodplain freshwater ecosystems (Amoros, and Bornette, 2002). For example, studies on fish communities underlined the importance of diverse waterbodies in riverine landscapes for spawning and as nurseries, feeding and refuge areas (Aarts, et al., 2004), which can also support the re-settlement of the river after extreme disturbances.
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The natural vegetation of floodplains in most European areas is dense riverside forest (Glaeser, and Wulf, 2009; Klimo, et al., 2001). Only a few areas such as open water, flood channels, silted up areas, and gravel banks are naturally non-wooded. The floodplain forests occur on nutrient rich soils, which have over time been deposited by rivers during flooding. They are among the richest and most complex forest ecosystems of Europe but vary considerably in structure and species present in different biogeographical regions of Europe (Girel, et al., 2003).
Rapidly growing softwoods such as willows and poplars are characteristic for floodplains near rivers with soil largely comprising sediment. They depend on newly deposited sediments and well-timed floods for their natural regeneration by seed and the absence of these conditions across most European floodplains has made some species like black poplar become rare (Hughes et al., 2008). Floodplain areas further away from rivers tend to have a lower water table and older soil, and therefore are often made up of hardwood tree species such as the English oak, ash or elm, but they also contain a high diversity of other tree species. While softwood forests annually experience between 60 and 180 inundation days, hardwood floodplain forests can be flooded between 1 and 60 days per year in the growing season. Because of their nutrient rich soils, a good water supply and diversely structured forest strata, old hardwood forests host one of the most species-rich and unique plant, bird or invertebrate communities of European forests (Scholz, et al., 2005).
Girel, J., Hughes, F.M.R., Moss, T., Muller, E., Nilsson, C. and Richards, K.S. (2003) A case for floodplain forests? In Hughes, F.M.R. (ed.) The flooded forest: guidance for policy makers and river managers in on the restoration of floodplain forests. FLOBAR2, Department of Geography, , , 6-23.