2011 Flood Impacts On Missouri Focus Of March 6 Brownbagger

In 2011 the Missouri River recorded the highest flows on record since construction of the dams authorized by the Pick Sloan Plan. The subsequent flooding from Montana to Missouri has and will have significant impacts on the river system, its channel and surrounding ag and riparian forest lands. On Friday, March 6, at noon Dr. Mark Dixon, an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, will be discussing his research into the flood's impacts on the cottonwood forests which lined the river.

His talk, entitled "Effects of the 2011 Flood on Cottonwood Forests along the Missouri River," is the third in the USDA-Agricultural Research Service's Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) 2015 BrownBagger series. This special "remote" presentation begins at noon on Friday and is open to the public. The event is live and will include a Question and Answer period.

"I will discuss the lessons that this flood has taught us about both the possibilities and constraints that regulated rivers pose for process-based restoration of cottonwood forests," Dixon says.

Dr. Dixon's research examines pre-flood (2006-2009) to post-flood (2012-2014) changes in riparian forest vegetation, floodplain land cover, and plains cottonwood recruitment along multiple segments of the Missouri River between Montana and Missouri. Woody stem density declined sharply in young riparian forests after the flood and many areas of previously established young forest were converted to sandbar or river, his study has shown. Although widespread cottonwood recruitment occurred following the flood, the prolonged flood peak in 2011 restricted most cottonwood recruitment to low sandbar positions in 2012, with the exception of the Fort Peck reach, where flows were more suitable for promoting cottonwood recruitment at overbank positions in 2011.

Currently, Dr. Dixon is on sabbatical at the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center in Columbia, Missouri, and will be doing his presentation remotely from that location. The overall goal of the study is to use analyses of historic land cover change, in conjunction with vegetation sampling to forecast future changes in cottonwood forest area, composition, and age structure within the historic Missouri River floodplain.

Bring your lunch and join us Friday for this informative talk. We'll provide the treats!

NPARL's 2015 BrownBagger series is held in the lab's Tech Transfer Room on Fridays, from noon to 1 p.m. The lab is located at 1500 N. Central Avenue in Sidney, MT.

Remaining speakers in the 2015 BrownBagger series include:

March 20 – Upendra Sainju, NPARL Soil Scientist, "Mulching and Nitrogen Fertilization Effects on Soil Water and Wheat Yield in China" (incorporating another interesting ag travelogue)

March 27 – Ashok Alva, NPARL Soil Scientist, "Nutrient and Irrigation Best Management Practices for Potato"

April 3 – Lance Vermiere, ARS Range Ecologist, Miles City, MT, TBA

For more information, contact Beth Redlin at 406-433-9427.