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Aims and Objectives

Against the background sketched above, the main aims of this project are:

i. to contribute to the development of a scientific methodology for determining the flow needs of riparian plant communities on selected European floodplains; and

ii. to create effective links between the scientific understanding of the functioning of riparian ecosystems and the institutional mechanisms by which river management for conservation and restoration can occur.

These aims are being achieved by a series of linked scientific and socio-economic studies, contributing to the following specific objectives.

Objective 1: To identify and quantify hydrological and sedimentological conditions favoured by certain riparian species for their establishment and growth.

This involves field monitoring of vegetation and local hydrological conditions, field-based plot experiments, laboratory or greenhouse experiments, and numerical modelling of groundwater conditions. Experimental work focuses on early successional species (particularly on members of the Salicaceae) and how flooding and groundwater levels affect their regeneration and growth. Each group has established some distinctive experimental components to its work within the context of hydrological influences. The Cambridge group focuses on sexual variation in the response of Populus nigra to water availability. The Grenoble group is studying seedling root development. The Toulouse group is examining stable isotope methods to trace water sources and patterns of seed dispersal. The Umeå group is examining mycorrhizal associations.

Objective 2: To link contemporary floodplain landscape characteristics to our understanding of past climatic and land use changes at the catchment scale and over a range of time scales.

This requires the collation of existing data on historical flows, post-glacial changes in flow, sediments, morphological evolution and management histories; and the development of a conceptual model of river evolution, form, and management.

Objective 3: To investigate the institutional frameworks in which river restoration projects take place, and the degree to which knowledge of the functioning of floodplain ecosystems influences the implementation of these projects.

This involves a study of the varying institutional frameworks within which river and floodplain restoration take place in certain EC countries.