Streams and their riparian zones provide typical examples of naturally speciesrich, dynamic habitats. Under natural conditions, spatial and temporal variation in flooding disturbance coincide with a strong hydrological gradient from the channel to the uplands, generating a heterogeneous environment with corresponding high plant and animal diversity. Yet, streams and their riparian zones are hig...

Riparian zones represent ecotones between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are of utmost importance to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Modelling/mapping of these valuable and fragile areas is needed for an improved ecosystem management, based on an accounting of changes and on monitoring of their functioning in time. In Europe, the main legislative driver behind this goal is the Eur...

Riparian zones can provide a protective buffer between streams and adjacent land-based activities by removing nitrate from shallow groundwater flowing through them. Catchment-scale waterquality models are useful tools for predicting catchment behaviour under various climatic conditions and land-use scenarios. In this paper, we use the Riparian Nitrate Model (RNM) to investigate the potential ro...

The capacity of riparian zones to serve as critical control locations for watershed nitrogen flux varies with site characteristics. Without a means to stratify riparian zones into different levels of ground water nitrate removal capacity, this variability will confound spatially explicit source-sink models of watershed nitrate flux and limit efforts to target riparian restoration and management...

A watershed's riparian corridor presents opportunities to stabilize streambanks, intercept runoff, and influence shallow groundwater with riparian buffers. This paper presents a system to classify these riparian opportunities and apply them toward riparian management planning in hydrologic unit code 12 watersheds. In two headwater watersheds from each of three landform regions found in Iowa and...

BACKGROUND In agricultural regions, streamside forests have been reduced in age and extent, or removed entirely to maximize arable cropland. Restoring and reforesting such riparian zones to mature forest, particularly along headwater streams (which constitute 90% of stream network length) would both increase carbon storage and improve water quality. Age and management-related cover/condition cl...

We reviewed the behavior of wildfire in riparian zones, primarily in the western United States, and the potential ecological consequences of postfire logging. Fire behavior in riparian zones is complex, but many aquatic and riparian organisms exhibit a suite of adaptations that allow relatively rapid recovery after fire. Unless constrained by other factors, fish tend to rebound relatively quick...

While riparian forests have a demonstrated ability to remove nitrate (NO3-) moving from uplands before it enters streams, there is considerable uncertainty as to the mechanisms of NOr removal in these areas. We characterized spatial and temporal variation in denitrification enzyme activity (DEA), microbial biomass C and N content, soil respiration and potential net N mineralization and nitrific...

Despite the numerous values of riparian areas and the recognition of fire as a critical natural disturbance, few studies have investigated the behavior, properties, and influence of natural fire in riparian areas of the western USA. Riparian areas frequently differ from adjacent uplands in vegetative composition and structure, geomorphology, hydrology, microclimate, and fuel characteristics. Th...

-Riparian ecosystems are sites of important biogeochemical processes that affect the composition and structure of the streamside biota as well as aquatic systems. Microbial activity, coupled with the slow diffusion of oxygen in waterlogged riparian soils, causes anaerobic conditions and reduction in reduction­ oxidation (redox) potential. Redox potentials provide a useful measurement as to the ...