The April 2010 issue will host a featured collection, “Riparian Ecosystems & Buffers”, put together by Guest Associate Editors Paul M. Mayer, Albert H. Todd, and Judith A. Okay, and Associate Editor Kathleen A. Dwire. AWRA hosts specialty conferences on this topic in a 3-year cycle, with the most recent conference held in Virginia Beach, VA, June 30-July 2, 2008.
We timed publication to fit midway between the 2008 and (presumed) 2011 conference. The 10 selected papers — all now available via EarlyView — expand upon ideas presented in 2008, but cover their subjects in more depth and with more documentation; all faced our thorough peer review. They can be classified into four categories: (1) riparian ecosystems as corridors, (2) nutrient processing at the landscape scale, (3) riparian buffer function, and (4) modeling and monitoring techniques. I will cover many of these papers in upcoming posts.
I attended the 2008 Specialty Conference, and was greatly impressed how much our understanding of riparian ecosystems has advanced in recent years. We better understand how flow regimes affect habitat and species, and how nutrients move (or do not move) through buffer zones. While far from complete, models and indices are becoming more realistic and more useful. As I paddle along rivers now, my understanding of what I see along the banks had been changed irrevocably.
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Tags: riparian ecology