Bridget Livers

Sources and interpretation of channel complexity in forested subalpine streams of the Southern Rocky Mountains

We evaluate correlations between stream geomorphic complexity and characteristics of the adjacent riparian forest, valley geometry, and land use history in forested subalpine streams of the Colorado Front Range. Measures of geomorphic complexity focus on cross-sectional, planform, and instream wood piece and logjam variables. We categorize adjacent riparian forests as old-growth unmanaged forest (OU), younger unmanaged forest (YU), and younger managed forest (YM), and valley geometry as laterally confined, partly confined, or unconfined. Significant differences in geomorphic stream complexity between OU, YU, and YM result primarily from differences in wood pieces and logjams, and these differences correlate strongly with pool volume and organic matter storage. Significant differences in planform and cross-sectional complexity correlate more strongly with valley geometry, but do not explain as much of the observed variability in complexity between streams as do the wood variables. Unconfined OU streams have the largest wood loads and the greatest complexity, whereas legacy effects of logging, tie-drives, and channel simplification create lower complexity in YM streams, even relative to YU streams flowing through similarly aged forest. We find that management history of riparian forests exerts the strongest control on reduced functional stream channel complexity, regardless of riparian forest stand age.

Historical land use as a driver of alternative states for stream form and function in forested mountain watersheds of the Southern Rocky Mountains

We demonstrate how land use can drive mountain streams in the Southern Rockies across a threshold to induce an alternative state of significantly reduced physical complexity of form and reduced ecological function. We evaluate field data from 28 stream reaches in relatively laterally unconfined valleys and unmanaged forest that is either old-growth forest or naturally disturbed younger forest, and 19 stream reaches in managed forest with past land use. We evaluate potential differences in stream form, as reflected in channel planform, cross-sectional geometry, and instream wood loads, and stream function, as reflected in pool volume and storage of organic carbon. Field data indicate a threshold of differences in stream form and function between unmanaged and managed stream reaches, regardless of forest stand age, supporting our hypothesis that the legacy effects of past land use result in an alternative state of streams. Because physical complexity that increases stream retentiveness and habitat can maintain aquatic-riparian ecosystem functions, the alternative physical state of streams in managed watersheds creates a physical template for an alternative ecological state with reduced pool volume, organic carbon storage, and ecosystem productivity. We recommend maintaining riparian forests that can supply large wood to streams as a stream restoration technique in historically forested stream segments.