Abstract
The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) is over 800 km long, ranges from 32 to 128 km wide, and comprises approximately 10 million ha in seven states including Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. This vast floodplain begins at the convergence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois, extends to the northern Gulf of Mexico, and drains about 41 % of the conterminous United States. The MAV was largely forested prior to the arrival of Europeans, following which flood control for agriculture and human settlement caused nearly 75 % loss of riparian forests in the MAV by the late twentieth century, with only highly fragmented patches remaining today. Moreover, the Mississippi River was channelized and leveed for flood protection at unprecedented rates following the 1928 Flood Control Act. Primary crops grown in the MAV include corn, cotton, rice, and soybeans. Rice fields are especially important to diverse waterbirds during migration and winter.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barlow JRB, Clark BR. Simulation of water-use conservation scenarios for the Mississippi Delta using an existing regional groundwater flow model: U. S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations report 2011–5019, Reston; 2011.
Brown CR, Baxter C, Pashley DN. The ecological basis for the conservation of migratory birds in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. In: Bonney R, Pashley DN, Cooper RJ, Niles L, editors. Strategies for bird conservation: the partners in flight planning process. Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; 2000. p. 1–7. http://birds.cornell.edu/pifcapemay. Accessed 14 Oct 2013.
Conner WH, Sharitz RR. Forest communities of bottomlands. In: Fredrickson LH, King SL, Kaminski RM, editors. Ecology and management of bottomland hardwood ecosystems: the state of our understanding, Special publication No. 10. Puxico: University of Missouri-Columbia, Gaylord Memorial Laboratory; 2005. p. 93–120.
Dembkowski DJ, Miranda LE. Hierarchy in factors affecting fish biodiversity in floodplain lakes of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Environ Biol Fishes. 2012;93:357–68.
Faulkner SW, Barrow JRB, Keeland B, Walls S. Interim report assessment of ecological services derived from U. S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley: Regional estimates and functional condition indicator models. 2008.
Feaga JS. Winter waterbird use and food resources of aquaculture lands in Mississippi [thesis]. Mississippi State: Mississippi State University; 2014.
Gardiner ES, Oliver JM. Restoration of bottomland hardwood forests in Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, U.S.A. In: Stanturf JA, Madsen P, editors. Restoration of boreal and temperate forests. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2005. p. 235–51.
Griep MT, Collins B. Chapter 14: Wildlife and forest communities. The Southern Forest Futures Project Technical Report. General Technical Report 178. Asheville: USFS Southern Research Station; 2011. http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/futures/technical-report/14.html. Accessed 20 Nov 2013.
Henderson JE, Grado SC, Munn IA, Jones WD. Economic impacts of wildlife- and- fisheries- associated recreation on the Mississippi economy: An input-output analysis. Forest and Wildlife Research Center, Research Bulletin FO398, Mississippi State University; 2010.
Howarth RW, Boyer EW, Pabich WJ, Galloway JN. Nitrogen use in the United States from 1961–2000 and potential future trends. Ambio. 2002;31:88–96.
Jenkins WA, Murray BC, Kramer RA, Faulkner SP. Valuing ecosystem services from wetlands restoration in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Ecol Econ. 2010;69:1051–61.
King SL, Shepard JP, Ouchley K, Neal JA. Bottomland hardwood forests: past, present, and future. In: Fredrickson LH, King SL, Kaminski RM, editors. Ecology and management of bottomland hardwood systems: the state of our understanding, Gaylord Memorial Laboratory special publication No. 10. Puxico: University of Missouri-Columbia; 2005. p. 1–17.
Klimas C, Foti T, Pagan J, Williamson M, Murray E. Potential natural vegetation maps for ecosystem restoration in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. EMRRP technical notes collection. ERDC TN-EMRRP-ER-16. Vicksburg: U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center; 2012.
Kross J, Kaminski RM, Reinecke KJ, Penny EJ, Pearse AT. Moist-soil seed abundance in managed wetlands of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. J Wildl Manag. 2008;72:707–14.
Lehnen SE, Krementz DG. Use of aquaculture ponds and other habitats by autumn migrating shorebirds along the lower Mississippi River. Environ Manag. 2013;52:417–26.
Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture: Management Board. 2013. www.lmvjv.org
Mitsch WJ, Day Jr JW, Gilliam JW, Groffman PM, Hey DL. Reducing nitrogen loading to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River basin: strategies to counter a persistent ecological problem. Bioscience. 2001;51:373–88.
National Aquaculture Sector Overview. United States of America. National aquaculture sector overview fact sheets. Text by Olin PG. In: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department [online]. Rome. [updated 2011 Feb 1; cited 2013 Oct 14].
Oswalt SJ. Forest resources of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-117. Asheville: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station; 2013.
Pearse AT, Kaminski RM, Reinecke KJ, Dinsmore SJ. Local and landscape associations between wintering dabbling ducks and wetlands complexes in Mississippi. Wetlands. 2012;32:859–69.
Petrie M, Brasher M, James D. Estimating the biological and economic contributions that rice habitats make in support of North American waterfowl. Stuttgart: The Rice Foundation; 2014.
Rabalais NN, Turner RE, Scavia D. Beyond science into policy: Gulf of Mexico hypoxia and the Mississippi River. Bioscience. 2002;52:129–42.
Ranalli N, Ritchison G. Phenology of shorebird migration in western Kentucky. Southeast Nat. 2012;11:99–110.
Reinecke KJ, Kaminski RM, Moorhead DJ, Hodges JD, Nassar JR. Mississippi Alluvial Valley. In: Smith LM, Pederson RL, Kaminski RM, editors. Habitat management for migration and wintering waterfowl in North America. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press; 1989. p. 203–47.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Davis, J.B. (2016). The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (USA). In: Finlayson, C., Milton, G., Prentice, R., Davidson, N. (eds) The Wetland Book. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6173-5_236-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6173-5_236-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6173-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6173-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (USA)- Published:
- 18 January 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6173-5_236-2
-
Original
The Mississippi Alluvial Valley (USA)- Published:
- 30 August 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6173-5_236-1