Response of Vegetation on Gravel Bars to Management Measures and Floods: Case Study From the Czech Republic

This article investigates response of vegetation on gravel bars to management measures and floods. The management measures consisted of the partial removal of gravel and vegetation cover, and were applied to six gravel bars on the Ostravice River, Czech Republic. Unexpected floods occu-rred in 2010, with the amplitude of 5- to 50-year repetition. Research of vegetation on the gravel bars consisted of vegetation survey before the management works; the monitoring of vegetation development over the following year and the verification of the relationships of species diversity, successional stages and the biotope conditions with the help of multivariate analysis (detrended correspondence analysis). Vegetation on the gravel bars was at different successional stages, and had higher diversity and vegetation cover before the management measures and floods. The mul-tivariate analysis revealed a shift toward initial successional stages with high demand on moisture, temperature and light after both management measures and floods.