Ellen Wohl

Process-Based Ecological River Restoration: Visualizing Three- Dimensional Connectivity and Dynamic Vectors to Recover Lost Linkages

Human impacts to aquatic ecosystems often involve changes in hydrologic connectivity and flow regime. Drawing upon examples in the literature and from our experience, we developed conceptual models and used simple bivariate plots to visualize human impacts and restoration efforts in terms of connectivity and flow dynamics. Human-induced changes in longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity are often accompanied by changes in flow dynamics, but in our experience restoration efforts to date have more often restored connectivity than flow dynamics. Restoration actions have included removing dams to restore fish passage, reconnecting flow through artificially cut-off side channels, setting back or breaching levees, and removing fine sediment deposits that block vertical exchange with the bed, thereby partially restoring hydrologic connectivity, i.e., longitudinal, lateral, or vertical. Restorations have less commonly affected flow dynamics, presumably because of the social and economic importance of water diversions or flood control. Thus, as illustrated in these bivariate plots, the trajectories of ecological restoration are rarely parallel with degradation trajectories because restoration is politically and economically easier along some axes more than others.

Long river profiles, tectonism, and eustasy: A guide to interpreting fluvial terraces

Along three rivers at the Mendocino triple junction, northern California, strath, cut, and fill terraces have formed in response to tectonic and eustatic processes. Detailed surveying and radiometric dating at multiple sites indicate that lower reaches of the rivers are dominated by the effects of oscillating sea level, primarily aggradation and formation of fill terraces during sea level high stands, alternating with deep incision during low stands. A eustasy-driven deposi- tional wedge extends tens of kilometers upstream on all rivers (tapering to zero thickness). This distance is greater than expected from studies of the effects of check dams on much smaller streams elsewhere, due in part to the large size of these rivers. However, the change in gradient is nearly identical to other base level rise studies: the depositional gradient is about half that of the original channel. Middle to upper reaches of each fiver are dominated by the effects of long- term uplift, primarily lateral and vertical erosion and formation of steep, unpaired strath terraces exposed only upstream of the depositional wedge. Vertical incision at a rate similar to that of uplift has occurred even during the present sea level high stand along rivers with highest uplift rates. Strath terraces have steeper gradients than the modem channel bed and do not merge with marine terraces at the river mouth; consequently, they cannot be used to determine altitudes of sea level high stands. Strath formation is a continuous process of response to long-term uplift, and its occurrence varies spatially along a river depending on stream power, and hence position, upstream. Strath terraces are found only along certain parts of a coastal stream: upstream of the aggradational effects of oscillating sea level, and far enough downstream that stream power is in excess of that needed to transport the prevailing sediment load. For a given size fiver, the greater the uplift rate, the greater the rate of vertical incision and, consequently, the less the like- lihood of strath terrace formation and preservation.

Large woody debris and flow resistance in step-pool channels, Cascade Range, Washington

Abstract Total flow resistance, measured as Darcy–Weisbach f, in 20 step-pool channels with large woody debris (LWD) in Washington, ranged from 5 to 380 during summer low flows. Step risers in the study streams consist of either (1) large and relatively immobile woody debris, bedrock, or roots that form fixed, or “forced,” steps, or (2) smaller and relatively mobile wood or clasts, or a mixture of both, arranged across the channel by the stream. Flow resistance in step-pool channels may be partitioned into grain, form, and spill resistance. Grain resistance is calculated as a function of particle size, and form resistance is calculated as large woody debris drag. Combined, grain and form resistance account for less than 10% of the total flow resistance. We initially assumed that the substantial remaining portion is spill resistance attributable to steps. However, measured step characteristics could not explain between-reach variations in flow resistance. This suggests that other factors may be significant; the coefficient of variation of the hydraulic radius explained 43% of the variation in friction factors between streams, for example. Large woody debris generates form resistance on step treads and spill resistance at step risers. Because the form resistance of step-pool channels is relatively minor compared to spill resistance and because wood in steps accentuates spill resistance by increasing step height, we suggest that wood in step risers influences channel hydraulics more than wood elsewhere in the channel. Hence, the distribution and function, not just abundance, of large woody debris is critical in steep, step-pool channels.

PROCESSES GOVERNING HYDROCHORY ALONG RIVERS: HYDRAULICS, HYDROLOGY, AND DISPERSAL PHENOLOGY

Rivers are important corridors for movement, migration, and dispersal of aquatic organisms as well as for dispersal of the seeds and vegetative propagules of riparian plants. In this investigation, the relationships between flow regime, channel morphology, dispersal phenology, and seed deposition patterns were evaluated using experimentation in a flume. A channel with geomorphic features common to a wide range of stream morphologies was constructed in a 1.8 × 20 m experimental flume through which three hydrologic regimes (one natural and two typical of dam releases) were routed in replicated trials. Relationships between dispersal phenology and hydrologic regime were examined using color-coded Betula fontinalis seeds released over each 10-min trial. Spatial patterns of seed deposition along stream margins were then compared to determine the individual and combined effects of flow regime, fluvial feature, and timing of seed release. Reynolds number, Froude number, Weber number, flow velocity, and a dimensi...

Sediment deposition and transport patterns following a reservoir sediment release

A reservoir sediment release on the North Fork Poudre River supplied ∼7000 m3 of silt- to pebble-sized sediment to an originally boulder bed channel. Deposition along the 12 km of channel downstream from the reservoir occurred primarily in pools. During the subsequent snowmelt hydrograph, sediment was progressively scoured from the upstream and then the downstream pools. Initial sediment reworking in the pools created a deep, narrow thalweg scoured to the original pool bed, with additional sediment deposition in lateral eddies. Continued reworking reduced but did not completely remove these eddy deposits. The channel became supply-limited with respect to finer grain-sized fractions (clay to medium sand) first at upstream and then at downstream sites and eventually became supply-limited with respect to coarser grain-sized fractions (coarse sand to pebbles). Bedload transport rates at a site were strongly linked to the depletion of sediment stored in upstream pools. Magnitude, duration, and sequence of flows were all important controls on bedload transport and return of the channel to its prerelease state.

Bedrock benches and boulder bars: Floods in the Burdekin Gorge of Australia

The Burdekin Gorge of northeastern Australia lies within the seasonal tropics and is characterized by high discharge variability. Slackwater sediments and paleostage indicators in the gorge record seven large floods that have occurred during the past 1,200 yrs. These floods range in magnitude from 11,000 to 30,000 m 3 s -1 and are characterized by large downstream variations in hydraulics. The floods generate high values of velocity, boundary shear stress, and stream power per unit area. Downstream fluctuations in these variables help to explain the location of boulder bars, high flood levees, small-scale erosional features in the bedrock, and the formation of inner channels. Boulder bars and flood levees form where shear stress and stream power decrease due to channel widening. Small-scale erosional features, such as potholes and troughs, are best developed at sites of channel constriction and associated increases in shear stress and stream power. The development of the inner channel appears to be controlled by complex interactions between bedrock lithology and structure, and by flow hydraulics. All of the channel features are related to the hydraulics of large floods, which therefore are the dominant controls on many aspects of channel morphology in this bedrock gorge.

A 4500-Year Record of Large Floods on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona

A sequence of flood deposits left by the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, provides evidence of at least 15 floods with peak discharges greater than

Reclaiming freshwater sustainability in the Cadillac Desert

5500 m^{3}sec^{-1}