Overview of River-Floodplain Ecology in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Volume 3 of the Science fo Floodplain Management into the 21st Century.

摘要

One of the goals of the Scientific Assessment and Strategy Team (SAST) was to help increase the use of scientific information in the decisionmaking process for integrated management of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Accomplishing this task required understanding both the physical and biologic elements of the river basin and how they interact. Important aspects of the physical system are the geologic and geomorphic processes, the hydrologic cycle, climate, and hydraulic characteristics of the flood-plains. Each of these processes, influences the mutually dependent life forms of the basin. Besides defining the types of flora and fauna existing in the basin, it is also important to identify how they coexist within a dynamic land surface, how they rely on that dynamism, and how the current species and populations have changed from those in the past. Describing this change clarifies the relations among life forms and the physical environment and leads to an improved understanding of the implications of human-induced land transformation on the system.