Enrica Belluco

On the drainage density of tidal networks

The drainage density of a network is conventionally defined as (proportional to) the ratio of its total channelized length divided by the watershed area, and in practice, it is defined by the statistical distribution and correlation structure of the lengths of unchanneled pathways. In tidal networks this requires the definition of suitable drainage directions defined by hydrodynamic (as opposed to topographic) gradients. In this paper we refine theoretically and observationally previous analyses on the drainage density of tidal networks developed within tidal marshes. The issue is quite relevant for predictions of the morphological evolution of lagoons and coastal wetlands, especially if undergoing rapid changes owing, say, to combined effects of subsidence and sea level rise. We analyze 136 watersheds within 20 salt marshes from the northern lagoon of Venice using accurate aerial photographs and field surveys taken in different years in order to study both their space and time variability. Remarkably, the tidal landforms studied show quite different physical and ecological characteristics. We find a clear tendency to develop characteristic watersheds described by exponential decays of the probability distributions of unchanneled lengths, and thereby a pointed absence of scale-free distributions which instead usually characterize fluvial settings. We further find that total channel length relates well to watershed area rather than to tidal prism, a somewhat counterintuitive result on the basis of dynamical considerations. Finally, we show that in spite of the apparent site-specific features of morphological variability, conventional measures of drainage density appear to be quite constant in space and time, indicating a similarity of form. We show that such similarity is an artifact of the Hortonian measure. Indeed, important morphological differences, most notably in stream (or link) frequency reflecting the true extent of branching innervating the marshes and the sinuosity of tidal meandering, may only be captured by introducing measures of the extent of unchanneled flow paths based on hydrodynamics rather than topography and geometry.

Separation of Ground and Low Vegetation Signatures in LiDAR Measurements of Salt-Marsh Environments

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has been shown to have a great potential in the accurate characterization of forest systems; however, its application to salt-marsh environments is challenging because the characteristic short vegetation does not give rise to detectable differences between first and last LiDAR returns. Furthermore, the lack of precisely identifiable references (e.g., buildings, roads, etc.) in marsh areas makes the registration and bias correction of the LiDAR data much more difficult than in conventional urban- or forested-area applications. In this paper, we introduce reliable methods to remove random and systematic errors and to register raw data, as well as a new procedure, to determine the optimal filter window size to separate ground and canopy returns. A limited amount of field observations is used to determine the size of the filtering window which produces the minimally biased estimates of the digital terrain model (DTM). The digital surface model (DSM, representing the canopy top) is then obtained in a similar manner, and the digital vegetation model (DVM, representing the vegetation height) is computed as the difference between the DSM and the DTM. We apply this procedure to a study marsh within the Venice Lagoon, Italy, and obtain a high-accuracy DTM. The error (z_LiDAR-z_field) is 2.2 cm, with a standard deviation of 6.4 cm. The comparison of the estimated DVM with field observations shows an underestimation of the height of the canopy top (17.7 cm, on average). The height of the lowest canopy elements (e.g., basal leaves), however, is significantly correlated to the LiDAR-derived DVM, showing that this contains useful information on the canopy structure.

A geomorphic study of lagoonal landforms

We perform an analysis of the observational morphological structure of a tidal landscape aimed at examining key assumptions on the geomorphological evolution of wetlands, lagoons, estuarine areas and tidal environments in general. The issues addressed pertain to the statistical measures and the morphodynamic implications of topological or metric properties of the observed landforms, in particular their scale-dependent (or invariant) characters that might suggest self-organized dynamical origins. Field surveys and remote sensing are employed here to accurately characterize different morphodynamic features of a lagoonal environment. Of particular novelty and interest is the structure of landscape-forming shear stresses (properly calculated in unchanneled portions of the landscape) which suggests the viability of threshold models of incision for the formation of tidal channel networks. Distinctive geomorphic indicators, suitable for comparative purposes with modeling of the long-term evolution of tidal systems, are also pointed out. We finally discuss space-distributed analyses of ecogeomorphological properties which strongly suggest the dominance of subvertical processes in the control of the distribution of halophytic vegetation, a key morphodynamic factor. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Non-Neutral Vegetation Dynamics

The neutral theory of biodiversity constitutes a reference null hypothesis for the interpretation of ecosystem dynamics and produces relatively simple analytical descriptions of basic system properties, which can be easily compared to observations. On the contrary, investigations in non-neutral dynamics have in the past been limited by the complexity arising from heterogeneous demographic behaviours and by the relative paucity of detailed observations of the spatial distribution of species diversity (beta-diversity): These circumstances prevented the development and testing of explicit non-neutral mathematical descriptions linking competitive strategies and observable ecosystem properties. Here we introduce an exact non-neutral model of vegetation dynamics, based on cloning and seed dispersal, which yields closed-form characterizations of beta-diversity. The predictions of the non-neutral model are validated using new high-resolution remote-sensing observations of salt-marsh vegetation in the Venice Lagoon (Italy). Model expressions of beta-diversity show a remarkable agreement with observed distributions within the wide observational range of scales explored (5⋅10−1 m÷103 m). We also consider a neutral version of the model and find its predictions to be in agreement with the more limited characterization of beta-diversity typical of the neutral theory (based on the likelihood that two sites be conspecific or heterospecific, irrespective of the species). However, such an agreement proves to be misleading as the recruitment rates by propagules and by seed dispersal assumed by the neutral model do not reflect known species characteristics and correspond to averages of those obtained under the more general non-neutral hypothesis. We conclude that non-neutral beta-diversity characterizations are required to describe ecosystem dynamics in the presence of species-dependent properties and to successfully relate the observed patterns to the underlying processes.

Patterns in tidal environments: salt-marsh channel networks and vegetation

Salt marshes in tidal environments are characterised by complex patterns both in their geomorphic and ecological features. Such patterns arise through the elaboration of a network structure driven by the tidal forcing and through the interaction between hydrodynamical, geophysical and ecological components (e.g. microphytobenthos and vegetation). This contribution introduces observations of tidal environments from remote sensing and ancillary data collected in the field. In particular, CASI airborne data and Quick-Bird satellite data collected on the lagoon of Venice (Italy) have been acquired within the European RTD project TIDE. The remotely sensed data are used to map salt marsh vegetation and channel morphology and to study their spatial structure.