Riparian Areas Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Riparian areas constitute the margins of land adjacent to perennial, intermittent, or ephemeral rivers, streams, lakes, and other bodies of water, including estuarine areas, which experience at least periodic submergence. They are transition zones between aquatic and terrestrial systems, distinguished by gradients in biophysical conditions and ecological functions between the different systems. Linear in form, riparian zones range from narrow strips of land several feet wide in arid regions, to large swaths several miles wide in wetter climates. They are comprised of three main components: stream channel, wetland, and flood plain, the latter delineated by the frequency and extent of inundation (for example, 100-year floodplain). They are regions of high productivity, species diversity, and density, conditioned by their specific climatic, biotic, geographical, and geological context.

Riparian areas are dynamic, acting as sinks and transformers, receiving and processing large energy and material flows, encompassing water, sediments, nutrients, and organic matter from upstream areas. Periodic flooding or submergence is responsible for the removal and deposition of sediments, organic materials, and nutrients. These conditions also produce anaerobic conditions and riparian soils that are low in oxygen.

Riparian areas facilitate the processes of infiltration, filtration, deposition, adsorption, assimilation, and various biotic processes such as denitrification. Riparian areas help in protecting water quality and purifying ground water. They play a role in determining sediment loads, nutrient and pollutant concentrations, water flows, and temperature regimes in streams. This in turn impacts the species composition and abundance of fish, invertebrates, and other organisms utilizing the stream environment.

Riparian areas contribute significantly to biological diversity, at species and genetic levels, providing habitats for a diverse array of plant and animal communities. As ecotones, they provide a good example of the “edge effect,” exhibiting high species diversity and abundance. Of particular importance in this respect is the prevalence of woody plants, water or soil moisture, and habitat diversity. Animals use the different habitats found within the riparian zone as places of refuge, for feeding, for their proximity to water, and as migration corridors.

Bird diversity is exceptionally high in riparian areas and a disproportionately high number of other species, including reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and invertebrates, rely on these areas, compared to adjacent upland areas. These areas also play a critical role in maintaining suitable habitats for many fish species, particularly cold water species such as trout. In arid regions, riparian areas are even more critical for both plants and animals, possessing greater soil moisture than surrounding areas, and may be the only vegetated habitat for many miles.

Riparian areas contribute to the maintenance of the aquatic systems that they border, affecting its biotic and abiotic characteristics. Healthy riparian zones stabilize stream banks, and mitigate or prevent excessive erosion, runoff, and pollution, acting as filters and buffers between the human development and land use within the watershed and the aquatic environment. Intact, they also have the capability to store water and release it slowly during lower flows, thereby mitigating high flow and potential flood events.

Some estimate that over 70 percent of the riparian habitats in the United States have been destroyed or adversely impacted by human activities, such as agriculture, livestock, logging, residential and commercial development, and have caused changes to the hydrology and geomorphology of these areas. These impacts encompass the construction of dams, water diversions, channelization, bank stabilization, and flood control projects. Although few thorough assessments of the status of riparian systems have been conducted, evidence indicates that conversion and degradation have affected many of these corridors, making them among the most threatened habitats.

Because of their ecological, biological, economic, and recreational importance, efforts have been made to protect and restore these areas. Riparian buffers or setbacks provide one means of protection, enacted at the local level. Setback regulations limit disturbance in riparian areas, creating a vegetated buffer zone in which development is constrained. Such setbacks are usually stipulated within municipal zoning ordinances. There are also a host of incentive-based programs created at state and federal levels, such as tax abatements, cost-sharing programs, and conservation easements, that seek encourage landowners to conserve these areas. Nonprofit organizations such as land trusts also play a role in developing protections of privately owned riparian areas.

In many cases, however, riparian corridors have been so degraded that legal strategies alone do not go far enough to ensure the integrity and adequate functioning of these systems. In these cases, creation and restoration may be necessary. This may encompass changes to the hydrology, substrate, stream banks, vegetation, and fauna. Buffers and protective structures such as fences may also be essential. In the arid southwest of the United States, because the hydrology of watersheds has been so altered by human activities, restoration efforts have aimed at reestablishing the hydrology of the area, reconnecting the riparian corridor to the water source, and actively revegetating these areas, rather than allowing natural revegetation to occur.

Bibliography:

Craig N. Goodwin, Charles P. Hawkins, and Jeffrey L. Kershner, “Riparian Restoration in the Western United States: Overview and Perspective,” Restoration Ecology (v.5/45, 1997);
Jon A. Kusler and Mary E. Kentula, eds., Wetland Creation and Restoration: The Status of the Science (Island Press, 1990);
Nancy Langston, Where Land & Water Meet: A Western Landscape Transformed (University of Washington Press, 2003);
Beth Middleton, Wetland Restoration: Flood Pulsing and Disturbance Dynamics (John Wiley & Sons, 1999);
William J. Mitsch and James Gosselink, Wetlands (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000); Robert J. Naiman and Henri Decamps, “The Ecology Of Interfaces: Riparian Zones,” Annual Review of Ecology Systematics (v.28, 1997);
National Research Council, Riparian Areas: Functions and Strategies for Management (National Academy Press, 2002).