CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction to Riparian Zones

Riparian zones play essential roles in water and landscape planning, in restoration of

aquatic systems, and in catalyzing institutional and societal cooperation for these efforts

(Naiman et al., 1997). The width is considered the most important controllable variable

in determining the effectiveness of riparian zones in reducing pollutants and protecting

stream health. Riparian zones that are too narrow may not be sustainable or effective at

protecting stream banks. The efficacy of riparian zone function of any width is strongly

influenced by hydrological regime (e.g. flow regulation, and the frequency and

magnitude of overbank flows), the degree of fragmentation of the riparian zone (in

terms of longitudinal connectivity of riparian vegetation) and the presence of invasive

plant species. Therefore, the width of the riparian zone is often vary with topography,

hydrology, geology and land use (Castelle et al., 1994; Hansen et al., 2010).

One of the primary purposes of riparian zones is to reduce the amount of sediment,

chemicals and other pollutants entering streams. Water draining from croplands,

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pastures, managed forests or even urban development’s can contain sediment, fertilizer,

pesticides and other pollutants (Cunningham et al., 2011). Riparian zones function as

buffer to intercept and filter these materials in several ways. Vegetation, such as grass

or dead foliage and branches from trees on the soil surface, reduces the velocity of

surface runoff as it enters the buffer. Sediment and particulates contained in runoff are

deposited in the buffer rather than in a stream as this runoff velocity is reduced (Daniels

et al., 1993). The reduction of velocity also allows the surface water to better infiltrate

the soil, carrying pollutants and chemicals below the soil surface. Roots of vegetation in

the buffers absorb excessive nutrients and other chemicals contained in the subsurface

water (Osborne et al., 2006). Trees and grasses utilize the excess nutrients (nutrients

which originate from fertilizer applications or livestock operations outside the buffer) to

grow. These nutrients, especially in trees, can be stored in biomass for many decades. In

addition, microbial organisms in the soil degrade chemicals and pesticides, reducing the

potential for these materials to enter streams. Anaerobic soil microbes (organisms that

live in wet soils) can convert excessive nitrogen from fertilizer to a gas which is

dissipated to the atmosphere rather than entering streams (Fennessy et al., 2009). Where

fertilizer or pesticides are applied by aircraft, buffer edges clearly delineate the

boundaries of a field or managed forested stand from that of the stream. Thus, direct

application of agrochemicals to the stream can be avoided. All of these attributes help to

maintain or improve water quality within the landscape.

Vegetation and especially trees in riparian zones stabilize the banks of streams and

reduce the ability of streams to erode banks (Beeson et al., 1995; Zaimes et al., 2007).

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Roots of trees and other vegetation bind the soil together. Vegetation is especially

important in securing point bars that are typically formed by streams or rivers.

Reduction of bank erosion maintains the stream’s depth and width. Canopies of grass

and trees as well as the forest floor in forested riparian zones intercept precipitation and

shield the soil surface from erosion. Raindrops that hit the ground without striking

vegetation contain more energy than do those that drip off vegetation. These raindrops

more frequently detach and erode soil particles. Buffers reduce erosion and ensure that

soil located in riparian areas does not become a source of sediment in streams

(Schlosser et al., 1981; Kemper et al., 1992).

Since riparian vegetation occurs at the edge of streams, it is a source of food and

structural habitat for aquatic organisms (Skagen et al., 1998). Foliage and branches that

fall into the stream provide a source of food to benthic invertebrates (small organisms

without backbones that live in streams and lakes). Many of these organisms have

specialized features that allow them to shred the tissues of this vegetation for

consumption. In small streams and headwaters, these invertebrates are at the bottom of

the aquatic food chain. Restoration of this vegetation to stream banks ultimately

increases the productivity of streams (Bunn et al., 1999a; 1999b). Large woody debris

such as fallen trees and limbs provide structural habitat for aquatic communities in the

water bodies (Wallace et al., 2011). Large woody debris provides a location for benthic

invertebrates to cling to, reduces stream velocity and thereby provides resting areas for

fish. It helps to add diversity to streambed habitat. Riparian zones are important habitat

for a number of wildlife species. Since these areas are transitional zones that can be

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flooded or extremely dry at other periods of the year, they frequently are home to a

diverse community of mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles. In managed forest

landscapes, riparian zones are often a refuge for cavity-dwelling wildlife, such as flying

squirrels, when upland forests are harvested. Riparian zones can also provide travel

corridors for terrestrial wildlife, linking different habitats or portions of an animal’s

territory (Cunningham et al., 2011).

Trees in riparian zone form a canopy which shades the stream and helps to reduce

stream temperatures (Meehan, 1991; Naiman, 1992; Maridet et al., 1998). Reductions in

temperatures are important for maintaining high levels of dissolved oxygen in water,

since cooler water can hold higher concentrations of oxygen than warm water

(Cunningham et al., 2011). This is important for survival and growth of fish species that

require higher levels of dissolved oxygen. Wind speed and humidity are also altered by

riparian vegetation (Davies-Colley et al., 2000; Spittlehouse et al., 2004). Removal of

forested riparian vegetation leads to an increase in wind speed and reduction of

humidity which may have negative impact on aquatic and riparian communities.

Therefore, a riparian zone is essential for the maintenance of proper stream temperature

and a healthy ecosystem.

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2.2 Riparian Health

According to Bellows (2003), healthy riparian zones have many different

characteristics depending upon location, geology, landscape and climate. However, all

healthy riparian zones have similarities that include:

i. A thick growth of vegetation with diverse species of grasses, forbs (weeds),

shrubs and trees that cover the stream banks and provide shade;

ii. Land surrounding stream banks generally remains wet throughout most of the

year except where streams cut through rocky terrain;

iii. Stream banks are more vertical and steep than flat and rounded;

iv. Vegetation and roots present to protect and stabilize banks;

v. Stream flow levels vary only moderately throughout the year;

vi. High water table and increase storage capacity;

vii. Stream water is relatively clear but contains debris from stream banks (leaves,

twigs or logs) that create pools and other habitat for fish and aquatic insects; and

viii. A diversity of wildlife including fish, aquatic life, mammals and birds.

A case study is done on coastal Louisiana about human disturbance in riparian

zones. Southern Louisiana has a working coast, with extensive human settlements

across the landscape. Humans have taken a variety of actions to manage the risks of

occupying the extremely dynamic river delta environment (Boesch et al., 1994; Laska et

al., 2005; Day et al., 2007). Major landscape changes have occurred over the past

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century in the nearly 1.3 million square miles watershed of the Mississippi River,

including conversion of more than 80 percent of forested wetlands to agriculture and

urban areas, river channels, and dams and levees (CENR, 2000).

Under natural conditions, deltaic environments, such as the Mississippi River Delta

in southern Louisiana, receive sediment through openings in natural levees (river

crevasses) during flood pulses, adding to soil formation (Day et al., 1994; 2007; Perez

et al., 2003). The construction of earthen and concrete levees and of a massive structure

to regulate the flow of the Mississippi and Red Rivers has restricted the natural supply

of sediment and fresh water to the delta’s floodplain (Kesel, 1988). In addition, dams on

the Mississippi River have decreased sediment delivery to the lower delta by more than

50 percent over the past 150 years. Together, the reduction of sediment delivery from

the Mississippi watershed to the lower delta and the inability of sediment to enter

wetland basins through river crevasses have caused significant losses of the region’s

coastal wetlands (Kesel, 1988; Day et al., 2007).

The Mississippi delta also receives sediment from hurricanes. A recent study

estimates that hurricanes Rita and Katrina deposited an average of two inches of

sediment over a large area of coastal wetlands in Louisiana (Turner et al., 2006).

However, sediment from hurricanes alone has been insufficient to maintain the

elevation of coastal wetlands in southern Louisiana over the past century relative to

regional subsidence (Cahoon et al., 1995), particularly given other changes in regional

hydrology caused by extensive construction of canals and other artificial water control

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features (Boesch et al., 1994; Stokstad, 2006). Coastal Louisiana experiences the

greatest wetland loss in the nation, and delta wetlands are now disappearing at an

average rate of 17 square miles per year or about 50 acres per day (Gosselink, 1984;

Conner and Day, 1988; Barras et al., 2003). Wetland loss rates over the next 20 years in

coastal Louisiana, due to the combination of sea-level rise and disruption of natural

coastal processes, will continue to convert land to open water, threatening the region’s

fisheries, aquaculture and coastal agriculture, as well as commercial shipping and other

industries located near the coast (Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and

Restoration Task Force, 1998; Barras et al., 2003; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

2004).

In contrast to the heavily developed Louisiana coast, South Florida’s Everglades are

protected by the U.S. National Park Service, with additional international designation as

a Biosphere Reserve (MAB, 2007), a World Heritage Site (World Heritage Committee,

2007), and a Wetland of International Importance (Ramsar Convention, 2007).

However, the riparian zone turned Everglades National Park is also located within a

watershed of intensive human settlement, with one of the area’s largest urban and

agricultural regions to the north of the park boundary (Harwell, 1997).

Before European settlement, the landscape of South Florida was a mosaic of

habitats connected by the flow of fresh water across a gently sloping landscape from

Lake Okeechobee through the Everglades and south to Florida Bay (Light and Dineen,

1994; Harwell, 1997). The riparian wetland landscape included sawgrass interspersed

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with tree islands, with mangrove forests extending over an area of three million acres in

the estuarine transition zone (Gunderson, 1994). The natural evolution of the region was

driven in part by the very slow relative rise in sea level over the past 3,200 years, as

well as extreme episodic events—in particular, fires, freezes, hurricanes, floods, and

droughts.

To protect human settlement from these natural events, the federal government

developed one of the world’s most extensive water management systems in South

Florida. A series of canals and water control structures unnaturally reduced the flow of

fresh water to Florida Bay (Light and Dineen, 1994). The subsequent alterations of

wetland habitat and reduction in wading bird populations implicate these fresh water

diversions in the reduced sustainability of the region’s natural resources. As a result of

water engineering, the Everglades is now an endangered ecosystem, the sustainability of

which is vulnerable to projected climate changes (Harwell, 1997; 1998).

Mangrove forests dominate the coastal margin of the Everglades. In contrast to

wetlands in the Mississippi delta, soil building and elevation in the Everglades is

dominated by plant productivity, producing highly organic soils in the absence of

significant river sediment deposition (Lynch et al., 1989; Parkinson et al., 1994).

Although mangroves situated at the mouths of estuaries in the southwest Everglades

experience pulsed inputs of sediment during storm events (Chen and Twilley, 1998;

1999), the Everglades as a whole rely on in situ soil production. Hence, the rate of soil

building in the Everglades is primarily limited by plant productivity, regulated by water

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and nutrient delivery. Because subsidence in the Everglades is insignificant, plant

vulnerability is related mainly to the rise in sea level relative to the rate of soil

formation. As in the Mississippi delta, soil-building processes have been altered by

engineered water management systems.

2.3 Riparian Zones as Geographical Features

Often, the human disturbance gradient is interpreted subjectively (Adamus et al.,

1991, Miller and Gunsalus, 1997) or confounded through circular logic (Miller and

Gunsalus, 1997). To decrease these problems associated with on-site assessments, as

well as the costs and logistics related to on-site visits, techniques have also been

developed to examine biological response to landscape scale measurements through the

use of geographic information systems (GIS) analysis (Cuffney et al., 2000; O’Conner

et al., 2000). As compared with gradients assessed on-site that examine conditions

within the system, landscape scale measurements assume a direct relationship between

land use surrounding an aquatic body and the composition and relative condition of the

system (Galatowitsch et al., 1999).

Geographic information system is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate,

analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data. In the

simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis,

and database technology. GIS is one of many information technologies that have

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transformed the ways geographers conduct research and contribute to society. In the

past two decades, these information technologies have had tremendous effects on

research techniques specific to geography, as well as on the general ways in which

scientists and scholars communicate and collaborate (Retalis, 2005).

GIS based analyses of relative condition do not require an on-site visit, which

decreases sampling effort and thus increases the number of sites quantifiable. In

addition, GIS based analyses have been reported as generally precise and correlated

with biological conditions within nested systems (Roth et al., 1996; Galatowitsch et al.,

1999; Karr and Chu, 1999). These attributes increase the allure of GIS based analyses in

assessing the relative conditions of riparian zones.

Incorporating on-site measurements of biota, although more difficult than GIS

analyses due to sampling and identification efforts, provides additional information

germane to accurately assessing relative wetland condition (Karr and Chu, 1999).

However, combining GIS analyses with on-site biological data can improve the

accuracy, precision, and sensitivity of spatial metrics by providing causal pathways to

perceived variance in the dataset, and may instigate future improvements in assessment

methods.

A common means of reducing the threat of non-point source pollution is through the

establishment of riparian vegetation strips along those riparian zones of stream channels

that would be most susceptible to the threat. GIS offer a means by which ‘critical’ areas

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can be identified, so that subsequent action toward the establishment of riparian zones

can be taken. A case study of a research focuses on the development and analysis of

riparian zones for a portion of the Iowa River basin. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)

data were used to characterize the land cover for the study area. An updated hydrology

data layer was developed by integrating the United States Geological Survey (USGS)

Digital Line Graph (DLG) data base with the TM-derived classification of surface water

bodies. Spatial distance search tools were applied to develop the buffer zones around all

surface hydrologic features. The buffer zones were integrated with the remotely sensed

classification data to identify ‘critical’ areas for the establishment of riparian vegetation

strips. Results indicated that while most of the main channel of the Iowa River was

protected by natural vegetation, more than 44% (or 1008 ha) of the area along its

tributaries lack any protective cover from non-point source pollution. As these ‘critical’

areas are adjacent to agricultural fields it is important that water resources management

strategies focus on the establishment of riparian zones in order to minimize the impact

of non-point source pollution (Narumalani et al., 1997).

2.4 Hydrology in Riparian Zones

The riparian zone is a chemically and hydrologically complex environment which,

together with the streambed, can profoundly influence stream chemistry (Bencala, 1984;

Triska et al., 1989, 1993; Fieberg et al., 1990). Groundwater entering the riparian zone

from uplands may exhibit considerable differences in chemistry over short distances

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between the valley side and the stream channel (Hooper et al., 1998); further,

subsurface inputs from upslope areas control the riparian zone water table fluctuations

and the resulting surface saturation (Devito et al., 1996). The interaction of groundwater

with stream riparian zones is controlled mainly by the hydrogeologic setting including

surface topography, soils, and the composition, stratigraphy, and hydraulic

characteristics of the underlying geological deposits (Winter and Llamas, 1993). The

water table response to storms strongly influences or controls both subsurface discharge

and the nature of the chemical and biological conditions to which discharge is exposed

(Pionke et al., 1988).

The hydrologic setting and hydrologic properties of the soil are very important for

groundwater delivery within the riparian zone. Strong upward hydraulic pressure within

the aquifer created conditions wherein heterogeneities and preferential flow paths

within the riparian zone soils permitted intense, focused discharge of groundwater onto

the surface (Hill and Siegel, 1991; Angier et al., 2001).

Surface-groundwater interactions are crucial to stream flow generation, and to

contaminant transport (Herczeg et al., 1992; Emmett et al., 1994). Once groundwater

has emerged onto the land surface, focusing and channeling this emergent water is the

most effective means of delivering water and contaminants to a stream (Ashby et al.,

1998; Devito et al., 2000).

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 Riparian vegetation influences hydrological processes through effects on runoff and

through control of uptake, storage, and return of water to the atmosphere (Tabacchi et

al., 2000). The storage and use of water by plants in riparian zone also affects the

hydrological regime of rivers and therefore affects downstream riparian areas

(Malanson, 1993). The water cycle in riparian zones depends on three linked areas

which are water uptake and/or absorption of the soil humidity by plants, water storage

in different parts of plants and the return of water to the atmosphere by evaporation

(Tabacchi et al., 2000). The riparian environment also affects the water balance of

surrounding area. In absorbing energy for evaporation, it adds moisture to the air. The

effect of the river itself on local humidity may be fairly small depending on its size and

velocity, but it is likely that humidity is high within and downwind of the riparian forest.

2.5 Summary

Riparian zones have gained wide acceptance as tools for protecting water quality,

maintaining wildlife habitat and providing other benefits to people and the environment.

Riparian zones should be viewed as an essential component of a comprehensive,

performance-based approach to sediment reduction. Regular monitoring will help

ensure the effectiveness of riparian zones and other sediment control practices.

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