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Managing the Mississippi River Floodplain: Achieving Ecological Benefits Requires More Than Hydrological Connection to the River

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Geomorphic Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management of Lowland Fluvial Systems in North America and Europe

Abstract

Floodplains are vital to the structure and function of river-floodplain ecosystems. Among the many ecological services provided by floodplains are nutrient cycling and seasonal habitats for fish, including spawning, nursery, foraging and wintering habitats. Connections between the river channel and floodplain habitats are essential to realize these ecological services, but spatial and temporal aspects of the connection and contemporary geomorphology must also be considered in restoration efforts. This chapter synthesizes available information to compare floodplain function and needed management strategies in two extensive reaches (upper impounded and lower free-flowing) of the Mississippi River, USA. The upper impounded reach is the 523-km reach from about Minneapolis, Minnesota to Clinton, Iowa. This reach has been impounded and channelized for navigation. Mean annual water-level fluctuation ranges from 1 to 2 m in the navigation pools in this reach. Floodplain environmental conditions that affect nitrogen cycling and fish production vary seasonally and longitudinally within and among navigation pools. Significant issues affecting ecological services include sedimentation, constrained water level fluctuations, island erosion and seasonal hypoxia. The lower free-flowing reach, the 1570-km reach from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, has no dams and average annual fluctuations of 7 m throughout most of the reach. Despite the substantial flood pulse, floodplain inundation is often brief and may not occur annually. Significant issues affecting floodplain ecological function are the short duration and thermal asynchrony of the flood pulse, sedimentation and loss of connection between the river channel and permanent/semi-permanent floodplain water bodies due to channel incision. Needs and strategies for floodplain enhancement to increase ecological services, particularly nitrogen cycling and fish production, differ along the longitudinal gradient of the Mississippi River and provide informative contrasts to guide floodplain management. Prediction of the effects of climate change on this system will be complicated by the magnitude of the watershed that encompasses 41 % of the continental USA and multiple climatic regions.

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Acknowledgments

J.C. Nelson and Robert Kratt provided assistance with graphics. James Rogala provided unpublished hydrology data. Barry Johnson and Jeff Janvrin provided useful reviews of earlier versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Mississippi Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 39762, Mail Stop 9691, Mississippi State, MS, USA

    Harold L. Schramm

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, 2630 Fanta Reed Rd, 54603, La Crosse, WI, USA

    William B. Richardson & Brent C. Knights

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  1. Harold L. Schramm
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  2. William B. Richardson
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  3. Brent C. Knights
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Correspondence to Harold L. Schramm .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Physical Geography, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Paul F. Hudson

  2. Department of Physical Geography, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Hans Middelkoop

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Schramm, H., Richardson, W., Knights, B. (2015). Managing the Mississippi River Floodplain: Achieving Ecological Benefits Requires More Than Hydrological Connection to the River. In: Hudson, P., Middelkoop, H. (eds) Geomorphic Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management of Lowland Fluvial Systems in North America and Europe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2380-9_8

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