Geomorphology and climate interact to control organic carbon stock and age in mountain river valley bottoms

Organic carbon (OC) in valley bottom downed wood and soil that cycles over short to moderate timescales (10¹ to 10⁵ years) represents a large, dynamic, and poorly quantified pool of carbon whose distribution and residence time affects global climate. We sought to quantify this potentially important OC pool at the watershed scale to estimate its magnitude and age, as well as determine the controls on its variability within watersheds. To do this, we compared four disparate mountain river basins to show that mountain river valley bottoms store substantial estimated OC stocks in floodplain soil and downed wood (median OC of MgC/ha, n = 178). Although soil OC is generally young (exhibiting a median radiocarbon fraction modern value of , n = 121), geomorphic processes regulate soil burial and processes that limit microbial respiration, preserving aged OC in especially deep, unconfined, wet, and/or high-elevation floodplain soils. We statistically modeled OC stocks to show that valley bottom morphology and hydrology regulate variability in floodplain soil retention and resulting variability in OC stock and age in floodplain soil throughout river networks. Comparing the distribution of OC stocks between wood and soil, we find that where floodplain soils are present, their OC stocks are generally greater than OC stocks stored in wood. Our results suggest that although mountain rivers may accumulate large OC stocks relatively rapidly, those stocks are highly sensitive to alterations in soil and wood retention, implying that human alterations to either disturb or restore floodplain wood and soil storage may have substantial impacts on OC storage in river corridors. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Human impacts to mountain streams

Mountain streams are here defined as channel networks within mountainous regions of the world. This definition encompasses tremendous diversity of physical and biological conditions, as well as history of land use. Human effects on mountain streams may result from activities undertaken within the stream channel that directly alter channel geometry, the dynamics of water and sediment movement, contaminants in the stream, or aquatic and riparian communities. Examples include channelization, construction of grade-control structures or check dams, removal of beavers, and placer mining. Human effects can also result from activities within the watershed that indirectly affect streams by altering the movement of water, sediment, and contaminants into the channel. Deforestation, cropping, grazing, land drainage, and urbanization are among the land uses that indirectly alter stream processes. An overview of the relative intensity of human impacts to mountain streams is provided by a table summarizing human effects on each of the major mountainous regions with respect to five categories: flow regulation, biotic integrity, water pollution, channel alteration, and land use. This table indicates that very few mountains have streams not at least moderately affected by land use. The least affected mountainous regions are those at very high or very low latitudes, although our scientific ignorance of conditions in low-latitude mountains in particular means that streams in these mountains might be more altered than is widely recognized. Four case studies from northern Sweden (arctic region), Colorado Front Range (semiarid temperate region), Swiss Alps (humid temperate region), and Papua New Guinea (humid tropics) are also used to explore in detail the history and effects on rivers of human activities in mountainous regions. The overview and case studies indicate that mountain streams must be managed with particular attention to upstream/downstream connections, hillslope/channel connections, process domains, physical and ecological roles of disturbance, and stream resilience.     

Episodic wood loading in a mountainous neotropical watershed

The Upper Rio Chagres drains 414 km² of steep, mountainous terrain in central Panama. A tropical air mass thunderstorm on 10 July 2007 produced a flood across the basin that peaked at 720 m³ s^− 1 at a headwaters gage draining 17.5 km² and 1710 m³ s^− 1 at a downstream gage draining 414 km². The storm also triggered numerous landslides in the upper basin, which facilitated the formation of large logjams along portions of the channel where transport capacity of wood was reduced by a change in channel geometry such as a bend or channel expansion. During field work in February 2008, we characterized three jams with surface areas of 400–2450 m²; two of these jams resulted in storage of substantial (1100–8200 m³) sediment wedges upstream. We returned to these sites in March 2009 to document changes in the logjams and sediment storage. Drawing on observations made in the basin since 2002, and site visits during 2008 and 2009, we suggest that jams such as these last two years or less. We propose that wood dynamics in the Upper Chagres alternate between brief periods of moderate wood load in the form of large logjams and much longer periods of essentially no wood load, a situation that contrasts with the more consistent wood loads in catchments of similar size in temperate environments and with limited studies of more consistent wood load in tropical catchments with no landslides.     

Velocity characteristics along a small step–pool channel

This paper summarizes measurements of velocity along three reaches of a small mountain channel with step–pool bedforms. A one‐dimensional electromagnetic current meter was used to record velocity fluctuations at 37 fixed measurement points during five measurement intervals spanning the peak of the annual snowmelt hydrograph. Measurement cross‐sections were located upstream from a bed‐step, at the step lip, downstream from the step, and in a uniform‐gradient run. Data analyses focused on characteristics of velocity profiles, and on correlations between velocity characteristics and the potential control variables bedform type, reach gradient and flow depth. To test the hypothesis that velocity characteristics are related to channel bedform types, ANOVA and ANCOVA tests were performed for the average velocity and coefficient of variation of point velocity data. Results indicate that high frequency velocity variations correlate to some degree with both channel characteristics and discharge. Velocity became more variable as stage increased, particularly at low‐gradient reaches with less variable bed roughness. Velocity profiles suggest that locations immediately downstream from bed‐steps are dominated by wake turbulence from mid‐profile shear layers. Locations immediately upstream from steps, at step lips, and in runs are dominated by bed‐generated turbulence. Adverse pressure gradients upstream and downstream from steps may be enhancing turbulence generation, whereas favourable pressure gradients at steps are suppressing turbulence. The bed‐generated turbulence and skin friction of runs appear to be less effective energy dissipators than the wake‐generated turbulence and form drag of step–pool bedforms. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transience of channel head locations following disturbance

We used annual re‐surveys of two populations of channel heads affected by a severe wildfire in 2012 to monitor changes in channel head location with time following disturbance. Relative to channel heads in surrounding unburned areas, the median contributing drainage area of burned channel heads decreased by two orders of magnitude immediately after the fire, but then returned to values comparable to unburned areas within four years. We distinguish three types of channel heads. Permanent channel heads, which constitute 4% of the total population, occur in well‐developed swales in association with stable features such as bedrock outcrops: these channel heads appear to have been unaffected by the fire. Persistent channel heads, which are 40% of the total population, also occur within hillslope concavities, but the exact location of the channel head moves upslope and downslope through time in response to varying inputs of water and sediment. Transient channel heads form on straight and convex slopes immediately following disturbance, but disappear as regrowth of ground cover limits overland flow and sediment movement. The majority of the position changes for persistent and transient channel heads occurred abruptly when viewed as annual time steps. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Climate‐invariant area–slope relations in channel heads initiated by surface runoff

We use a dataset of 38 field‐mapped channel heads from a semi‐arid environment in western Colorado to examine relationships between contributing drainage area (A) and local hillslope gradient (θ) in relation to dominant process of initiation (surface runoff versus subsurface flow). Channel heads resulting primarily from subsurface flow have significantly greater values of A, longer basin lengths, and shallower local gradients than channel heads resulting primarily from surface runoff. We also compare the data from western Colorado to six analogous datasets from more humid regions in other portions of the United States and in southeast Australia. Comparison of the confidence intervals for the exponent values of A–θ regression lines reveals that the confidence intervals for the exponent of western Colorado channel heads with both surface and subsurface flow overlap with the confidence intervals for the exponent of all other datasets. This suggests that A–θ relationships do not differ significantly between diverse geographic locations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of longitudinal variations in valley geometry and wood load on flood response

We use field measurements and airborne LiDAR data to quantify the potential effects of valley geometry and large wood on channel erosional and depositional response to a large flood (estimated 150-year recurrence interval) in 2011 along a mountain stream. Topographic data along 3 km of Biscuit Brook in the Catskill Mountains, New York, USA reveal repeated downstream alternations between steep, narrow bedrock reaches and alluvial reaches that retain large wood, with wood loads as high as 1261 m³ ha⁻¹. We hypothesized that, within alluvial reaches, geomorphic response to the flood, in the form of changes in bed elevation, net volume of sediment eroded or aggraded, and grain size, correlates with wood load. We hypothesized that greater wood load corresponds to lower modelled average velocity and less channel-bed erosion during the flood, and finer median bed grain size and a lower gradation coefficient of bed sediment. The results partly support this hypothesis. Wood results in lower reach-average modelled velocity for the 2011 flood, but the magnitude of change in channel-bed elevation after the 2011 flood among alluvial and bedrock reaches does not correlate with wood load. Wood load does correlate with changes in sediment volume and bed substrate, with finer grain size and smaller sediment gradation in reaches with more wood. The proportion of wood in jams is a stronger predictor of bed grain-size characteristics than is total wood load. We also see evidence of a threshold: greater wood load correlates with channel aggradation at wood loads exceeding approximately 200 m³ ha⁻¹. In this mountain stream, abundant large wood in channel reaches with alluvial substrate creates lower velocity that results in finer bed material and, when wood load exceeds a threshold, reach scale increases in aggradation. This suggests that reintroducing small amounts of wood or one logjam for river restoration will have limited geomorphic effects. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wood process domains and wood loads on floodplains

Downed large wood on floodplains creates similar geomorphic and ecological effects as wood in the active channel, but has been the subject of fewer geomorphic studies. I propose floodplain large wood process domains that are distinguished based on recruitment source at the reach to river-length scale. Wood recruited to the floodplain can be autochthonous (individual or mass recruitment from floodplain forest), fluvially transported, or transported from adjacent hillslopes via mass movements that come down the valley side slopes or down the main channel. Fluvially transported wood can be further distinguished as being deposited: within the channel and subsequently accreted to the floodplain; marginal to the channel; on the floodplain during overbank flow; or on tributary fans. The mechanism of wood recruitment to a floodplain influences the spatial distribution of the wood across the floodplain and the proportion of wood pieces within jams, which in turn influences geomorphic and ecological effects of the floodplain wood. Using published studies of floodplain wood load for unmanaged river corridors, I hypothesize that the climate-controlled balance between forest primary productivity and decay rates of downed wood is the first-order control on floodplain large wood loads. Disturbance regime and wood recruitment mechanism are second-order controls on wood load and primary controls on the spatial distribution of large wood. Understanding of floodplain large wood can be applied to quantifying the effect of large wood on river corridors; river restoration; paleoenvironmental inferences; and estimation of organic carbon stock in river corridors. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling stream flow and sediment yield using the SWAT model: a case study of Ankara River basin,Turkey

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was tested for prediction of stream flow and sediment yield in the Ankara basin, Turkey. The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and applicability of the SWAT and generate a soil erosion map. Thirteen years of daily/monthly flow and monthly sediment data were used for calibration and validation. Model performance was evaluated using statistical measures to assess the applicability of the model in simulating stream flow and sediment yield during calibration (1989–1996) and validation (1982–1984) periods. Nash Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), relative error (RE), and R² (coefficient of determination) for daily flow were computed as 0.61, ?0.55, and 0.78, respectively; and as 0.79, ?0.58, and 0.89 for monthly flow during the calibration. Statistical comparisons of sediment yield produced values for NSE, RE, and R² of 0.81, ?1.55, and 0.93, respectively, during the calibration. The resulting map suggests that significant portions of urbanized and highly cultivated areas in the vicinity of stream channels are particularly vulnerable to soil erosion. SWAT satisfactorily simulated hydrology and sediment yield and can be used as a tool in decision-making for water resources planning in a basin with similar characteristics.