TY - JOUR

T1 - Effective restoration measures in river‐floodplain ecosystems: Lessons learned from the ‘Wilde Mulde’ project

AU - Schulz‐Zunkel, Christiane

AU - Seele‐Dilbat, Carolin

AU - Anlanger, Christine

AU - Baborowski, Martina

AU - Bondar‐Kunze, Elisabeth

AU - Brauns, Mario

AU - Gapinski, Cedric M.

AU - Gründling, Ralf

AU - von Haaren, Christina

AU - Hein, Thomas

AU - Henle, Klaus

AU - Junge, Frank W.

AU - Kasperidus, Hans D.

AU - Koll, Katinka

AU - Kretz, Lena

AU - Rast, Georg

AU - Schnauder, Ingo

AU - Scholz, Mathias

AU - Schrenner, Heiko

AU - Sendek, Agnieszka

AU - Sprössig, Claudia

AU - Tavares, Claudia Nogueira

AU - Vieweg, Michael

AU - Tümpling, Wolf

AU - Weitere, Markus

AU - Wirth, Christian

AU - Wunsch, Tobias

AU - Dziock, Frank

N1 - Funding Information: The project ‘Wilde Mulde—Restoration of a dynamic riverine landscape in Central Germany’ (funding label: 01LC1322B‐F) was funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) within the framework of the Federal Programme on Biological Diversity with funds from the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We would like to thank the staff of the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve, the State Agency for Flood Protection and Water Management Saxony‐Anhalt (LHW), the city of Dessau‐Roßlau, and the district of Anhalt‐Bitterfeld for their continuous support during the fieldwork, the coordination of the nature conservation permits for the research work and the data provided. Furthermore, we would like to thank the managers and farmers of the study areas for their cooperation. Many thanks also to the departments Water Analytics and Chemometrics as well as Analytical Chemistry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research‐UFZ for the analysis of a large number of samples during the project and to Sarah Gwillym‐Margianto for the linguistic review of this article. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

PY - 2022/4/5

Y1 - 2022/4/5

N2 - Over the last 40 years, a growing number of restoration projects have been implemented to improve the ecological conditions of highly degraded rivers and their floodplains. Despite considerable investment in these projects, information is still limited about the effectiveness and the success of such river restoration measures, mainly due to a lack of standardised and interdisciplinary assessment approaches. During the project ‘Wilde Mulde—Restoration of a dynamic riverine landscape in Central Germany’, we implemented hydromorphological restoration measures (installation of large wood, removal of rip-rap, reconnection of a former river side-arm) along a lowland river in Central Germany. We carried out intensive scientific monitoring of biodiversity, hydromorphology, ecosystem functions and services, as well as socio-economic aspects. A Before/After-Control/Impact (BACI) design was used to identify the spatial and temporal effects of the restoration measures and to distinguish them from changes caused by background variation. For this, we used a comprehensive set of indicators, including abiotic (flow velocity, diversity of riverbed topography, and flow resistance), biological (ecosystem respiration, macroinvertebrates, fish, carabids, vegetation, and birds) and socio-economic (acceptance and public awareness) indicators as well as the ecosystem service indicator aesthetic quality of the landscape. To meet the inherent challenges of such a large-scale field experiment, like unpredictable environmental conditions, we used an experimental approach that allowed us to demonstrate a measurable success of the implemented restoration measures. The majority of the abiotic and some of the biological and socio-economic indicators at the restored sites approached values of a natural reference site while already deviating from values of a nonnatural reference site two years after restoration. In addition to the applied interdisciplinary approach, multiple scales of field investigations and data analyses are essential as key components for evaluating successful river and floodplain restoration projects.

AB - Over the last 40 years, a growing number of restoration projects have been implemented to improve the ecological conditions of highly degraded rivers and their floodplains. Despite considerable investment in these projects, information is still limited about the effectiveness and the success of such river restoration measures, mainly due to a lack of standardised and interdisciplinary assessment approaches. During the project ‘Wilde Mulde—Restoration of a dynamic riverine landscape in Central Germany’, we implemented hydromorphological restoration measures (installation of large wood, removal of rip-rap, reconnection of a former river side-arm) along a lowland river in Central Germany. We carried out intensive scientific monitoring of biodiversity, hydromorphology, ecosystem functions and services, as well as socio-economic aspects. A Before/After-Control/Impact (BACI) design was used to identify the spatial and temporal effects of the restoration measures and to distinguish them from changes caused by background variation. For this, we used a comprehensive set of indicators, including abiotic (flow velocity, diversity of riverbed topography, and flow resistance), biological (ecosystem respiration, macroinvertebrates, fish, carabids, vegetation, and birds) and socio-economic (acceptance and public awareness) indicators as well as the ecosystem service indicator aesthetic quality of the landscape. To meet the inherent challenges of such a large-scale field experiment, like unpredictable environmental conditions, we used an experimental approach that allowed us to demonstrate a measurable success of the implemented restoration measures. The majority of the abiotic and some of the biological and socio-economic indicators at the restored sites approached values of a natural reference site while already deviating from values of a nonnatural reference site two years after restoration. In addition to the applied interdisciplinary approach, multiple scales of field investigations and data analyses are essential as key components for evaluating successful river and floodplain restoration projects.

KW - Wilde Mulde

KW - floodplain

KW - indicators

KW - restoration

KW - river

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125640958&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/iroh.202102086

DO - 10.1002/iroh.202102086

M3 - Article

VL - 107

SP - 9

EP - 21

JO - International Review of Hydrobiology

JF - International Review of Hydrobiology

SN - 1434-2944

IS - 1-2

ER -