FLOOD04610

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Overview of River-Floodplain Ecology in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
• Date: 12/9/1996
• Prepared By: USGS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

Chapter 1

ASSESSING RIVER-FLOODPLAIN ECOLOGY
IN THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER BASIN

By Cathryn E. Tortorici.! John A. Kelmelis,2 and Ann G. Frazier2

One of the goals of the Scientific Assessment and
Strategy Team (SAST) was to help increase the use of sci-
entific information in the decisionmaking process for inte.
grated management of the Upper Mississippi River Basin,
Accomplishing this task required understanding both the
physical and biologic elements of the river basin and how
they interact. Important aspects of the physical system are
the geologic and geomorphic processes. the hydrologic
cycle, climate. and hydraulic characteristics of the flood-
plains. Each of these processes influences the mutually
dependent life forms of the basin, Besides defining the types
of flora and fauna existing in the basin, it is also important
to identify how they coexist within a dynamic land surface.
how they rely on that dynamism. and how the current spe-
cies and populations have changed from those in the past.
Describing this change clarifies the relations among life
forms and the physical environment and leads to an
improved understanding of the implications of
human-induced land transfonnations on the system.
As the SAST began gathering biologic and ecologic
data. team members recognized the need to better under-
stand the ecology of the basin and how the flood of 1993
had affected the large rivers in the basin (the Mississippi.
Missouri. and lIIinois Rivers), To accomplish this. the
SAST organized an ecology workshop in February 1994 at
the Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data
Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, The workshop brought
together biologists with extensive experience and historical
knowledge of changes that have occurred in these river sys-
tems. field expertise on the current physical and biologic
conditions. and a detailed knowledge of current and future
research needs. The group accomplished the following tasks
while at the EROS Data Center:

I u.s. Environmental Protection Agency.
2V.S. Geological Survey.

developed a set of short- and long-term ecologic issues
and information needs for the Upper Mississippi River
Basin
reviewed and provided recommendations on the content
and organization of the Mississippi and Missouri River
biologic data bases
agreed to write a series of background papers to summa-
rize and review the current body of knowledge on the
ecology of the upper Mississippi. Illinois. and middle and
lower Missouri Rivers to supplement the general discus-
sion provided in Chapter 6, Floodplain Ecology, of the
SAST Preliminary Report.
This report is the result of that workshop and consists
of information on the status of the upper Mississippi. lower
Missouri. and Illinois River ecosystems commissioned by
the SAST, The authors were requested to identify composi-
tional and functional attributes of the river systems within
their areas of expertise and to summarize species trends
over time and their habitat affiliations. The authors selected
what they considered to be important topics for review.
Consequently, there is some redundancy among chapters;
however, this will reinforce those issues of greatest signifi-
cance while providing the reader with the author's personal
perspective. Together. these chapters provide critical histor-
ical and contemporary infonnation on the status of these
nationally important riverine resources.
The chapters cover various topics within the Upper
Mississippi River Basin ecosystem; however, a central
theme runs throughout each, During the last century.
large-scale changes have been made to the floodplains of
the basin such as the construction of dams, locks, and
levees, channelization and bank stabilization of the river,
and conversion of floodplain land to agriculture or other
development. These changes to the physical components of
the floodplain system have had broad impacts on its ecol-
ogy, Therefore. the authors compare the current floodplain
conditions in their area of ecologic expertise with condi-
tions that existed before large-scale changes were made to
Ihe system. and note the modifications to the physical