Distribution and abundance of canopy trees in floodplain forests of the Wisconsin River 1999 - 2001

The Wisconsin River Floodplain Project aimed to identify landscape
indicators that are well correlated with specific aspects of
ecological function. This is a crucial research need requiring an
integrated approach that combines landscape monitoring with field
studies. Large river-floodplain systems are among the most diverse and
dynamic landscapes in the US, providing many important societal
values, but relatively little effort has been devoted to development
and testing of landscape indicators for these systems. We developed and tested ecological indicators for large
river-floodplain landscapes along reaches of the Wisconsin River to
determine which landscape metrics are most useful for monitoring
population, community and ecosystem processes in large
river-floodplain landscapes. Spatially extensive field sampling was
combined with landscape analysis in nine reaches of the Wisconsin
River sampling to quantify the ability of landscape indicators to
predict ecological variables over broad scales. Landscape indicators
were evaluated by their utility for detecting changes in the structure
and function of the Wisconsin River floodplain landscape that were
related to modification of the natural flow regime, historical land
use, and current land-use patterns. Our field studies were
concentrated in floodplain forest in nine 12 to 20-km reaches along
the lower 400 km of the Wisconsin River.