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Effects of hydrologic modifications to riparian plant communities in a large river system in northern China

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Ecological Research

An Erratum to this article was published on 20 May 2015

Abstract

Hydrologic modifications to rivers caused by anthropogenic activity have major impacts on riparian ecosystems. Alterations to the hydrologic regime and their interactions with natural environmental parameters exert selective pressures on riparian vegetation, resulting in adaptations to specific flow attributes. However, few studies have attempted to detect these effects under multiple hydrologic conditions, especially for rivers in semi-dry and semi-humid regions. Using the “space-for-time substitution” method, we investigated the effects of hydrologic modifications to the riparian plant community along the Yongding River of northern China, by comparing community structure metrics (diversity, plant moisture affinity group, and lifespan) and a function metric (biomass) under three streamflows (perennial, seasonal and dried-up). Among these streamflows, seasonal flow reaches had the greatest plant diversity. Responses of plant moisture group and lifespan were inconsistent in different hydrologic stages, although they varied significantly (P < 0.01). Annuals and biennials greatly increased from perennial to seasonal streamflow (~59 %), while perennials decreased (~41 %). However, from seasonal to dried-up flow, the percentage of mesics and xerics increased by 12.8 and 11.8 %, respectively, while hydrics decreased dramatically (by 24.6 %). Perennial flow had significantly greater aboveground biomass (P < 0.05) than the other two flows. Hydrologic conditions and their related soil nutrients were the main driving factors of community structure and function, which explained 21.0 and 18.0 % of variation, respectively. These findings reveal the response process of the riparian plant community during hydrologic modification from perennial to dried-up streamflow.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the people who helped with fieldwork and provided helpful suggestions on the experimental design and manuscript improvement, in particular Hua Zheng, Zhiming Zhang, Yushun Chen, Yun Wang, and Juanjuan Zhao. This study was supported by the Special Fund of Forestry Industrial Research for Public Welfare of China (201204201) and the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (2006CB403402). MG was funded by the EU FP7 project BioFresh (http://www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu, contract no. 226874). We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100085, Beijing, China

    Chen Xiu & Zhiyun Ouyang

  2. Aquatic Ecology and Centre for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, 45141, Essen, Germany

    Michael Gerisch

  3. Department of Conservation Biology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstr.15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Chen Xiu, Michael Gerisch & Klaus Henle

  4. Hepia-University of Applied Science Western Switzerland, Route de Presinge 150, 1254, Jussy, Switzerland

    Christiane Ilg

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Xiu, C., Gerisch, M., Ilg, C. et al. Effects of hydrologic modifications to riparian plant communities in a large river system in northern China. Ecol Res 30, 461–469 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-015-1243-9

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