Bedform morphology of salmon spawning areas in a large gravel-bed river

While the importance of river channel morphology to salmon spawning habitat is increasingly recognized, quantitative measures of the relationships between channel morphology and habitat use are lacking. Such quantitative measures are necessary as management and regulatory agencies within the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, and elsewhere, seek to quantify potential spawning habitat and develop recovery goals for declining salmon populations. The objective of this study was to determine if fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) spawning areas in the Snake River, Idaho, USA, were correlated with specific bedform types at the pool–riffle scale. A bedform differencing technique was used to objectively quantify the longitudinal riverbed profile into four distinct pool–riffle units that were independent of discharge. The vertical location of thalweg points within these units was quantified with a riffle proximity index. Chinook salmon spawning areas were mapped and correlated with the pool–riffle units through the use of cross-tabulation tables. The results indicate that 84% of fall Chinook salmon spawning areas were correlated with riffles (χ² = 57.5, df = 3, p < 0.001), with 53% of those areas located on the upstream side of riffle crests. The majority of Snake River fall Chinook salmon spawning occurred at elevations greater than 80% of the difference in elevation between the nearest riffle crest and pool bottom. The analyses of bedform morphology will assist regional fish managers in quantifying existing and potential fall Chinook salmon spawning habitat, and will provide a quantitative framework for evaluating general ecological implications of channel morphology in large gravel-bed rivers.     

Andean evolution at the Guañacos and Chos Malal fold and thrust belts (36°30′–37°s)

The Andes between 36°30′ and 37°S represent a Cretaceous fold and thrust belt strongly reactivated in the late Miocene. Most of the features that absorbed Neogene shortening were already uplifted in the late Cretaceous, as revealed by field mapping and confirmed by previous fission track analysis. This Andean section is formed by two sectors: a western-inner sector generated by the closure of the upper Oligocene-lower Miocene intra-arc Cura Mallín basin between the middle and late Miocene (Guañacos fold and thrust belt), and an eastern-outer sector, where late Triassic-early Jurassic extensional depocenters were exhumed in two discrete phases of contraction, in the latest early Cretaceous and late Miocene to the Present, respectively (Chos Malal fold and thrust belt). Late Miocene deformation has not homogeneously reactivated Cretaceous compressive structures, being minimal south of 37°30′S through the eastern-outer sector (southern continuation of the Chos Malal fold and thrust belt). The reason for such an inhomogeneous deformational evolution seems to be related to the development of a late Miocene shallow subduction regime between 34°30′ and 37°45′S, as it was proposed in previous studies. This shallow subduction zone is evidenced by the eastward expansion of the arc that was accompanied by the eastern displacement of the orogenic front at these latitudes. As a result, the Cretaceous fold and thrust belt were strongly reactivated north of 37°30′S producing the major topographic break along the Southern Central Andes.     

The distribution of Potamothrix bavaricus (Oeschmann, 1913) (Oligochaeta) in anthropogenic freshwater habitats of an industrialised area (Upper Silesia, Poland)

The studies have revealed that Potamothrix bavaricus (Oeschmann, 1913), generally rare in Poland, is a common species in the benthic oligochaete fauna of different anthropogenic freshwater habitats in a heavily industrialised area of Poland. It was often found in habitats with significant salinity, a high total hardness and a large content of nutrients. The evident resistance to various pollutants enables the settlement of P. bavaricus in such habitats, which are unsuitable for other oligochaete species.     

REGULATION OF FLOW AND SEDIMENT LOAD IN THE YELLOW RIVER

Small runoff, large sediment load, and incompatible relationship of flow and sediment load are very important characteristics of the Yellow River. They are also the crux of the most prominent problems of the Yellow River. To solve these problems, the regimes of flow and sediment load have to be improved by increasing water, reducing sediment load, and by using reservoirs to regulate flow and sediment load. The results of experiments for regulating the flow and sediment load in the last three years by the Xiaolangdi Reservoir have indicated that this measure is a realistic and effective way to mitigate the prominent problems in flood control of the Lower Yellow River at present and in the near future. However, the regulation system is still imperfect. It is advisable to speed up the pace of research and construction of the system for regulating flow and sediment load.     

Predicting channel patterns

The proposed distinction between meandering and braided river channel patterns, on the basis of bankfull specific stream power and bed material size, is analysed and rejected. Only by using regime-based estimates of channel widths (rather than actual widths) has discrimination been achieved, and it is argued that this procedure is unacceptable.An alternative is to explore the patterning processes underlying the marked pattern scatter on bankfull stream power/bed material size plots. Of the five sets of patterning processes, large-scale bedform development and stability is seen as especially important for meandering and braiding. For gravel-bed rivers, bedforms developed at around or above bankfull stage appear important for pattern generation, with braiding relating to higher excess shear stress and Froude number. There seems to be an upper threshold to both meandering and braiding which is achieved at extreme discharges and steep gradients, as on steep alluvial fans, rather than for the rivers with available flow data here considered. For sand-bed rivers with greater excess shear stress, the equivalent upper plane bed threshold may occur below bankfull, with bed material mobility and bedform modification occurring over a wider range of sub-bankfull discharges. Sand-bed channel margin outlines appear to be less perturbed by bedform effects than gravel bed planforms, and they may have naturally straight or sinuous planforms. Bedform relief may nevertheless lead to some being designated as braided when viewed at low flows.It is concluded that the use of a single-stage stream power measure and bed material size alone is unlikely to achieve meandering/braiding discrimination.     

Transport and deposition of large woody debris in streams: a flume experiment

Large woody debris (LWD) is an integral component of forested streams of the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere, yet little is known about how far wood is transported and where it is deposited in streams. In this paper, we report the results of flume experiments that examine interactions among hydraulics, channel geometry, transport distance and deposition of floating wood. These experiments were carried out in a 1.22-m-wide×9.14-m-long gravel bed flume using wooden dowels of various sizes as surrogate logs. Channel planforms were either self-formed or created by hand, and ranged from meanders to alternate bars. Floating pieces tended to orient with long axes parallel to flow in the center of the channel. Pieces were deposited where channel depth was less than buoyant depth, typically at the head of mid-channel bars, in shallow zones where flow expanded, and on the outside of bends. We hypothesize that the distance logs travel may be a function of the channel's debris roughness, a dimensionless index incorporating ratios of piece length and diameter to channel width, depth and sinuosity. Travel distance decreased as the ratio of piece length to both channel width and radius of curvature increased, but the relative importance of these variables changed with channel planform. Large pieces can move further than our debris roughness models predict if greater than 50% of the active channel area is deeper than the buoyant depth of the piece, or if momentum is high enough to carry pieces across shallows. Our debris roughness model allows first-order prediction of the amount of wood transport under various channel geometries.     

River flow mass exponents with fractal channel networks and rainfall

An important problem in hydrologic science is understanding how river flow is influenced by rainfall properties and drainage basin characteristics. In this paper we consider one approach, the use of mass exponents, in examining the relation of river flow to rainfall and the channel network, which provides the primary conduit for transport of water to the outlet in a large basin. Mass exponents, which characterize the power-law behavior of moments as a function of scale, are ideally suited for defining scaling behavior of processes that exhibit a high degree of variability or intermittency. The main result in this paper is an expression relating the mass exponent of flow resulting from an instantaneous burst of rainfall to the mass exponents of spatial rainfall and that of the network width function. Spatial rainfall is modeled as a random multiplicative cascade and the channel network as a recursive replacement tree; these fractal models reproduce certain types of self-similar behavior seen in actual rainfall and networks. It is shown that under these modeling assumptions the scaling behavior of flow mirrors that of rainfall if rainfall is highly variable in space, and on the other hand flow mirrors the structure of the network if rainfall is not so highly variable.     

EVOLUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HYPER－CONCENTRATED FLOW IN BRAIDED CHANNEL OF THE YELLOW RIVER

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Meanders caused by hyperconcentrated water flow: An example from the loess plateau,China

This paper describes meandering alluvial rivers with mean annual suspended-sediment concentrations of more than 100 kgm^?3 on the Loess Plateau, China, and explains their formation as caused by the effect of hyperconcentrated water flow. When the river is dominated by hyperconcentrated flow, the rate of energy expenditure required for sediment transport declines significantly. Accordingly, the river channel adjusts itself to a lower channel gradient by increasing the river length, resulting in a meandering channel. Since the stable transportation of sediment by hyperconcentrated flow is dependent on river channel boundary conditions, the latter play an important role in the formation of meanders of this kind. The paper also discusses the conditions for the discrimination of meandering and braided rivers in this area.