Study of Vegetation Development in Relation to Age of River Stabilization Structures Along a Channelized Segment of the Missouri River

摘要

During the summer of 1974, we sampled 45 sites of vegetation representative of successional trends in plant communities along the Missouri River floodplain from Sioux City, Iowa, to Rulo, Nebraska. The objective was to relate vegetation succession to age of river stabilization structures. Basal area and density data were collected for the tree species present and coverage and frequency data for all shrub and herbaceous species present in each site studied. Each site was then assigned to one of five distinct community types which were related to one another in a successional scheme. These community types listed from youngest to oldest are as follows: Salix-dominated, Populus-dominated, Platanus-Ulmus-dominated, tilia-Quercus-dominated, and Quercus-Carya-dominated vegetation. The construction dates of the stabilization structures adjacent to the sites studied provided an accurate and quite precise method of dating the sites.