What happens when flood plains wet themselves: vegetation response to inundation on the lower Balonne flood plain

Neil Sims, Martin Thoms

    Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

    24 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The distribution of floodwaters and their average recurrence interval (ART) on the lower Balonne flood plain in semiarid Queensland, Australia, was mapped using 13 Landsat thematic mapper (TM) images. The vigour of vegetation growth was also mapped from a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) transformed "reference image" showing average pixel value between images captured over a period of nearly 10 years. The area of each NDVI class in each ARI zone was calculated. The largest proportion of vigorous vegetation occurred where flood frequency was between 1.25 and 1.75 years. The smallest proportion of vigorous vegetation occurred where flood frequency was low. Vegetation with very low growth vigour was common only where flooding occurred more frequently than once per year. Possible explanations for this relationship include reduced plant vigour due to soil anoxia, the impact of disturbance frequency on plant productivity, and pixel mixing at the vegetation/water boundary
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationThe Structure, Function and Management Implications of Fluvial Sedimentary Systems
    Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of an international symposium held at Alice Springs, Australia, September 2002). IAHS Publ. no. 276. 2002
    EditorsFiona J. Dyer, Martin C. Thoms, Jon M. Olley
    Place of PublicationOxfordshire
    PublisherInternational Association of Hydrological Sciences
    Pages195-202
    Number of pages8
    Volume276
    ISBN (Print)9781901502961
    Publication statusPublished - 2002
    EventInternational Symposium on the Structure, Function and Management Implications of Fluvial Sedimentary Systems - Alice Springs, Alice Springs, Australia
    Duration: 2 Sept 20026 Sept 2002

    Conference

    ConferenceInternational Symposium on the Structure, Function and Management Implications of Fluvial Sedimentary Systems
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    CityAlice Springs
    Period2/09/026/09/02

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