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Scale relationships and linkages between woody vegetation communities along a large tropical floodplain river, north Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2009

Aaron M. Petty  and
Michael M. Douglas
Aaron M. Petty*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia
Michael M. Douglas
Affiliation:
Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Research Hub, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia
*
1Corresponding author. Current address: School for Environmental and Life Sciences, Charles Darwin University. Email: syzygium@gmail.com
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Abstract:

Riparian vegetation varies according to hydrogeomorphic processes operating across different scales over two didmensions: transversely (across-stream) and longitudinally (parallel to stream). We tested the hypothesis that vegetation patterns reveal the scale and direction of underlying processes. We correlated patterns of dominant woody vegetation with environmental variables at 28 sites located within four geomorphologically distinct regions along the length of the South Alligator River catchment of Kakadu National Park, northern Australia. Across the catchment there existed a strong transverse boundary between upland savanna vegetation and two zones of riparian vegetation: Melaleuca-spp.-dominated closed-forest vegetation along stream channels and mixed open-woodland vegetation adjacent to closed forest. We surmise that there is hierarchic constraint on smaller-scale catchment processes due to fire incursion into the riparian zone and access to water during the dry season. Within the closed-forest zone, vegetation did not vary transversely, but did longitudinally. Riparian woodlands also varied longitudinally, but in the upper reaches varied independently of stream variables. By contrast, in the lower reaches woodland was strongly correlated with stream variables. The observed pattern of weak transverse linkages in headwaters but strong linkages in lower reaches is analogous to models developed for in-stream patterns and processes, particularly the river continuum and flood-pulse concepts.

Keywords

Flood-pulse concepthierarchical processesKakadu National Parklandscape patternMelaleucariparian fire regimesriver continuum concepttropical savannavegetation distributionwet–dry tropics
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 79 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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