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At least 991 records · Page 55Linked to original sources
USGS1967

Field Methods for the Study of Slope and Fluvial Processes

In Belgium during the summer of 1966 the Commission on Slopes and the Commission on Applied Geomorphology of the International Geographical Union sponsored a joint symposium, with field excursions, and meetings of the two commissions. As a result of the conference and associated discussions, the participants expressed the view that it would be a contribution to scientific work relating to the subject area if the Commission on Applied Geomorphology could prepare a small manual describling the methods of field investigation being used by research scientists throughout the world in the study of various aspects of &lope development and fluvial processes. The Commission then assumed this responsibility and asked as many persons as were known to be. working on this subject to contribute whatever they wished in the way of descriptions of methods being employed. The purpose of the present manual is to show the variety of study methods now in use, to describe from the experience gained the limitations and advantages of different techniques, and to give pertinent detail which might be useful to other investigators. Some details that would be useful to know are not included in scientific publications, but in a manual on methods the details of how best t6 use a method has a place. Various persons have learned certain things which cannot be done, as well as some methods that are successful. It is our hope that comparison of methods tried will give the reader suggestions as to how a particular method might best be applied to his own circumstance. The manual does not purport to include methods used by all workers. In particular, it does not interfere with a more systematic treatment of the subject (1) or with various papers already published in the present journal. In fact we are sure that there are pertinent research methods that we do not know of and the Commission would be glad to receive additions and other ideas from those who find they have something to contribute. Also, the manual describes the methods in brief form. If further details are desired we urge that individual scientists correspond with their colleagues whose contributions are included in this little volume. The Commission thanks all contributors to this manual and hopes that their contributions have been included in a satisfactory way. The Commission also thanks Dr. Luna B. Leopold of the United States Geological Survey, who at our request assumed the task of collecting the contributions, editing them and compiling the present work.

Revue de Géomorphologie Dynamique↗
USGS2001

Fluvial processes and passive rehabilitation of the Lisbon Bottom side-channel chute, Lower Missouri River

Multiple large floods in 1993-1997 on the Lower Missouri River carved a side-channel chute through the river bottom at Lisbon, Missouri. Although similar in some respects to engineered side-channel chutes designed for habitat rehabilitation projects, the Lisbon Bottom chute has been unique in that it was allowed to evolve for more than four years with minimal stabilization. During the wet years, 1996-1999, the chute was subjected to abnormally high discharges and passed as much as 20% of the total discharge of the Missouri River. Relatively unrestrained fluvial processes during this time created a wide channel with highly diverse habitats. The upper one-half of the chute established a shallow, braided channel morphology similar to the pre-managed Missouri River. The lower half established a dynamically migrating, single-thread channel, and an incipient flood plain. Compared to the adjacent navigation channel, the chute established substantial areas of shallow, slow-velocity aquatic habitat that is considered to be in short supply in the present-day Lower Missouri River. The shortterm biological benefits have been mixed: the chute has fewer waterbird and benthic macroinvertebrate taxa than adjacent riverine habitats, but greater numbers of fish species compared to the navigation channel.

Lower Missouri River - Lisbon Bottom↗
USGS2015

Processes limiting depth of arroyo incision: Examples from the Rio Puerco, New Mexico

We examined channel flow and suspended sediment transport processes within the lower Rio Puerco arroyo, located in semi-arid north-central New Mexico, in an attempt to answer the question: Why did arroyo incision stop by about 1936? Channel flow model results show that in the narrow, incised channel of 1936, the boundary shear stress during a large flood was highest over the lower banks and bank toes, causing a higher potential for erosion of these surfaces than of the channel bed. This would have caused the channel (and arroyo) to widen, and the higher sediment fluxes from those surfaces would have inhibited the capacity of the flow to erode the bed. We found that volumes of sediment delivered to the channel from local erosion of the arroyo wall did not exceed the capacity of the flow to transport sediment, including sand, in suspension. However, sediment supplied from erosion upstream of our study reach may have reduced the capacity of the flow to erode the bed. Our results suggest that arroyo incision ended with the observed reduction in flood peak magnitude, frequency, and duration after 1941.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2016

Consistent and efficient processing of ADCP streamflow measurements

The use of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) from a moving boat is a commonly used method for measuring streamflow. Currently, the algorithms used to compute the average depth, compute edge discharge, identify invalid data, and estimate velocity and discharge for invalid data vary among manufacturers. These differences could result in different discharges being computed from identical data. Consistent computational algorithm, automated filtering, and quality assessment of ADCP streamflow measurements that are independent of the ADCP manufacturer are being developed in a software program that can process ADCP moving-boat discharge measurements independent of the ADCP used to collect the data.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2014

Maximizing the social and ecological value of Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina as the effects of global change processes increase.

Coastal ecosystems in the eastern U.S. have been severely altered by processes associated with human development, including drainage of coastal wetlands, changes in hydrology that alter sediment and freshwater delivery to the coast, land clearing, agricultural and forestry activity, and the construction of seawalls and other structures that “harden” the coast. Sea-level rise and the changing frequency of extreme events associated with climate change are now further degrading the capacity of those ecological and social systems to remain resilient in the face of disturbance, largely through the degradation and loss of land and habitat. The goal was to develop a problem framing that would broadly reflect the type, scale and scope of SLR-adaptation decisions faced by refuges in general, and that could be used by individual refuges to help understand how their specific problems fit into a larger context of SLR planning and implementation. We worked with refuge managers in developing a common frame of reference for some shared SLR-related management problems, while also facilitating communication about these problems with other refuges and with surrounding jurisdictions.

South Carolina↗
USGS1968

Chapter IX: Lunar theory and processes

Whereas the previous Surveyor missions were undertaken to examine mare surfaces as potential landing areas for the Apollo Program, the primary objective of the Surveyor VII mission, based on purely scientific motivations, was to explore a contrasting highland region and, specifically, to determine the chemistry of the highland material for comparison with the Surveyor V and VI chemical analyses at the mare sites. Site selection was limited to some extent by Surveyor operational constraints, but primarily by the requirements of 10-m-resolution photographs from the Lunar Orbiter Program for landing site certification. None of the nine sites studied in detail appeared capable of providing an unambiguous answer to the highland chemistry. The final selection of a site to the north of Tycho was based on the belief that the youthful character of the structure implied a minimum of contamination to the surface layers by foreign material via meteoritic processes. Moreover, the selection of a site near the rim of a major lunar crater promised insight into the “microscale” properties of a structure that represents the dominant morphologic feature on the moon.

Book chapter↗
USGS2023

Examining terrestrial and subterranean sediment sources and transport processes in an urban sewershed with an entirely buried stream network, Washington, D.C., United States

Excessive fine-grained sediment runoff due to anthropogenic activities is a major environmental concern for watersheds worldwide, especially so for urban areas such as Washington, D.C. Dated grey infrastructure, i.e., the network of buried pipes and reservoirs managing water resources, can amplify existing issues with sediment runoff and associated pollutants. This infrastructure, which is generally designed to quickly transport stormwaters away from urban areas, contributes to urban stream syndrome. Recent studies have suggested aging subterranean infrastructure may be an unaccounted-for source of sediments. The composition of this possible sediment source, and the extent to which it contributes to urban sediment runoff, is poorly understood. Our study seeks to examine sediment sources and transport processes in an urban watershed with an entirely buried drainage network using sediment fingerprinting, with specific attention paid to differentiating between terrestrial and subterranean sources. We demonstrate here multiple novel approaches to sampling subterranean sources including augering and entering the buried drainage network itself. The results of this study may inform sediment managers and infrastructure engineers and allow for targeted sediment reduction responses.

District of Columbia↗
USGS2023

Bedform distributions and dynamics in a large, channelized river: Implications for benthic ecological processes

Sand bedforms are fundamental habitat elements for benthic fish in large, sand-bedded rivers and are hypothesized to provide flow refugia, food transport, and ecological disturbance. We explored bedform distributions and dynamics in the Lower Missouri River, Missouri, with the objective of understanding the implications of these features for benthic fish habitat, particularly for the endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) and shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) during their early life stages. We mapped bathymetry in a 3-kilometer-long reach of the highly engineered Lower Missouri River 22 times over a three-year period from 2019-2021 using a multibeam echosounder. Surveys included precise water surface and bed elevations over discharges ranging from 1,360-8,550 cubic meters per second. This included weekly surveys during a large flood event with a peak of 9,290 cubic meters per second in the spring and summer of 2019. Velocity was mapped with an acoustic Doppler current profiler during 11 of the 22 multibeam surveys. The dataset illustrates how bedforms are distributed in a typical Missouri River reach and how they evolve with changes in discharge. We measured a variety of bedform characteristics, including height, length, lee-slope angle, and crest orientation, and examined their relationship to larval sturgeon catch in the reach in 2020 and 2021. Bedform shapes are controlled by depositional environment and discharge and range in size from less than a meter in wavelength and amplitude to greater than 4 meters high and 75 meters long and generally have low angle lee-slopes. Small dunes were located in lower velocity regions on the inside of a bend and behind wing-dikes, as well as superimposed on larger dunes. Larger dunes were generally located in the channel thalweg and were associated with higher flow velocities. However, bedform size did not necessarily scale with discharge over the course of the 2019 flood, possibly due to sediment supply limitations and hysteresis effects. Changes in bedform size over the course of the flood event were most pronounced in the thalweg; less change in bedform size occurred behind wing dikes on the inside of channel bends, indicating some degree of habitat stability. Despite rarely getting caught in the thalweg, larval sturgeon drift in the thalweg until they are intercepted into off-channel habitats in wing dike fields, where they are caught in much higher numbers. Bedform orientations were affected by flow expansion around wing dikes, indicative of the role of wing dikes in influencing exchange of material between the thalweg and channel margins. Increased understanding of bedform distributions and dynamics will inform future sampling and habitat restoration designs for larval pallid sturgeon and contribute to increased understanding of their influence on benthic ecological processes.

Conference Paper↗
USGS2024

Comparison of two otolith processing methods for silver carp age estimation

Accurate age estimates are critical in the development, implementation, and assessment of silver carp ( Hypophthalmichthys molitrix ) management plans. Lapilli otoliths are the most commonly used calcified structures for silver carp age estimation, but studies on the precision of two established preparation methods [i.e., grind-and-burn (GB), thin-section (TS)] are lacking. Therefore, we assessed within-reader, between-reader, and between-method precision for 125 silver carp collected from six rivers throughout the Lower Mississippi River Basin (Arkansas, Cache, Mississippi, St. Francis, White, and Yazoo). Additionally, we compared the effort and material costs associated with each method. Overall, younger ages were estimated with the GB method (median estimated age = 6 yr, range = 3–12) than the TS method (median estimated age = 7 yr, range = 3–13). Between-method comparisons revealed low agreement (average CV = 16.40) and significant bias (Evans-Hoenig χ2 = 31.81, P < 0.01) between the two methods, particularly in older individuals. The TS method (average CV = 12.50) displayed similar between-reader precision to the GB method (average CV = 11.75). Younger age estimates for the GB method may be a result of misidentification of annuli near the otolith margin as both readers reported that TS otoliths offered clearer views than GB otoliths. Processing effort (TS method = 6.7 min otolith–1; GB method = 4.6 min otolith–1) and material costs (TS method = US$0.37 otolith–1; GB method = $0.34 otolith–1) were similar for the two methods and are likely not a factor when choosing an age estimation protocol. Our results indicate that use of the TS method for silver carp age estimation may lead to less biased age estimates, especially in established populations with greater abundances of older individuals, assuming putative additional annuli observed in thin-sections are true annuli.

Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish an↗
USGS2025

Geochemistry and thermometry of magnetite veins and replacements in iron ore deposits from the Iron Springs district, SW Utah, USA: Relation to magmatic and hydrothermal processes

Ore-genesis, texture, chemical compositions, and thermometry of magnetite were used to better evaluate the origins of iron ore deposits across the Iron Spring district, Utah. Trace element compositions, determined by LA-ICP-MS, were used to calculate temperatures based on X Mg numbers and characterize the trace element signatures of magmatic and hydrothermal magnetite. Magnetite occurs as coarser crystalline grains within veins, breccias, and cavities along with finer crystalline replacements. Magnetite is most commonly intergrown with apatite, phlogopite, and carbonate in veins, breccias, and cavities where apatite occurs separately from the other gangue minerals. The results using empirical trace element discrimination diagrams generally suggest that the magnetite is overall of hydrothermal origin regardless of textural variations or field relationships. The X Mg numbers of the magnetite in the magnetite-apatite ores, however, are suggestive of high temperature magmatic conditions; whereas those of vein, breccia, and replacement occurrences containing other gangue minerals are suggestive of lower temperature hydrothermal processes.

Utah↗
USGS2000

Tree recruitment and survival in rivers: Influence of hydrological process

The findings of a 14-year study of tree reproduction and survival in the Platte River, Nebraska, are presented. The study was initiated in 1985 to determine the causes and remedies of woodland expansion and channel narrowing, which have reduced potential roosting habitat for migratory avifauna such as the whooping crane and sandhill crane. A total of 296 relocatable sites, constituting some 600 plots with Populus and Salix seedlings, was selected and sampled within two reaches near Shelton and Odessa, Nebraska. The fate of some 37 000 tree seedlings was monitored within the plot network. Tree recruitment is controlled largely by stream flow in June. Populus and Salix produce large numbers of seedlings in the river bed in most years, indicating the potential for high rates of woodland expansion. On average, in only 1 year in 7 is stream flow in June high enough to preclude Populus and Salix recruitment. Seedling mortality is dominated by two environmental factors: summer stream flow pulses from thunderstorms, which erode or bury new germinants, and river bed restructuring by moving ice in winter. A third factor, seedling mortality by desiccation during summer droughts, does occur but at a low frequency. Plots of seedlings had extremely low survival rates over the course of the study. Forty-two per cent of the plots lost all seedlings by the first remeasurement (July to September), 36% by the second measurement (May), and 10% by the third remeasurement (July). Thus nearly 90% of the plots had lost all tree seedlings by the end of the first year. These results explain why the Platte River has come into dynamic equilibrium with respect to the balance between active channel and woodland area. Low rates of new woodland expansion are counterbalanced by erosion of established woodland. The demographic approach to studying ecohydrology can be adapted to monitor the effectiveness of prescribed flows as insurance against future narrowing. Flows prescribed at key times to raise seedling mortality rates are recommended to maintain or widen channels, rather than mechanical clearing of established woodland. Copyright ?? 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hydrological Processes↗
USGS2011

Response of surface processes to climatic change in the dunefields and Loess Plateau of North China during the late Quaternary

This paper draws on recent optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to evaluate the long‐held assumption that dust accumulation rates in the Loess Plateau and the extent of active aeolian sand in the dunefields to the north have varied together over time, because both are controlled by the strength of the Asian monsoons and also possibly because the dunefields are proximal loess sources. The results show there is little evidence that high rates of loess accumulation coincided with well‐dated episodes of extensive dune activity in the Mu Us, Otindag, and Horqin dunefields, at 11–8 ka and 1–0 ka. Explanations for the apparent lack of coupling include local variation in the trapping of dust and post‐depositional preservation of the loess and dune sediments, in response to varying local environmental conditions. In addition, a substantial portion of the loess may be transported directly from source areas where dust emission has somewhat different climatic and geomorphic controls than aeolian sand activity within the dunefields. The results of this study cast doubt on the use of loess accumulation rate as a palaeoclimatic proxy at millennial timescale. The dunefield and loess stratigraphic records are interpreted as primarily recording changes in effective moisture at a local scale, but the timing of late Quaternary dune activity, along with a variety of other evidence, indicates that moisture changes in many of the drylands of northern China may not be in phase with precipitation in core regions of the Asian monsoons.

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2015

Regional variability in dust-on-snow processes and impacts in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Dust deposition onto mountain snow cover in the Upper Colorado River Basin frequently occurs in the spring when wind speeds and dust emission peaks on the nearby Colorado Plateau. Dust loading has increased since the intensive settlement in the western USA in the mid 1880s. The effects of dust-on-snow have been well studied at Senator Beck Basin Study Area (SBBSA) in the San Juan Mountains, CO, the first high-altitude area of contact for predominantly southwesterly winds transporting dust from the southern Colorado Plateau. To capture variability in dust transport from the broader Colorado Plateau and dust deposition across a larger area of the Colorado River water sources, an additional study plot was established in 2009 on Grand Mesa, 150&thinsp;km to the north of SBBSA in west central, CO. Here, we compare the 4-year (2010&ndash;2013) dust source, deposition, and radiative forcing records at Grand Mesa Study Plot (GMSP) and Swamp Angel Study Plot (SASP), SBBSA's subalpine study plot. The study plots have similar site elevations/environments and differ mainly in the amount of dust deposited and ensuing impacts. At SASP, end of year dust concentrations ranged from 0.83&thinsp;mg&thinsp;g &minus;1 to 4.80&thinsp;mg&thinsp;g &minus;1 , and daily mean spring dust radiative forcing ranged from 50&ndash;65&thinsp;W&thinsp;m &minus;2 , advancing melt by 24&ndash;49&thinsp;days. At GMSP, which received 1.0&thinsp;mg&thinsp;g &minus;1 less dust per season on average, spring radiative forcings of 32&ndash;50&thinsp;W&thinsp;m &minus;2 advanced melt by 15&ndash;30&thinsp;days. Remote sensing imagery showed that observed dust events were frequently associated with dust emission from the southern Colorado Plateau. Dust from these sources generally passed south of GMSP, and back trajectory footprints modelled for observed dust events were commonly more westerly and northerly for GMSP relative to SASP. These factors suggest that although the southern Colorado Plateau contains important dust sources, dust contributions from other dust sources contribute to dust loading in this region, and likely account for the majority of dust loading at GMSP.

Hydrological Processes↗
USGS2015

Evaluating the importance of characterizing soil structure and horizons in parameterizing a hydrologic process model

Incorporating the influence of soil structure and horizons into parameterizations of distributed surface water/groundwater models remains a challenge. Often, only a single soil unit is employed, and soil-hydraulic properties are assigned based on textural classification, without evaluating the potential impact of these simplifications. This study uses a distributed physics-based model to assess the influence of soil horizons and structure on effective parameterization. This paper tests the viability of two established and widely used hydrogeologic methods for simulating runoff and variably saturated flow through layered soils: (1) accounting for vertical heterogeneity by combining hydrostratigraphic units with contrasting hydraulic properties into homogeneous, anisotropic units and (2) use of established pedotransfer functions based on soil texture alone to estimate water retention and conductivity, without accounting for the influence of pedon structures and hysteresis. The viability of this latter method for capturing the seasonal transition from runoff-dominated to evapotranspiration-dominated regimes is also tested here. For cases tested here, event-based simulations using simplified vertical heterogeneity did not capture the state-dependent anisotropy and complex combinations of runoff generation mechanisms resulting from permeability contrasts in layered hillslopes with complex topography. Continuous simulations using pedotransfer functions that do not account for the influence of soil structure and hysteresis generally over-predicted runoff, leading to propagation of substantial water balance errors. Analysis suggests that identifying a dominant hydropedological unit provides the most acceptable simplification of subsurface layering and that modified pedotransfer functions with steeper soil-water retention curves might adequately capture the influence of soil structure and hysteresis on hydrologic response in headwater catchments.

Hydrological Processes↗
USGS2001

A process for fire-related debris flow initiation, Cerro Grande fire, New Mexico

In this study we examine factors that pertain to the generation of debris flows from a basin recently burned by wildfire. Throughout the summer 2000 thunderstorm season, we monitored rain gauges, channel cross-sections, hillslope transects, and nine sediment-runoff traps deployed in a steep, 0??15 km2 basin burned by the May 2000 Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico. Debris flows were triggered in the monitored basin during a rainstorm on July 16, 2000, in response to a maximum 30 min rainfall intensity of 31 mm h-1 (return period of approximately 2 years). Eleven other storms occurred before and after the July storm; these storms resulted in significant runoff, but did not generate debris flows. The debris flows generated by the July 16 storm initiated on a broad, open hillslope as levee-lined rills. The levees were composed of gravel- and cobble-sized material supported by an abundant fine-grained matrix. Debris-flow deposits were observed only on the hillslopes and in the first and second-order drainages of the monitored basin. No significant amounts of channel incision were measured following the passage of the debris flows, indicating that most of the material in the flows originated from the hillslopes. Sediment-runoff concentrations of between 0??23 and 0??81 kg 1-1 (with a mean of 0-42 kg 1-1) were measured from the hillslope traps following the debris-flow-producing storm. These concentrations, however, were not unique to the July 16 storm. The materials entrained by the July 16 storm contained a higher proportion of silt- plus clay-sized materials in the <2 mm fraction than the materials collected from storms that produced comparable sediment-runoff concentrations but not debris flows. The difference in materials demonstrates the critical role of the availability of fine-grained wood ash mantling the hillslopes in the runoff-dominated generation of post-wildfire debris flows. The highest sediment-runoff concentrations, again not unique to debris-flow production, were produced from maximum 30 min rainfall intensities greater than 20 mm h-1. Copyright ?? 2001 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

Hydrological Processes↗
USGS2013

Infiltration and runoff generation processes in fire-affected soils

Post-wildfire runoff was investigated by combining field measurements and modelling of infiltration into fire-affected soils to predict time-to-start of runoff and peak runoff rate at the plot scale (1 m 2 ). Time series of soil-water content, rainfall and runoff were measured on a hillslope burned by the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire west of Boulder, Colorado during cyclonic and convective rainstorms in the spring and summer of 2011. Some of the field measurements and measured soil physical properties were used to calibrate a one-dimensional post-wildfire numerical model, which was then used as a ‘virtual instrument’ to provide estimates of the saturated hydraulic conductivity and high-resolution (1 mm) estimates of the soil-water profile and water fluxes within the unsaturated zone. Field and model estimates of the wetting-front depth indicated that post-wildfire infiltration was on average confined to shallow depths less than 30 mm. Model estimates of the effective saturated hydraulic conductivity, K s , near the soil surface ranged from 0.1 to 5.2 mm h −1 . Because of the relatively small values of K s , the time-to-start of runoff (measured from the start of rainfall), t p , was found to depend only on the initial soil-water saturation deficit (predicted by the model) and a measured characteristic of the rainfall profile (referred to as the average rainfall acceleration, equal to the initial rate of change in rainfall intensity). An analytical model was developed from the combined results and explained 92–97% of the variance of t p , and the numerical infiltration model explained 74–91% of the variance of the peak runoff rates. These results are from one burned site, but they strongly suggest that t p in fire-affected soils (which often have low values of K s ) is probably controlled more by the storm profile and the initial soil-water saturation deficit than by soil hydraulic properties.

Hydrological Processes↗