The aim of this paper was to collect evidence for the effects of contaminants on biota in a highly dynamic river Rhine floodplain. To this purpose we reviewed the results of circa 10 studies performed in this floodplain. The floodplain was contaminated with elevated levels of cadmium, copper, PAHs, and PCBs and high levels of zinc which were at some sites above legislative values. The results s...

While the process of modeling and mapping a 100-year floodplain is inherently full of uncertainty, engineers are still required to determine a single line boundary for flood insurance rate and other floodplain studies. This is despite the fact that a good engineer knows that, within reasonable limits, different modeling parameters can be chosen that result in shifting the floodplain boundary ei...

Monitoring and forecasting of natural vegetation succession is essential for optimal management of river floodplain ecosystems in Western Europe. For example the development of woody vegetation types (e.g., softwood forest) increases the hydraulic resistance of the floodplain and can have negative effects on the discharge capacity of the river. However, from a biodiversity point-of-view this de...

The Illinois River is one of the major tributaries of the Mississippi River in the central United States with a drainage area of 75,156 square kilometers. The Illinois River connects the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River through the Illinois Waterway that consists of eight lock and dams along the Illinois River and its tributaries. Because of its central location in the state and being the...

A bacterial community has a central role in nutrient cycle in aquatic habitats. Therefore, it is important to analyze how this community is distributed throughout different locations. Thirty-six different sites in the upper Paraná River floodplain were surveyed to determine the influence of environmental variable in bacterial community composition. The sites are classified as rivers, channels, ...

Anthrax has become endemic throughout the upper Zambezi floodplain located in the Western Province of Zambia over the recent years. To date, no comprehensive study has been carried out to determine whether recurrence of anthrax outbreaks may be linked to differences in precipitation and human activities. Retrospective data for the period 1999 to 2007 showed that a total of 1,216 bovine cases of...

We investigated the effect of interannual variation of hydrosedimentological regime and connectivity on the zooplankton biodiversity in the Upper Paraná River floodplain. Zooplankton samplings were undertaken between 2000 and 2007, in different environments of the floodplain, including connected and isolated floodplain lakes, backwaters, rivers and channels. The zooplankton included 541 species...

Water balance of wetlands within lowland floodplains is strongly influenced by the temporally variable spatial extent of the interactions between groundwater and surface water. A robust algorithm will be introduced which makes it possible to delineate the interaction zone between the lowland river and the floodplain. This interaction zone is specified as the “Direct Catchment” which is defined ...

With current trends of converting grasslands to row crop agriculture in vulnerable areas, there is a critical need to evaluate the effects of land use on groundwater quality in large river floodplain systems. In this study, groundwater hydrology and nutrient dynamics associated with three land cover types (grassland, floodplain forest and cropland) were assessed at the Cedar River floodplain in...

Natural floodplains play an essential role in the processing and decomposition of organic matter and in the self-purification ability of rivers, largely due to the activity of bacteria. Knowledge about the composition of bacterial communities and its impact on organic-matter cycling is crucial for the understanding of ecological processes in river-floodplain systems. Particle-associated and fre...