Data from: beyond the case study: characterizing natural floodplain heterogeneity in the United States

As river channels move across the valley floor, they create diverse
topography including natural levees, cutoff meanders, secondary channels,
and floodplain wetlands. These features increase the spatial heterogeneity
of the floodplain. Many studies indicate that this heterogeneity strongly
influences habitat abundance and diversity, storage of flood waters and
excess nitrate or phosphate, and other floodplain functions. However, no
one has systematically measured floodplain heterogeneity across multiple
rivers and different geographic regions. We measured the heterogeneity of
natural floodplains at 14 sites in the continental United States using
metrics developed by landscape ecologists. We find that natural
floodplains have distinctive heterogeneity signatures that relate to
drainage area, the size of the floodplain, and other characteristics. The
data included here are the original field data associated with 14 of the
field sites, including GPS locations of floodplain transects, floodplain
patches, sediment cores, and large wood; and delineated floodplain
shapefiles.