Title: Present situation of the European floodplain forests
Abstract: For the last two years the Institute for Floodplains Ecology in Rastatt (F.R.G.), under the WWF, West Germany, has been setting up a database of the European floodplains (excepting the U.S.S.R.). With the help of an extensive questionnaire, information was acquired from specialists throughout almost all of Europe in which floodplain forests play an important role. A European floodplains symposium held in Rastatt in 1987 brought further knowledge to light. From the data obtained it soon became apparent that scarcely a country (exceptions: Switzerland and G.D.R.) has complete information about its most important floodplain areas, its floodplain forests and their types. Some of the countries were able to provide incomplete but practical information (Austria, F.R.G., Hungary). Most of them however, even those where relatively large undeveloped alluvial rivers exist (i.e. France, Poland, Jugoslavia) could only supply more or less fragmentary knowledge about their floodplain forests. River impoundment, channelization, drainage, etc. have caused a rapid loss of floodplain forests. The willow and poplar communities of dynamic sites (dynamic "Weichholzauen" forests) are the most affected.
Publication Year: 1990
Publication Date: 1990-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 53
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