The southern Rocky Mountains serve as the headwaters of the West, providing water to agriculture, industry, recreation, and millions of people in 17 western states. Eighty percent of the water draining land managed by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Forest Service) is from snowmelt. The demand for this water continues to grow with increasing population throughout the arid West. The Forest Service is obliged to manage these watersheds for a diverse set of interests including extraction of forest products and other natural resources, providing recreational opportunities, and delivering fresh water. The Forest Service is simultaneously required to sustain the ecological condition of the managed lands for future generations. Satisfying these demands requires quantitative approaches to balance the ecological impacts against the benefits of water development. In this study, we (1) measured riparian vegetation at nine sites in the Medicine Bow‐Routt National Forests, (2) identified twelve trait‐based riparian vegetation‐flow response guilds (functionally similar groups of plants), (3) constructed reach‐scale hydraulic models for each site, (4) classified sites by hydro‐geomorphic characteristics, and (5) modeled observed guild distributions as a function of duration of stream inundation and site characteristics. To illustrate the application of these models in quantifying ecological impacts of water development and management decisions, flow scenarios were developed to simulate the effects of upstream diversions and reservoirs. Guild distribution models were then used to forecast alterations to vegetation patterns under the flow simulations. Even in these relatively moist montane riparian areas, stream inundation duration explained much of the variability in guild distributions. Controlling for groundwater contributions to the moisture regime improved the predictive ability of the models. Plot‐level guild diversity was found to be most correlated to the maximum height of species in the guild, shade tolerance, and seed mass. Plots were identified with relatively low species diversity and high guild diversity, suggesting niche partitioning and a target guild composition for restoring resilient riparian vegetation assemblages. We demonstrate the transferability of guild models across rivers to assist in the decision‐making process for evaluating water development and forecasting riparian vegetation response.

中文翻译：

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河岸响应行会响应落基山脉南部山区河流的水流变化而变化

南部的落基山脉是西部的源头，为西部17个州的农业，工业，娱乐和数百万人提供了水。美国农业部森林服务局（森林服务）管理的排水土地中有80％来自融雪。在整个干旱的西部，对水的需求持续增长。森林服务局有义务对这些流域进行管理，以实现多种利益，包括提取林产品和其他自然资源，提供娱乐机会以及提供淡水。同时需要森林服务处为子孙后代维持被管理土地的生态状况。要满足这些需求，就需要采用定量方法来平衡生态影响与水资源开发的收益。在这项研究中，我们（1）在医学Bow-Routt国家森林的9个地点测量了河岸植被，（2）确定了基于特征的12个河岸植被流响应协会（功能相似的植物群），（3）为每个站点建立规模的水力模型，（4）通过水力地貌特征对站点进行分类，以及（5）建模观察到的行会分布，作为河流淹没持续时间和站点特征的函数。为了说明这些模型在量化水开发和管理决策的生态影响中的应用，开发了流量情景以模拟上游引水和水库的影响。然后，在水流模拟下，使用公会分布模型来预测植被格局的变化。即使在这些相对湿润的山地河岸地区，河水淹没的持续时间也可以解释行会分布的大部分变化。控制地下水对水分状况的贡献提高了模型的预测能力。发现地块级行会多样性与行会物种的最大高度，耐荫性和种子质量最相关。确定了具有相对较低的物种多样性和较高的行会多样性的地块，表明生态位分区和用于恢复弹性河岸植被组合的目标行会组成。