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Riparian: River Continuum Concept
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In the early 1970s, Robin Vannote, the Stroud Water Research Center's first director, presented his River Continuum Concept to an awed crowd. The concept did not just materialize; Vannote drew from areas both within and outside of his field. The River Continuum Concept describes the physical processes (geology, climate) outside of a river that effect the biological processes (vegetation) along a river, which effect the physical and biological processes within a river (temperature, nutrients). The River Continuum Concept states that producer and consumer communities become established in harmony with the dynamic physical conditions that include width, depth, velocity, flow volume, and temperature of the river (Vannote et al.). For example, as the size of the a river increases from a headwater stream to a mid-sized river, the influence of the surrounding riparian forest decreases due to the change in the dominant biological community. This is a significant concept when restoring headwater stream ecosystems. Riparian vegetation may be the single most important component to headwater stream stability, production and diversity (Rosgen et al.) In headwater streams, shredder communities that consume coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) dominate. In mid-sized rivers there is a shift in dominance to grazer communities where sunlight plays an important role in the production of algae growth that the grazer community consumes. Therefore in a large river, grazer communities decrease in dominance and collector communities that consume fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) dominate. Throughout the continuum, predators are present. Invertivores are predominant in headwaters; mid-sized rivers are piscivorous; and large rivers contain primarily planktivores.
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Oxbow River & Stream Restoration; 2905 Klondike Road; Delaware, OH 43015; (740) 362-4134. © 2008 Oxbow River & Stream Restoration, Inc. Last updated July-2008. |
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