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Scale‐Free Structure of Surface‐Water Connectivity Within a Lowland River‐Floodplain Landscape
Author(s) -
Castillo Cesar R.,
Güneralp İnci,
Hales Billy,
Güneralp Burak
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl088378
Subject(s) - floodplain , hydrology (agriculture) , flood myth , surface water , streams , scale (ratio) , range (aeronautics) , environmental science , habitat , geology , ecology , geography , computer science , cartography , computer network , materials science , geotechnical engineering , archaeology , environmental engineering , composite material , biology
Abstract Lowland rivers regularly flood and create complex inundation patterns where energy and matter are exchanged between landscape patches over a dynamic network of surface‐water connections. Scale‐freeness of networks for phenomena in many disciplines have been studied with mixed results. Here we present the first documented example of a (roughly) scale‐free network of surface‐water connections within a river‐floodplain landscape. We accomplish this by simulating 23 inundation maps across the historical range of flows for the Mission River in Texas. We then analyze the topology of the surface‐water connections between the river and two habitat patch types. Results show that surface‐water connectivity is scale‐free for ≥64% of simulated flows (≥70% for flows with floodplain inundation). Moreover, the dynamic surface‐water connections meet five of the six conceptual criteria of scale‐free networks. Our findings indicate that river‐floodplain landscapes are self‐organizing toward scale‐free surface‐water connections among patches that optimizes energy and matter exchange.