Continuity and discontinuity of the riparian vegetation along a fluvial corridor

The concept of continuity/discontinuity is applied to the riparian vegetation of the corridor of the River Adour (S.W. France), in order to precisely define longitudinal structure, and to test the degree of floristic continuity of the fluvial axis. The measure of floristic connectance along the river course is based on presence/absence data, and is applied to successive stretches of the river, at various resolution levels. This analysis shows that the River Adour corridor cannot be assumed to be floristically continuous. The observed discontinuities may correspond to two types of change in the riparian vegetation: zones of slow change (high level of floristic connectance) or zones of sharp change (low level of floristic connectance).