1. The Wisconsin River has played a pivotal role in Wisconsin’s history…

2. The Wisconsin River-Now

3. Outline How has the Wisconsin River system changed?
Landscape
River flow and water quality
How do physiography, flooding, landscape pattern, land cover history and soils influence riparian forests in the Wisconsin River floodplain?
Presence
Community structure
Abundance of trees
Shrubs
Wisconsin River also a good analogue for other rivers in Wisconsin and upper Midwest.

4. The Wisconsin River and its Watershed
Length: 690 km
Watershed: 31,440 km2
Drop: 328 m
Wide floodplain
26 mainstem dams
This research is part of a larger study investigating the potential effects of historical land use and spatial patterning on current floodplain ecosystem processes within the 100yr floodplain of the lower Wisconsin River.
Read stats on Wisconsin River Watershed (?)
Our study region is the Wisconsin River watershed, but we focus on landscape within the 100yr floodplain
The two reaches shown are what I’ll use to answer my research questions for this talk km
(Martin 1965)

5. Changes in the Landscape
Settlement profoundly changed the landscape
But…the amount, persistence, and increase in forest during 20th C is striking!
Forest now occupies >50% of the floodplain and is well connected
Forest even more prevalent along the river edge (77-89% in the 1990s)

6. Flow Modification and Tree Recruitment
Seedling recruitment limited by summer pulses and spring peak flows
Flow regulation may have enhanced tree seedling recruitment
Overwinter Seedling Survival *
(Dixon 2003)

7. 2. Floodplain Forests

8. What factors explain the occurrence patterns of invasive shrubs?
Lonicera spp.
(Honeysuckle)
Zanthoxylem americanum
(Prickly ash)
Rhamnus cathartica
(European buckthorn, exotic)