To prevent standing water from damaging property and plant materials, catchment basins, french drains, tile systems and simple swales and ditches should be constructed in areas known to puddle after normal rains. Most plants can become severely stressed from repeated or prolonged periods of inundation. Actively growing plants are more susceptible to damage than dormant plants. There is a range of flood tolerance levels among different plants, as well. For example, mature Bald Cypress trees can survive indefinitely in standing water while Laurel Oaks cannot withstand even a water table that is 3 to 6 feet below the soil surface.
Flooding can damage plants in many ways.
One way is through changes in soil structure and chemistry and plant tissue responses. Poor soil aeration causes plants to respire quickly, depleting their food reserves. This lack of soil oxygen leads to an increase, sometimes to toxic levels, of carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen and nitrogen gas. Beneficial aerobic organisms are quickly replaced by harmful anaerobic bacteria that cause loss of nitrogen and other plant elements from the soil. Another, more obvious, way flooding damages plants is by knocking them over.