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Subsidient: Merit van der Velden/Utrecht University
Subsidie: S152.67

Climate change will likely decrease the flooding regime of boreal rivers and hereby affect riparian vegetation. Our research examined 15 years of vegetation change after plot transplantation over three elevations (low, mid, high) along the Vindel River in Sweden. The transplantation simulates changes in flooding: transplantation to lower elevations simulates more flooding and transplantation to higher elevations simulates less flooding. We examined species composition and species richness, and whether the changes could be linked to plant traits. We found that an increase in flooding regime decreases species richness, and that species from a lower flooding regime do not survive the increase in flooding regime. A decrease in flooding regime increases species richness, and species from a higher flooding regime do survive the decrease in flooding regime. The right combination of plant traits is needed for plants to survive a high flooding regime. Based on our results, we predict that the decreased flooding regime as an effect of climate change, will increase the species richness of riparian vegetation close to the river due to the settlement of species from higher elevations. The species richness of the overall riparian vegetation and the vegetation of less frequently flooded elevations will not change.