Implications of the saltation–abrasion bedrock incision model for steady‐state river longitudinal profile relief and concavity

The saltation–abrasion model predicts rates of river incision into bedrock as an explicit function of sediment supply, grain size, boundary shear stress and rock strength. Here we use this experimentally calibrated model to explore the controls on river longitudinal profile concavity and relief for the simple but illustrative case of steady‐state topography. Over a wide range of rock uplift rates we find a characteristic downstream trend, in which upstream reaches are close to the threshold of sediment motion with large extents of bedrock exposure in the channel bed, while downstream reaches have higher excess shear stresses and lesser extents of bedrock exposure. Profile concavity is most sensitive to spatial gradients in runoff and the rate of downstream sediment fining. Concavity is also sensitive to the supply rate of coarse sediment, which varies with rock uplift rate and with the fraction of the total sediment load in the bedload size class. Variations in rock strength have little influence on profile concavity. Profile relief is most sensitive to grain size and amount of runoff. Rock uplift rate and rock strength influence relief most strongly for high rates of rock uplift. Analysis of potential covariation of grain size with rock uplift rate and rock strength suggests that the influence of these variables on profile form could occur in large part through their influence on grain size. Similarly, covariation between grain size and the fraction of sediment load in the bedload size class provides another indirect avenue for rock uplift and strength to influence profile form. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Downvalley fining of hillslope sediment in an alpine catchment: implications for downstream fining of sediment flux in mountain rivers

The size distributions of sediment delivered from hillslopes to rivers profoundly influence river morphodynamics, including river incision into bedrock and the quality of aquatic habitat. Yet little is known about the factors that influence size distributions of sediment produced by weathering on hillslopes. We present results of a field study of hillslope sediment size distributions at Inyo Creek, a steep catchment in granitic bedrock of the Sierra Nevada, USA. Particles sampled near the base of hillslopes, adjacent to the trunk stream, show a pronounced decrease in sediment size with decreasing sample elevation across all but the coarsest size classes. Measured size distributions become increasingly bimodal with decreasing elevation, exhibiting a coarse, bouldery mode that does not change with elevation and a more abundant finer mode that shifts from cobbles at the highest elevations to gravel at mid elevations and finally to sand at low elevations. We interpret these altitudinal variations in hillslope sediment size to reflect changes in physical, chemical, and biological weathering that can be explained by the catchment's strong altitudinal gradients in topography, climate, and vegetation cover. Because elevation and travel distance to the outlet are closely coupled, the altitudinal trends in sediment size produce a systematic decrease in sediment size along hillslopes parallel to the trunk stream. We refer to this phenomenon as ‘downvalley fining.’ Forward modeling shows that downvalley fining of hillslope sediment is necessary for downstream fining of the long-term average flux of coarse sediment in mountain landscapes where hillslopes and channels are coupled and long-term net sediment deposition is negligible. The model also shows that abrasion plays a secondary role in downstream fining of coarse sediment flux but plays a dominant role in partitioning between the bedload and suspended load. Patterns observed at Inyo Creek may be widespread in mountain ranges around the world. © 2020 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

New specimens of a fossil ostrich from the Miocene of Kenya

Fossilised hind limb bones from the late Middle Miocene (approximately 14 million-year-old [MYA]) Fort Ternan, Kadianga West and Ngorora localities in Western Kenya indicate the presence of a new representative of the ostrich genus Struthio. These new fossils represent some of the oldest known records for Struthio yet described, slightly younger than Struthio coppensi, from the Lower Miocene of Namibia. Because the four sub-species of the modern-day ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus, Struthio camelus australis, Struthio camelus massaicus, and Struthio camelus molybdophanes) inhabit the plains of Africa, and as recently as the 1940s, a fifth sub-species was also present in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia (Struthio camelus syriacus), records of Struthio from Kenya and Namibia testify to the much wider distribution of these cursorial birds in the relatively recent past. This is further supported by the very high frequency of ostrich eggshell fragments found across Africa and Eurasia, which vastly outweighs the amount of skeletal material uncovered over the last century.