1 Bibliographic Review of Sources Relevant to Development of Draft ...

Savannah River Annotated Bibliography: January 2003
and Management 90(2,3): 237-250.
Megonigal, J., W. Conner, S. Kroeger and R. Sharitz (1997). "Aboveground production
in southeastern floodplain forests: a test of the subsidy-stress hypothesis."
Ecology 78(2): 370-384.
Paired plots were established across a soil moisture gradient (dry, periodically flooded, flooded) in
three forested wetland watersheds in Louisiana, and South Carolina. The SC sites included one on
the Savannah River and one on Upper Three Runs Creek, a tributary. All trees greater than 10 cm
diameter at breast height were tagged and measured annually. The greatest changes in density
occurred in those sites where water-level changes were occurring or where windstorms struck.
Mortality rates are typically low in areas that have not been altered hydrologically. Flooded sites
in both states had the greatest basal area, and dry and periodically flooded sites had similar basal
areas.
Effects of river flow management on floodplain systems
Dudgeon, D. (1995). "River Regulation in Southern China - Ecological Implications,
Conservation and Environmental-Management." Regulated Rivers-Research &
Management 11(1): 35-54.
The importance of floods as an incentive for river regulation is apparent from the fact that 10% of
China's area, inhabited by 65% of the population and responsible for 70% of the agricultural and
industrial output, is below the flood level of major rivers. Large-scale water-transfer projects and
the planned construction of the biggest dam in the world (the Three Gorges High Dam) on the
Chang Jiang have the potential to affect fisheries stocks and endangered fish species, to alter
inundation patterns in wetlands of international conservation significance and may contribute to
the extinction of the endemic and highly endangered Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) and
Chinese river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer). In addition, deforestation and soil erosion in the Chang
Jiang basin have given rise to siltation and degradation of floodplain habitats. In the Zhujiang,
dam construction has caused reductions in fisheries stocks but here, as elsewhere in China, the
ecologically damaging consequences of river regulation are exacerbated by overfishing and
increasing pollution of rivers by sewage, pesticides and industrial wastes.
Kingsford, R. T. (2000). "Ecological impacts of dams, water diversions and river
management on floodplain wetlands in Australia." Austral Ecology 25(2): 109-
127.
Australian floodplain wetlands are sites of high biodiversity that depend on flows from rivers.
Dams, diversions and river management have reduced flooding to these wetlands, altering their
ecology, and causing the death or poor health of aquatic biota. Four floodplain wetlands (Barmah-
Millewa Forest and Moira Marshes, Chowilla floodplain, Macquarie Marshes, Gwydir wetlands)
illustrate these effects with successional changes in aquatic vegetation, reduced vegetation health,
declining numbers of water birds and nesting, and declining native fish and invertebrate
populations. Plans exist to build dams to divert water from many rivers, mainly for irrigation.
These plans seldom adequately model subsequent ecological and hydrological impacts to
floodplain wetlands. To avoid further loss of wetlands, an improved understanding of the
interaction between river flows and floodplain ecology, and investigations into ecological impacts
of management practices, is essential.
Nilsson, C. and K. Berggren (2000). "Alterations of riparian ecosystems caused by river
regulation." Bioscience 50(9): 783-792.
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