How Does Flow Regulation Affect Fish and Invertebrate Communities in Floodplains of the Savannah River?
The importance of floodplain habitats to biotic communities has long been acknowledged. Many large river systems, however, are heavily regulated by dams that alter natural flood pulses and restrict large volumes of water from entering floodplains. We were interested in determining how alterations in flow regime may affect communities of fishes and invertebrates in floodplains along the Savannah River. To do so, we monitored floodplain fish and invertebrate community responses across three flow regimes: 1.) unregulated pulses (in the adjacent and free-flowing Altamaha River); 2.)...
