KUCHLER TYPE
KUCHLER TYPE: Northern floodplain forest



KUCHLER-TYPE-NUMBER : 
K098

PHYSIOGNOMY : 
Low to tall broadleaf deciduous forest, open to dense, often with
lianas [30].


OCCURRENCE : 
Northern floodplain forest as mapped by Kuchler [31] occurs from eastern
Montana east to Minnesota and south to eastern Colorado and northern
Oklahoma.  The elm-ash-cottonwood (Ulmus spp.-Fraxinus spp.-Populus
spp.) ecosystem (FRES 17), which is largely synonymous with northern
floodplain forest, occurs on the lower terraces and floodplains of the
Mississippi, Missouri, Platte, Kansas, and Ohio rivers, and from the
Dakotas, Minnnesota, and Ohio south through Kansas, southern Illinois
and Missouri, with additional areas in Pennsylvania, New England, and
New Jersey.  The areas of elm-ash-cottonwood in the central states as
far south as southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and Kentucky (not
mapped by Kuchler) are considered to be included in northern floodplain
forest.  Elm-ash-cottonwood east of the Mississippi River Basin includes
other species with distributions more restricted to the eastern United
States and is thus not considered northern floodplain forest sensu
Kuchler [15,23].  In Montana east of the Rocky Mountains the species
present are largely consistent with Kuchler's description of northern
floodplain forest.  Although they are included in the western hardwoods
ecosystem (FRES 28) [15], these forests are considered part of the
northern floodplain forest Kuchler type.

In central North Dakota, the Missouri River floodplain varies in width
from less than 1 mile (1.6 km) to 7 miles (11.3 km) with four major
terrace levels [24].  The streamside forested area in southeastern
Nebraska averages approximately 15 miles (24 km) wide, near Omaha it is
about 5 miles (8 km) wide, and in northeastern Nebraska it is 2 miles
(3.2 km) wide or less.  The extent of cottonwood-willow (Salix spp.)
stands along the Missouri River is usually about one-half mile from the
water's edge, and usually limited to the lowest level ("first bottoms").
Upper terraces ("second bottoms") are mostly grassland with sparse to
absent woody cover [51].  Stack and others [46] estimated that there
were approximately 17,290 acres (7,000 ha) of forest remaining along the
Red River in North Dakota.


COMPILED BY AND DATE : 
Janet Sullivan, January 1995


LAST REVISED BY AND DATE : 
NO-ENTRY


AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION : 
Sullivan, Janet. 1995. Northern floodplain forest. In: Remainder of Citation


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