~ Riparian vegetation increases stream channel complexity and directly contributes to aquatic habitat through inputs of logs and branches. In turn, the provision of complex habitat has a major influence on aquatic biodiversity. ~ Logs and branches can enhance stream stability, regulate sediment transport and exert significant control on channel complexity in bedrock rivers and channel geomorpho...

Riparian forests are critically endangered many anthropogenic pressures and natural hazards. The importance of riparian zones has been acknowledged by European Directives, involving multi-scale monitoring. The use of this very-high-resolution and hyperspatial imagery in a multi-temporal approach is an emerging topic. The trend is reinforced by the recent and rapid growth of the use of the unman...

Lotic ecosystems are substantially different than most other ecosystems because the continuous unidirectional flow through the system tends to transport matter to downstream reaches. This gives rise to the common erroneous view of streams as conduits or pipes. The process of retention removes matter from transport and makes it available for utilization by stream biota, thus providing a critical...

We evaluated whether ecosystem engineers can accomplish two conservation goals simultaneously: (1) indirectly maintain populations of an endangered animal through habitat modifi cation and (2) increase riparian plant diversity. We tested for eff ects of a prominent ecosystem engineer, the beaver Castor canadensis, on populations of St. Francis’ satyr butterfl y Neonympha mitchellii francisci an...

Forest vegetation patterns alongside the Poerua River, south Westland, were studied to determine whether a distinct riparian community could be defined either immediately adjacent to the river, or out to the limit of overbank flooding. Ten randomly located 100 m transects were established perpendicular to the river at each of two sites. Ground cover of alluvial sediment indicated that annual ov...

Understanding the influence of habitat alteration on population structure and persistence is critical for effective conservation strategies. Timber harvest and wildfire are two of the most prevalent disturbances across temperate forests, yet the long-term effects of these two forces on population connectivity have rarely been studied. We studied populations of the Rocky Mountain tailed frog (As...

[1] Riparian zones in semiarid regions often exhibit high rates of evapotranspiration (ET) in spite of low-soil moisture content due to the presence of phreatophytic vegetation that is able to withdraw water from shallow aquifers. This work seeks to better define the relationship between ET, the saturated zone and the river boundary by comparing observed water table drawdown records to analytic...

Reforestation of riparian zones is increasingly practiced in many regions for purposes of biodiversity conservation, bank stabilisation, and improvement in water quality. This is in spite of the actual benefits of reforestation for recovering underlying soil properties and function remaining poorly understood. Here we compare remnant riparian rainforest, pasture and reforestation plantings aged...

Riparian zones are of utmost importance in providing a wide range of ecological and societal services. Among these, their role in maintaining landscape connectivity through ecological corridors for animals and plants is of major interest from a conservation and management perspective. This paper describes a methodology to identify European regions as providers of structural riparian corridors, ...