Measuring spatial patterns in floodplains: A step towards understanding the complexity of floodplain ecosystems

Abstract

Floodplains can be viewed as complex adaptive systems (Levin, 1998) because they are comprised of many different biophysical components, such as morphological features, soil groups, and vegetation communities, which interact and adapt over time (Stanford et al., 2005). Interactions and feedbacks among the biophysical components often result in emergent phenomena occuring over a range of scales, often in the absence of any controlling factors (sensu Hallet, 1990). The emergence of new biophysical features and rates of processing feeds back into floodplain adaptive cycles and can lead to alternative stable states of floodplain structure and function which are dynamic over multiple scales (cf. Hughes, 1997; Stanford et al., 2005). Interactions between different biophysical components, feedbacks, self emergence, and scale are all key properties of complex adaptive systems (Levin, 1998; Phillips, 2003; Murray et al., 2014) and therefore will influence the manner in which we study and view floodplain spatial patterns.