Can environmental flows moderate riparian invasions? The influence of seedling morphology and density on scour losses in experimental floods

Predicting plant mortality during floods remains a key area of
uncertainty for both river managers and ecologists, particularly how
flood hydraulics and sediment dynamics interact with the plants’ own
traits to influence their vulnerability to scour and burial. The three
datasets in this archive were collected from a series of flume
experiments that took place at the University of California,
Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station. The flume experiments are part of a
larger study, funded by NSF (EAR#1024820) that quantified reciprocal
effects and feedbacks between riparian seedlings and river
morphodynamics, using sand-bed rivers in the U.S. Southwest as the
reference system. To quantify different plant species’ vulnerability
to flooding across a range of plant sizes, patch densities, and
sediment condition (equilibrium transport versus sediment deficit), we
ran 10 experimental floods using live seedlings of cottonwood and
tamarisk, which have contrasting morphologies. The three datasets
include: 1. Plant responses (dislodgement or burial) to the
experimental floods and plant size (e.g. stem height, root length, and
dry weight) for all plants tested during the flume runs (N = 484,
comprising 326 cottonwood and 158 tamarisk); 2. Plant morphological
traits (e.g. frontal area, bending force, and root diameter) for a
random subset of seedlings (n = 90, comprising 47 cottonwood and 43
tamarisk); and 3. Frontal area density for the same seedling subset.