Landscape-Scale Geomorphic Influences on Vegetation Patterns in Four Environments

This paper reviews and synthesizes research about geomorphic influences on vegetation patterns apparent at the landscape scale. After an overview of the effects that landforms and geomorphic processes have on plant distributions, these relationships are discussed in more detail for each of four distinct physical settings: temperate riparian environments, slopes affected by landslides and other forms of mass movement, desert alluvial fans, and nonmountainous glaciated landscapes. These four landscapes were selected because they encompass a broad range of temporal and spatial scales at which the geomorphic processes most strongly linked with vegetation patterns operate; furthermore, they collectively illustrate some of the more prominent themes in recent research on this topic. Finally, we identify four topics that particularly merit future research on geomorphic-biogeographic interactions: (1) feedback between vegetation and landforms, (2) distinctions between landform characteristics and the associated geomorphic processes as controls of vegetation patterns, (3) the influence of scale on landform-vegetation relationships, and (4) geographic variation in those relationships. [Key words: plant geography, landscape ecology, vegetation patterns, alluvial fans, riparian environments, landslides, glaciated landscapes.]