Abstract
Riparian vegetation varies along hydrologic gradients, along which inundation and drought tend to be inversely correlated. Differentiating effects of inundation and drought on plant distributions is critical for predicting impacts of changes to baseflows and designing flow patterns to achieve vegetation objectives in regulated river systems. To this end, we conducted a greenhouse experiment where we decreased, increased, or maintained constant water levels experienced by a suite of riparian plant species. We related changes in new root growth and stomatal conductance under experimental conditions to species hydrologic niches in the field, specifically the median elevation at which they occur above the channel, along the regulated Colorado River in Grand Canyon. We found a significant negative relationship between root growth response to experimental inundation with increasing elevation above the channel in the field, and a negative response of stomatal conductance to inundation among the most xeric-adapted species. Drought responses were idiosyncratic with respect to hydrologic niche, and instead seemed to vary in relation to clonality and rooting depth. Several Salicaceae tree species that are uncommon along regulated rivers exhibited consistently negative responses to both drought and inundation relative to other species, which may explain their rarity. The results of this study suggest that riparian plant distributions along hydrologic gradients have been shaped primarily by current and past levels of inundation. However, future anticipated declines in the water table are likely to produce species-specific responses based on drought tolerance that may in part be predicted from the results of this experiment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Data will be available online via a USGS data release following publication of this manuscript.
References
Aguiar FC, Segurado P, Martins MJ, Bejarano MD, Nilsson C, Portela MM, Merritt DM (2018) The abundance and distribution of guilds of riparian woody plants change in response to land use and flow regulation. J Appl Ecol 55:2227–2240. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13110
Amlin NM, Rood SB (2002) Comparative tolerances of riparian willows and cottonwoods to water-table decline. Wetlands 22:338–346. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2002)022[0338:CTORWA]2.0.CO;2
Aparecido LMT, Woo S, Suazo C et al (2020) High water use in desert plants exposed to extreme heat. Ecol Lett 23:1189–1200. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13516
Asplund KK, Gooch MT (1988) Geomorphology and the distributional ecology of Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) in a desert riparian canyon. Desert Plants 9:17–27
Baladrón A, Bejarano MD, Sarneel JM, Boavida I (2022) Trapped between drowning and desiccation: riverine plants under hydropeaking. Sci Total Environ 829:154451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154451
Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw 67:1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Bejarano MD, González del Tánago M, de Jalón DG et al (2012) Responses of riparian guilds to flow alterations in a Mediterranean stream. J Veg Sci 23:443–458. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2011.01360.x
Bejarano MD, Jansson R, Nilsson C (2018) The effects of hydropeaking on riverine plants: a review. Biol Rev 93:658–673. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12362
Bruno MC, Vallefuoco F, Casari A et al (2023) Moving waters to mitigate hydropeaking: a case study from the italian Alps. River Res Appl 39:570–587. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.4086
Butterfield BJ, Palmquist E, Ralston B (2018) Hydrological regime and climate interactively shape riparian vegetation composition along the Colorado River, Grand Canyon. Appl Veg Sci 21:572–583. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12390
Butterfield BJ, Grams PE, Durning LE et al (2020a) Associations between riparian plant morphological guilds and fluvial sediment dynamics along the regulated Colorado River in Grand Canyon. River Res Appl 36:410–421. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3589
Butterfield BJ, Palmquist EC, Hultine KR (2020b) Regional coordination between riparian dependence and atmospheric demand in willows (Salix L.) of western North America. Divers Distrib 27:377–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13192
Cornwell WK, Ackerly DD (2009) Community assembly and shifts in plant trait distributions across an environmental gradient in coastal California. Ecol Monogr 79:109–126. https://doi.org/10.1890/07-1134.1
Cronk JK, Fennessy MS (2001) Wetland Plants: Biology and Ecology, 1st edn. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420032925
Diehl RM, Merritt DM, Wilcox AC, Scott ML (2017) Applying functional traits to ecogeomorphic processes in riparian ecosystems. Bioscience 67:729–743. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix080
Drew MC (1997) Oxygen deficiency and root metabolism: injury and acclimation under hypoxia and anoxia. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 48:223–250. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.arplant.48.1.223
Durning LE, Sankey JB, Yackulic CB et al (2021) Hydrologic and geomorphic effects on riparian plant species occurrence and encroachment: Remote sensing of 360 km of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Ecohydrology 14:e2344. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2344
Evans MEK, Smith SA, Flynn RS, Donoghue MJ (2009) Climate, niche evolution, and eiversification of the Bird-Cage evening primroses (Oenothera, sections Anogra and Kleinia). Am Nat 173:225–240. https://doi.org/10.1086/595757
Fraaije RGA, ter Braak CJF, Verduyn B et al (2015a) Dispersal versus environmental filtering in a dynamic system: drivers of vegetation patterns and diversity along stream riparian gradients. J Ecol 103:1634–1646. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12460
Fraaije RGA, ter Braak CJF, Verduyn B et al (2015b) Early plant recruitment stages set the template for the development of vegetation patterns along a hydrological gradient. Funct Ecol 29:971–980. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12441
Gloss S, Lovich JE, Melis TS (2005) The state of the Colorado River ecosystem in Grand Canyon - A report of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center 1991–2004. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1282, 220 p
Gonzalez E, Shafroth PB, Lee SR et al (2020) Combined effects of biological control of an invasive shrub and fluvial processes on riparian vegetation dynamics. Biol Invasions 22:2339–2356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02259-9
Grams PE, Schmidt JC, Wright SA, Topping DJ, Melis TS, Rubin DM (2015) Building sandbars in the Grand Canyon. Eos 96. https://doi.org/10.1029/2015EO030349
Hothorn T, Bretz F, Westfall P (2008) Simultaneous inference in general parametric models. Biom J 50:346–363. https://doi.org/10.1002/bimj.200810425
Hough-Snee N, Laub BG, Merritt DM et al (2015) Multi-scale environmental filters and niche partitioning govern the distributions of riparian vegetation guilds. Ecosphere 6:art173. https://doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00064.1
Hultine KR, Froend R, Blasini D et al (2019) Hydraulic traits that buffer deep-rooted plants from changes in hydrology and climate. Hydrol Process 34:209–222. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13587
Kozlowski TT (1997) Responses of woody plants to flooding and salinity. Tree Physiol 17:490. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/17.7.490
Kozlowski TT, Pallardy SG (2002) Acclimation and adaptive responses of woody plants to environmental stresses. Bot Rev 68:270–334. https://doi.org/10.1663/0006-8101(2002)068[0270:AAAROW]2.0.CO;2
Lite SJ, Bagstad KJ, Stromberg JC (2005) Riparian plant species richness along lateral and longitudinal gradients of water stress and flood disturbance, San Pedro River, Arizona, USA. J Arid Environ 63:785–813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2005.03.026
Marks CO, Atia H (2020) Seedling submergence tolerances accurately predict riparian tree species distributions: insights to help design environmental flows. Wetlands 40:1923–1934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01375-5
McCoy-Sulentic ME, Kolb TE, Merritt DM et al (2017) Variation in species‐level plant functional traits over wetland indicator status categories. Ecol Evol 7:3732–3744. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2975
McCoy-Sulentic ME, Kolb TE, Merritt DM et al (2017a) Changes in Community-Level Riparian Plant Traits over Inundation gradients, Colorado River, Grand Canyon. Wetlands 37:635–646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0895-3
McDowell N, Pockman WT, Allen CD et al (2008) Mechanisms of plant survival and mortality during drought: why do some plants survive while others succumb to drought? New Phytol 178:719–739. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02436.x
Merritt DM, Scott ML, Poff NL et al (2010) Theory, methods and tools for determining environmental flows for riparian vegetation: riparian vegetation-flow response guilds. Freshw Biol 55:206–225. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2009.02206.x
Naiman RJ, Decamps H, Pollock M (1993) The role of riparian corridors in maintaining regional biodiversity. Ecol Appl 3:209–212. https://doi.org/10.2307/1941822
Nilsson C, Reidy CA, Dynesius M, Revenga C (2005) Fragmentation and flow regulation of the world’s large river systems. Science 308:405–408. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1107887
Palmquist EC, Ralston BE, Merritt DM, Shafroth PB (2018) Landscape-scale processes influence riparian plant composition along a regulated river. J Arid Environ 148:54–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JARIDENV.2017.10.001
Palmquist EC, Ogle K, Whitham TG et al (2022) Provenance, genotype, and flooding influence growth and resource acquisition characteristics in a clonal, riparian shrub. Am J Bot 110:e16115. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16115
Palmquist EC, Butterfield BJ, Ralston BE (2023) Assessment of riparian vegetation patterns and change downstream from Glen Canyon Dam from 2014 to 2019. U S Geological Survey Open-File Report 2023–1026:55. https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20231026
Revelle W (2022) Psych: procedures for personality and Psychological Research. Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psychVersion=2.2.9
Rood SB, Patiño S, Coombs K, Tyree MT (2000) Branch sacrifice: cavitation-associated drought adaptation of riparian cottonwoods. Trees 14:248–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004680050010
Sabo JL, Sponseller R, Dixon M et al (2005) Riparian zones increase regional species richness by harboring different, not more, species. Ecology 86:56–62. https://doi.org/10.1890/04-0668
Sala A, Smith SD, Devitt DA (1996) Water use by Tamarix ramosissima and associated phreatophytes in a Mojave Desert floodplain. Ecol Appl 6:888–898. https://doi.org/10.2307/2269492
Sankey JB, Ralston BE, Grams PE et al (2015) Riparian vegetion, Colorado River, and climate: five decades of spatiotemporal dynamics in the Grand Canyon with river regulation. J Geophys Res Biogeosciences 120:1532–1547. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JG002991
Silvertown J, Araya Y, Gowing D (2015) Hydrological niches in terrestrial plant communities: a review. J Ecol 103:93–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12332
Singer MB, Stella JC, Dufour S et al (2013) Contrasting water-uptake and growth responses to drought in co-occurring riparian tree species. Ecohydrology 6:402–412. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1283
Stella JC, Battles JJ (2010) How do riparian woody seedlings survive seasonal drought? Oecologia 164:579–590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1657-6
Stromberg JC (2013) Root patterns and hydrogeomorphic niches of riparian plants in the american Southwest. J Arid Environ 94:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2013.02.004
Stromberg JC, Boudell JA (2013) Floods, drought, and seed mass of riparian plant species. J Arid Environ 97:99–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2013.05.012
Stromberg JC, Tiller R, Richter B (1996) Effects of groundwater decline on riparian vegetation of semiarid regions: the San Pedro, Arizona. Ecol Appl 6:113–131. https://doi.org/10.2307/2269558
Stromberg JC, Beauchamp VB, Dixon MD et al (2007) Importance of low-flow and high-flow characteristics to restoration of riparian vegetation along rivers in arid south-western United States. Freshw Biol 52:651–679. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2006.01713.x
Swift CC, Jacobs SM, Esler KJ (2008) Drought induced xylem embolism in four riparian trees from the western Cape Province: insights and implications for planning and evaluation of restoration. South Afr J Bot 74:508–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2008.01.169
Taseski GM, Keith DA, Dalrymple RL, Cornwell WK (2020) Shifts in fine root traits within and among species along a fine-scale hydrological gradient. Ann Botany 127:473–481. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa175
Tonkin JD, Merritt DM, Olden JD et al (2018) Flow regime alteration degrades ecological networks in riparian ecosystems. Nat Ecol Evol 2:86–93. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0379-0
USGS (2020) Discharge, sediment, and water quality monitoring. In: Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. Website online data,. https://www.gcmrc.gov/discharge_qw_sediment/
Vandersande MW, Glenn EP, Walworth JL (2001) Tolerance of five riparian plants from the lower Colorado River to salinity drought and inundation. J Arid Environ 49:147–159. https://doi.org/10.1006/jare.2001.0839
Weigelt A, Mommer L, Andraczek K et al (2021) An integrated framework of plant form and function: the belowground perspective. New Phytol 232:42–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17590
Wheeler KG, Udall B, Wang J, Kuhn E, Salehabadi H, Schmidt JC (2022) What will it take to stabilize the Colorado River? Science 377:373–375. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo4452
Yarnell SM, Petts GE, Schmidt JC et al (2015) Functional flows in modified riverscapes: hydrographs, habitats and opportunities. Bioscience 65:963–972. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biv102
Acknowledgements
We thank Samuel Chischilly, Megan Phillips, Rikki Gurule and Erica Fraley for helping to establish this experiment and collect data. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Funding
This work was supported by the Glen Canyon Adaptive Management Program via USGS cooperative agreement #G17AC00220 to Northern Arizona University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Brad Butterfield and Emily Palmquist both contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Brad Butterfield. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Brad Butterfield and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Butterfield, B.J., Palmquist, E.C. Inundation Tolerance, Rather than Drought Tolerance, Predicts Riparian Plant Distributions Along a Local Hydrologic Gradient. Wetlands 44, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-023-01730-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-023-01730-2