Bioindication and Functional Response in Floodplain Systems: Where to from Here?

We synthesise the results of the papers in this Special Issue, place them within the context of current trends in floodplain research, and outline promising new avenues that emerge from the contributions. The indication system presented complements existing approaches by focussing on a quantitative indication of environmental parameters. A promising research line that emerges is an extension of the systematic comparison of taxonomic groups with contrasting traits in terms of their performance as quantitative indicators for different environmental parameters. The studies show similarities and dissimilarities in the traits explaining the functional response of plants, molluscs, carabids, and syrphids to site conditions but trait databases and studies on additional taxa are required before broad generalisations can be made. The rigorous study design developed for the RIVA project, of which all contributions in this Special Issue are a part, not only was essential for an improvement of the understanding of species environment relationships and the role biological traits play for it, it also provides a baseline for assessing future change as part of long-term ecological monitoring of floodplains. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)