The critical role streamside riparian zones play in mitigating the movement of nitrogen (N) and other elements from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems could be threatened by residential development in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Many studies have investigated the influence of agriculture on N loading to streams but less is known about the impacts of residential development. Here we consi...

Riparian zones support some of the most dynamic and species-rich plant communities in cold regions. A common conception among plant ecologists is that flooding during the season when plants are dormant generally has little effect on the survival and production of riparian vegetation. We show that winter floods may also be of fundamental importance for the composition of riverine vegetation. We ...

Dryland river basins frequently support both irrigated agriculture and riparian vegetation and remote sensing methods are needed to monitor water use by both crops and natural vegetation in irrigation districts. We developed an algorithm for estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) sensor on...

Riparian buffer strips are a widely accepted tool for helping to sustain aquatic ecosystems and to protect downstream resources and values in forested areas, but controversy persists over how wide a buffer strip is necessary. The physical integrity of stream channels is expected to be sustained if the characteristics and rates of tree fall along buffered reaches are similar to those in undistur...

In this paper, we present two years of seasonal nitric oxide (NO), ammonia (NH3), and nitrous oxide (N2O) trace gas fluxes measured in a recovering riparian zone with cattle excluded and adjacent riparian zone grazed by cattle. In the recovering riparian zone, average NO, NH3, and N2O fluxes were 5.8, 2.0, and 76.7 ng N m(-2) S(-1) (1.83, 0.63, and 24.19 kg N ha(-1) y(-1)), respectively. Fluxes...

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We determined the prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis (Nematoda, Filariidae) among 433 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in northeastern Spain, between 1990 and 1992. Forty-six (11%) of 433 foxes were infected; the intensity ranged from 1 to 36 (mean +/- SE; 4.39 +/- 0.92) nematodes per host. The prevalence of D. immitis was higher in foxes inhabiting riparian zones of the study area. This population has...

In mountainous areas such as the southern Appalachians USA, riparian zones are difficult to define. Vegetation is a commonly used 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 changes in stand-level floristic diversity of riparian plant communities before (20...

Floods trigger cascades of physical processes that alter streams and riparian zones of mountain landscapes, yet affected species are resilient Recent flooding in the Pacific Northwest vividly illustrates the complexity of watershed and ecosystem responses to floods, especially in steep forest landscapes. Flooding involves a sequence of interactions that begins with climatic drivers. These drive...

riparian corridors in maintaining regional biodiversity. Ecological Applications 3:209–212. Økland, R. H., O. Eilertsen, and T. Økland. 1990. On the relationship between sample plot size and beta diversity in boreal coniferous forests. Vegetatio 87:187–192. Sabo, J. L., R. Sponseller, M. Dixon, K. Gade, T. Harms, J. Heffernan, A. Jani, G. Katz, C. Soykan, J. Watts, and J. Welter. 2005. Riparian...