Riparian area harvesting impacts on vegetation composition and diversity

Katherine Elliott; James Vose

Treesearch

Riparian area harvesting impacts on vegetation composition and diversity

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Katherine Elliott, James Vose

Year:

2016

Type:

General Technical Report

Station:

Southern Research Station

Source:

In: Stringer, Christina E.; Krauss, Ken W.; Latimer, James S., eds. 2016. Headwaters to estuaries: advances in watershed science and management -Proceedings of the Fifth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds. March 2-5, 2015, North Charleston, South Carolina. e-General Technical Report SRS-211. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 302 p.

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Abstract

In the southern Appalachians USA, the boundaries of riparian areas are often hard to define. Vegetation is often used as a riparian indicator and plays a key role in protecting water resources, but adequate knowledge of floristic responses to riparian disturbances is lacking. Our objective was to quantify floristic composition and diversity of the riparian communities before (2004) and one, two, and seven years after harvest treatments with varying buffer widths. The treatments were harvest distances of 0 m, 10 m, and 30 m away from the stream edge. Sites were harvested between 2005 and 2006.

Parent Publication

Headwaters to estuaries: advances in watershed science and management - Proceedings of the Fifth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds

Citation

Elliot, Katherine; Vose, James M. 2016. Riparian area harvesting impacts on vegetation composition and diversity. In: Stringer, Christina E.; Krauss, Ken W.; Latimer, James S., eds. 2016. Headwaters to estuaries: advances in watershed science and management -Proceedings of the Fifth Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds. March 2-5, 2015, North Charleston, South Carolina. e-General Technical Report SRS-211. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 1 p.