Large wood supports hydrologically variable floodplain environments and aquatic biodiversity

It is increasingly recognized that riparian vegetation and wood play crucial roles in enhancing spatial heterogeneity in rivers. Historical removal of large wood and cutting of streamside forests around the world have simplified rivers and substantially reduced aquatic habitat complexity. To understand how (semi-)natural rivers sustain complex geomorphology and hydrology, and how they support aquatic diversity, we carried out an interdisciplinary field study in a stream flowing through a natural forest in Hokkaido, Japan. We mapped 65 side channels (a total of 10.1 km long) along a 9.2 km length of the main channel. More avulsions and side channels were present in stream sections with a higher density of large wood and logjams. At flood stage, 90% of the side channels were inundated with through-flowing river water, while the other 10% remain disconnected from the river and harbor stagnant water. At low flow, only 20% of the side channels had flow from the mainstream river, 46% containe..., , , # Large wood supports hydrologically variable floodplain environments and aquatic biodiversity

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k6djh9whp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k6djh9whp)

## Description of the data and file structure

All methods are described in the paper: \"Large wood supports hydrologically variable floodplain environments and aquatic biodiversity\", submitted to Ecological Applications.

**202206Butokama_habitat2.xlsx**: Physical environment of the study sites

* SiteID: site ID
* L: length in meters
* W: width in meters
* Depth1,2,3: depth in cm
* Sed1,2,3: organic sediment depth in cm
* Flow1,2,3: flow rate cm/sec
* sediment 1: primary sediment size
* sediment 2: secondary sediment size, if applicable

**202206Butokama.amph2.xlsx**

* Site: study siteID
* Frog: presence/absence of frog (1 is present, 0 is absent)
* Salamander: presence/absence of salamander (1 is present, 0 is absent)
* shrimp: presence/absence of shrimp (1 is present, 0 is absent)
* note: not...,