ABSTRACT
Bottomland hardwood forest ecosystems are familiar parts of integrated landscapes that include the watershed and the adjacent streams. We identify ecological principles relevant to their functional integrity. Naturally functioning forested bottomlands provide services to man by mediating floods, improving water quality, providing primary production and food web support for animal populations, and maintaining natural biotic diversity. The level of these services depends on the magnitude of a number of interrelated attributes of intact floodplain forests. We consider 550eight common human activities in floodplains that influence the level of services by their effects on these ecosystem attributes.
While the impact of individual actions can be assessed at the local level, the cumulative effect of many such actions provokes a landscape-level response. Regulation of cumulative impacts therefore requires regulation of landscapes. A broad outline of the technical and regulatory process requirements for such regulation is presented, and some specific suggestions are provided for cumulative impact assessment criteria.
